The Patrician
November 2011
The Victoria Flying Club ~ 1946-2011 ~ Celebrating 65 Years of Aviation Excellence
75th Anniversary of the Spitfire
RAF Duxford
By: Don Devenney, pg. 5
The Patrician Monthly Newsletter of The Victoria Flying Club
The Victoria Flying Club
November 2011
Celebrating 65 Years of Aviation Excellence
In this issue:
“To promote flying and aviation in general, and to teach and trainn persons in the art and science of flying and navigating and operating all manner of heavier-than-air aircraft.�
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Remembrance Day
5 Duxford ~ Don Devenney
(Victoria Flying Club Incorporation Bylaws, 1946)
9 NYC Hudson ~ Len Hollingsworth
Board of Directors President......................................Lloyd Toope Vice President.........................Don Devenney Treasurer......................................Kim Sterling Secretary.............................Colin Williamson Directors.........................................Sean Steele Ellen Wood Steve Demy Sam Roland General Manager........................Gerry Mants Chief Flying Instructor.........Graham Palmer
Editor/Publisher: Christie Hall thepatrician@shaw.ca Midnight Design & Communication info@midnightdesign.ca
1852 Canso Road Sidney, BC V8L 5V5 The Patrician accepts unsolicited submissions. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, with prior permission of the publisher or author. The opinions expressed are strictly those of the authors.
www.flyvfc.com Phone: 250-656-2833 Fax: 250-655-0910
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Victoria Flying Club News Congratulations!
Updated By-Laws
From Tim Martin (VFC Line Crew) “This guy named Janos Tronkos recently came over from Eire to get his CPL and night rating. The difference is he took 3-1/2 weeks vacation time from his hospital nursing job to get this done which meant a pretty condensed schedule. Towards the end of the period, weather became a factor in completing the flight test. Nevertheless a pass was obtained on 6 October (score 107) on top of completion of the CPL ground test and night rating. Tristan was his instructor. His Fiancée, Juleta, also a nurse in Eire, came with Janos. She told me the CPL was fulfilment of a childhood dream for Janos who grew up in Hungary. She was so confident that Janos would pass that she had a celebratory cake made ahead of time and snuck it into the club. This is the cake in the photo. (I told them it was a dress rehearsal for the wedding next September.) Just thought this was a nice little story and a good example of how the VFC can work with a conscientious student to get good results.”
The Victoria Flying Club has been granted Ministerial approval for the updated By-Laws. You can find the By-Laws on the Victoria Flying Club Website: http://www.flyvfc.com/database/img_4ea33ca9e4106.pdf
Last Chance: Photo of the Month Next month’s issue of The Patrician will be your last chance to submit your best aviation-related photo in our Photo of the Month contest. Each monthly winner recieves great stuff from the pilot shop, and every entry (one per person per month) is entered into our year end draw for a $100 Victoria Flying Club gift certificate. Email your favourite photo to: thepatrician@ shaw.ca for your chance to win!
Aircraft Parking The Victoria Flying Club currently has a small number of grass and paved aircraft parking spots available outside the hangar for VFC club members. Contact the office at 250-656-2833 if you are interested.
Grass: $73.00/month Paved: $93.00/month
Victoria Flying Club Winter Office Hours 8:00am to 4:30pm Celebrating 65 years
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Remembrance Day - November 11
Each year in the November issue of The Patri-
to the club, several of whom still hold a pilot’s licence. The Victoria Flying Club is involved in Cadet training, supporting our future air-force pilots, and we have a strong connection and relationship with 443 Squadron located across the airfield. A significant number of our club members are also Navy personnel, or civilians employed at CFB Esquimalt. This month The Patrician and the Victoria Flying Club honour all military personnel; past, present, and future. Thank-you for serving our country at home and overseas. We will not forget.
cian, The Victoria Flying Club takes time to recognize its connection to Canada’s military. CYYJ sits on the former RCAF Station Patricia Bay, and the Victoria Flying Club occupies the location used by the RAF during WWII. Sixty-five years ago, in 1946, the Victoria Flying Club was established in the post-war quiet. But the military legacy of the club did not end. It lives on, in the members and activities of the present-day Victoria Flying Club. There are a number of WWII veterans who belong
PHOTO: CANADIAN FORCES— PL9611 Inside the Operations Room at Patricia Bay, B.C., 1943.
PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA— PA144773 Ground crew load a torpedo into an aircraft at Patricia Bay, B.C.
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Remembrance Day Ceremonies and Events
For The Fallen
How Will You Remember? Celebrating 65 years
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Duxford
By: Don Devenney The place is RAF Duxford on a warm, almost hot East Anglian late summer afternoon. The sky was a broken mix of wispy cirrus cloud and spider webs of dispersing contrails. Standing on the tarmac looking out over the grass airfield one could see a motley collection of Hurricanes, P-40s and other aircraft all parked in a neat row. Then the afternoon’s silence is broken by the unmistakable gravely deep-throated rumble of a Merlin engine…not one, but several… all spooling up like they meant business. And sure enough, crossing from left to right behind the parked aircraft was a flight of Spitfires on their take-off roll. A single Spit followed the flight, and was in turn followed by another flight. Looking south presented an impressive view…seven Spitfires in a formation climb into the summer sky. Where were they headed? Were they a group of the “Few”, headed off to do their bit in the Battle of Britain? Were they headed off to join a “Big Wing”, and intercept incoming bombers? Perhaps a convoy patrol over the Channel in the early days of WWII? If it was 70 years ago, these are very likely the reasons the Spitfires were taking to the skies however this is modern day Duxford, the home of the Imperial War Museum’s air collection, and the event is the September Air Show celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Spitfire. I’d known for some months I was going to be in Paris on business at the end of August. Thinking of taking a few personal days once work ended I started cruising around the Internet and eventually stumbled upon this event. There was no way I could pass up this opportunity so tickets were ordered, arrangements were made and Saturday Sept 2nd found me on a train from London bound for Cambridge and eventually Duxford. Arriving at Duxford I made my way through the reception area and out onto the field. My first view was the large grass airfield, fronted by the tarmac flight line. Lined up on the grass were a collection of vintage aircraft like I’ve never seen before: “Sally B”, IWM’s B-17 Flying Fortress, two Hurricanes, three P-40s, a Spanish-built ME-109, a pair of Vampire jets and of November 2011
course Spitfires! My wallet 4 £ lighter, I was on the flight line
getting a close-up view of these amazing aircraft. As I was patrolling the flight line snapping photos I was continually distracted by several aircraft landing and departing. These were not the usual run of the mill air show visitors – it was the IWM’s collection of vintage aircraft that people could go flying in - three Tiger Moths, two Dragon Rapides and a Harvard. More on this later. Eventually the flight line was cleared and the show began. I could go on just about forever about the various aircraft, what they did, etc however in the interests of brevity let me put out a few highlights: • Watching the Sally B go through her routine.. even watching it taxi and park was a thrill. • The arrival of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, composed of a Hurricane, a Spitfire and a Lancaster bomber. Interestingly enough, when they arrived and did their fly-bys, there was no commentary. Which was alright as none was needed… • The Vampires, at the air show courtesy of the Norwegian Air Force, put on quite a show. • Watching the Hurricanes and P-40s fly low over the field and cross over top of the B-17…a scene that just as easily could have taken place 70 years ago. 5
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• The Nimrod biplanes were great to watch however my favourite was the “Stringbag” – a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber. Interesting factoid – not only is the pilot who flew the Swordfish against the Bismarck and was credited with the torpedo shot that disabled it still alive, he only gave up flying a couple of months ago… • A flight of six Yaks that put on a show reminiscent of the Snowbirds. These guys were good. • Walking around Duxford. Many of the original buildings are still there and have been restored. The main gate, some of the hangers and especially the Ops Room were great to see. And then there were the Spitfires… Somewhere along the line I’d signed up to go for a flight in a Tiger Moth. I was told to be at the staging area when the Spitfires started their show so I could get briefed, etc. You didn’t have tell me twice! I now had the best seat in the house as the Spitfire flights flew by in formation, flew low over the field in line astern, broke up and flew individual tail chases, etc. Needless to say I didn’t concentrate too much on the briefing. They kinda gave up on me anyway…when explaining the instrument panel to us I asked where the ILS was and acted incredulous when they said there was no GPS. After that they left me alone so I could keep taking pictures.
All good things must come to an end and eventually the Spitfires landed. As they taxied by, I noticed one with “City of Winnipeg” painted on its side. Now I knew there had been a City of Winnipeg squadron (BTW, I’m from Winnipeg) and seeing that presented me with a new challenge – I had to get my photo taken next to that Spitfire! Next order of business – flying in a Tiger Moth! My dad had owned a couple of Tiger Moths he’d bought as war surplus so I’d heard a lot about them and flying in one was a dream come true. I got in, did the intros with the instructor and we were off! Now, I didn’t get to do a lot with it, and I’m sure it can be tricky, but I found it a very nice aircraft to fly. The best part was when I saw another Tiger Moth. I dutifully pointed out the traffic to the instructor who responded with “ do you think you can get on his tail?” You don’t have to tell me twice…. Shortly thereafter another one appeared on our port quarter before breaking away. Again, I was dispatched after it. This time a climbing left turn put me in a perfect sight picture so I let go with “tak-a-tak-a-tak-a-tak…you can teach monkeys to fly airplanes “ (from the Battle of Britain movie) which amused my instructor to no end. Our dogfighting done, it was time to return to earth and eventually London. After all of this I couldn’t wait for Day 2!
cont’d...
“Stringbag” – a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber
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Day 2 dawned grey and dreary with the weather mavens forecasting showers before an eventual clearing. I thought about not going back..for a nanosecond..and then headed out the door on my way back to Duxford. This time I had a mission….I wanted to get a photo with me and the City of Winnipeg Spitfire. Back on the flight line I scouted out a couple of official looking gentlemen and made my case…I’ve come a long way, I’m from Winnipeg, the Spitfire was bought by Winnipeg… and so on. One of the gentlemen looked rather thoughtful for a second or two and then asked “well, we can probably do that but don’t you want to see MY Spitfire?” “Oh yes sir, I’d very much like to see your Spitfire!” Well, it wasn’t his, but he was the engineer for it so over we went for a tour. He was obviously very proud of his airplane and we had a great discussion about it. I got a picture of it, and then we went off to fulfill my mission: The problem with the met people is they’re usually right…in the short term at least. Low scud cloud and showers started rolling in shortly after the air show started. I headed off to the American building which had large glass windows so I could watch the show and stay dry. Eventually the rain stopped and I headed off in search of one more souvenir, and found myself at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight booth. I started talking with a very pleasant lady in a flight suit about the show, the aircraft, etc and somewhere I mentioned about getting my picture taken alongside the City of Winnipeg Spitfire, to which she said “Oh, don’t you want to see MY Spitfire?” Talk about déjà vu! I replied, of course, that I’d very much like to see her Spitfire. She instructed me to meet her at the base of the tower at 4pm. I muttered something about the show still being on to which she replied that wouldn’t be a problem. And off I went to kill an hour.
4pm came and I met Liz at the tower. She escorted me across the flight line…the Swordfish and Nimrods were flying overhead…and over to “her” Spitfire. Liz is an AME for the army, volunteers as an engineer with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and also with this Spitfire. Another 2 place conversion, this Spitfire was a Mark IX that had originally been assigned to a Canadian squadron (441) and had one confirmed kill. It was also the only Spitfire present painted with D Day markings. We talked more about the airplane. and I must admit I was in a bit of a state of shock…warbirds flying overhead, a very tightly controlled flight line and here I was on the field, talking Spitfires. Eventually Liz had to get her airplane ready to fly so I helped her get the covers off, then she showed me the cockpit and talked about the pains they’d taken to keep it vintage. And then came the part I wasn’t ready for…Liz explained how to get into the cockpit and then said “go on, climb in!” She didn’t have to say it twice: What surprised me most about the Spitfire was how light the controls were – much lighter than even a C-172. The cockpit, while not roomy, wasn’t as tight and restrictive as I thought it would be either. Eventually Liz wanted her Spitfire back so I climbed out and we headed back to the tower. Thanks Liz!! As they had the previous day, the Spitfires closed the show with a thrilling display of formation flying, tail chases, low passes, etc. I only wish the photos I took did them justice…it was truly a great display. Duxford puts on several air shows a year, and has an amazing ground collection besides. I heartily encourage you to check them out if you ever get the chance – it will be a visit you will certainly remember. Their website is: http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/ I’ll leave you with a few more photos – enjoy!
Sally B, smoke on, overlies the Spitfires on the flight line.
Spitfires fly by in a loose formation.
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Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Lancaster bomber. This is one big airplane!
So‌1940 or 2011? One of the three Hurricanes at the show taxies by. I had a short conversation with an elderly gentleman who had flown this particular Hurricane back in the late 1940s.
The Ops Room at Duxford
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly by on arrival
Communications Consultant Digital and Print Media 778-426-3452 info@midnightdesign.ca www.midnightdesign.ca
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NYC Hudson By: Len Hollingsworth
us had been before. We flight planned from Charlottetown (CYYG) to Bangor, Maine (KBGR) and then into Caldwell, NJ (KCDW), a 600nm flight that would take us about 6 hours to complete with our fuel stop. One thing we learned while flight planning into a centre as large as New York was that fuel and parking costs vary widely, as much as $3 a gallon for fuel. We picked Caldwell Airport as it was reasonably close to NYC and the FBO sounded great. KCDW is a towered Class D field with crossing runways, and is located under the 3,000 ft shelf of the NY Class-B airspace, about 20 miles from Manhattan. According to their website (although not entirely accurate) it is served by good public transportation. It appeared the weather would co-operate and we decided to leave two days later. One thing you need to know about Mike is that he is a very safe pilot and his flight planning is meticulous. However, he operates on what is known in jest as “Wheeler Time,” I’m not entirely sure how he can stay organized enough to flight plan as this skill doesn’t carry through to his other day-to-day activities. Our plan was to meet at the flight club and have wheels up at 12pm local time, at 1pm I received a text indicating that he would be another 10 minutes. I had already loaded
This story starts many years ago when I married a wonderful girl from the maritimes. Like any maritimer or those married to them know, they have quite a connection to the east coast and as such I have been spending several weeks every summer on Prince Edward Island. A few years ago while on vacation in Charlottetown, Mike Wheeler, a family friend, enthusiastic aviator, and owner of a Piper Cherokee convinced me to go flying with him one day. Mike is a private pilot with an over-the-top and night rating, I’m not sure exactly how many hours he has, but if you ask his wife she would probably say, “too many.” Needless to say we ended up in Quebec City (a 350nm trip) for dinner, and I had the bug. I signed up for flying lessons at the Victoria Flying Club a month later. Last summer, we flew to Oshkosh for Air Venture with our sons, but that’s another story. This summer, as always, we were vacationing on PEI and our daughters reminded us that it was their turn to go somewhere. I guess these trips are becoming an annual event of sorts. We decided to take our eleven year old daughters to New York City for a few days, so they could shop and do all the things a couple of tweens love to do and our goal was to fly the Hudson River; none of November 2011
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the plane and completed the pre-flight. About a half hour later Mike arrived and announced that both the push-to-talk buttons in his aircraft had been broken by his youngest daughter the night before while he was doing maintenance on the aircraft. He went to work with a bottle of crazy glue, called a mechanic and an hour later determined that the left PPT could not be fixed, but the right one was still operable. Although I had planned on navigating and helping out with the radio, I had just inherited all communications. After updating our arrival time with US customs, we were wheels up at 4pm. Enroute, I realized our IDENT (CF-XQO) was not only a mouthful for me, but it seemed that everyone had trouble spitting it out, try saying Charlie-FoxtrotXray-Quebec-Oscar three times. Our flight to KBGR was uneventful, and we had gained an hour due to the time change. Bangor International possesses a single runway measuring 11,439’ long and 200’ wide, and is home to the 101st Air Refueling Wing, who fly the KC-135 Stratotanker. This is very obvious as they line one side of the runway making the military presence very evident. After customs, refueling and filing another flight plan we taxied for take-off but were delayed a few minutes by an Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster being towed across an intersecting taxiway, prior to resuming our flight. Our late departure meant we would arrive in New Jersey after dark, something we had hoped to avoid, but things have a way of working out. Flying into the metropolitan area was simply amazing, we had a beautiful clear night and the Manhattan sky line was stunning. Although we tried to take photos, they simply didn’t do it justice. Although it’s a little intimidating flying into such busy airspace, we had opted for “Flight Following” and had been handed off from Bangor to a total of 9 different stations enroute, such as Portland Delivery, Boston Centre, and Newark Approach. The area is Class B airspace above 3000’ to service the three major airports of Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, as well as the air traffic associated to the dozen or so smaller fields in the area. We followed the directions of ATC and before we knew it we had been cleared straight in to KCDW, local time 10:30pm. Shortly after landing we left the aircraft in the care of Avantair, one of two FBO’s on the field, and were on our way into the city via a car service the FBO staff had arranged. A 45 minute drive brought us to our hotel in mid-Manhattan. The girls had made a list and we would try and tackle it over the next few days. We were Celebrating 65 years
true tourists and went to the Central Park Zoo, Museum of Natural History, The Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and of course shopping in Times Square. We attended a Broadway show, rode the subway, took the Staten Island Ferry and thoroughly enjoyed the city, which we found to be very friendly and safe. When planning for departure we thought an early afternoon departure would be fine. We hailed a cab, but finding one that would drive us that far outside the city limit proved impossible - apparently they were concerned they would have to return fareless. We decided to try the “good public transportation” that the Caldwell Airport’s website had claimed they were serviced by. Moments later we on a subway, after a few transfers (due to a line being closed for maintenance) we were on a train to Secaucus Junction, a train station in New Jersey, where we would have to transfer again. At this point the movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles comes to mind. One thing I failed to mention earlier is that Caldwell Airport (KCDW) is officially called Essex County, Caldwell; I also did not think that was important until now. Mike decided that while I got the girls a drink he would buy tickets for the next train. A few moments later I see him waving madly as our train is boarding and we must rush to catch it. Rush we did and after settling onto the train, he hands me a ticket which is “one-way to Essex Street.” After a few minutes of relaxing, I realize that the scenery is not in anyway similar to that we had observed going into the city, even considering it was dark then. I looked at map in the train and realized we were going the wrong way. Apparently Mike had told the ticket attendant that we needed a ticket to Essex, assuming she would know about a general aviation airport in Essex County, commonly referred to as Caldwell Airport and not get confused with the Essex Street Train Station that she dealt with daily. This turned out to be quite an adventure involving several hours, two more train rides and an $80 “limousine” ride in a beat up green Lincoln that the girls described as stinky and disgusting. At 6pm we finally departed Caldwell Airport, we would fly the Hudson River scenic route then head north to Bangor. At about 500’ we were handed off to Newark Approach, who after confirming that we were familiar with the NOTAMS and procedures involved, assigned us an altitude of 1,400’ and advised us to fly to the George Washington Bridge and report when 10
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building (which I later Googled to confirm, and for the record it stands at 1,454 ft). For Mike and I it was a once in lifetime experience, that can only truly be appreciated by someone who also has a love for aviation and the opportunities and freedoms it offers, and we shared it with our daughters. After flying over the George Washington Bridge one more time we were cleared to 2,500’ and shortly thereafter were enroute to Bangor. We opted for “Flight Following”again and checked in with “Flight Watch” a couple times who routed us around “a little thunderstorm near Augusta, Maine” (her words not mine). Upon landing and refueling in Bangor, further weather updates revealed that we would have to race weather to make it back into Canada before our VFR conditions became IFR. Well, racing is not something a Piper Cherokee 180 is known for, so we opted to spend the night. With the assistance of a friendly FBO we stayed the night and completed a very memorable journey the following morning.
in view. A few moments later, as the bridge came into view, we were handed off to LaGuardia and advised to climb to 2,000’ and were cleared to fly south over the western side of the Hudson River towards the Statue of Liberty. I was in the right seat, and took the controls so Mike could snap a few photo’s as Manhattan was on his side of the aircraft. LaGuardia continued directing us and the other aircraft in the area; I flew past “Lady Liberty” and called my turn for the return route, descending to 1,500’. At this point Mike took the controls and I was able to enjoy the view, including the Mooney that blew past us at 1,200’. The view of Manhattan from 1,500’ is breathtaking, even the girls thought it was amazing, almost topping their Times Square experience. As we checked out all the other traffic in the circuit, we discussed Sully’s landing of US Airways flight 1549 directly below us and what an amazing feat it was. At about this point one of the girls piped up and said “can we do the roller coaster?” Mike and I just smiled, thinking, sure and how about a few lazy 8’s too. It appeared from the cockpit that we flying at the same height as the Empire State
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Len Hollingsworth
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New Members
Achievements
Aaron Virag
First Solo Mike Sugimoto Tanner Davis Matthew Vogel Derek Doerksen
Luna Meresa Hannah Cassidy
PPL Written Exam Jean Paul Richard Robyn Morgan
Rachel Anderson Ian Scanlan
PPL Flight Test Nicholas Douglas Stephen Weller CPL Written Dave Yates
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First Solos Derek Doerksen Instructor: Dirk Pritchard
Matthew Vogel Instructor: Kristen Ursel
Mike Sugimoto Instructor: Kristen Ursel
Tanner Davis Instructor: Tyler Bishop
“Without disruption of air traffic, these fearless, forthright, indomitable and courageous individuals did venture into the wild blue yonder in flying machines. Furthermore, these skilful individuals did safely land said flying machines at Victoria International Airport, incurring no significant damage to self or machine, thus completing first solo flights.�
Congratulations from the Victoria Flying Club
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November Mystery Aircraft October Mystery Identified The Twin Pioneer was built in the 1950s by Scottish Aviation in the UK. It was a radial engined STOL transport that could operate out of rough clearings. Only 87 were built and the main user was the RAF. Correctly Identified By: Philip D’Angelo, Daryl Williams, Eric and Kurt Alisch, and Jim Sutherland.
Can you identify the aircraft shown below? Email: thepatrician@shaw.ca
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Free VFC Classified Ads
Aircraft - Accomodation - Aviation Books and Gear - Help Wanted - Miscellaneous Email the details of your FREE Ad to: thepatrician@shaw.ca
Private Pilot Groundschool Monday and Wednesday 1900-2200 Victoria Flying Club Classroom
DATE TOPIC INSTRUCTOR
Nov 02 Meteorology Simon Dennis 07 Meteorology Simon Dennis 09 Meteorology Simon Dennis 14 Flight Operations Yasuhiro Koide 16 Flight Operations Yasuhiro Koide 21 Navigation Clint Elliott 23 Navigation Clint Elliott 28 Navigation Clint Elliott 30 Written Exam Prep Seminar John McConnachie Dec 05 Review Brad Fraser 07 Airframes and Engines Dave Kupchenko 12 Aerodynamics/Theory of Flight/Licensing James White 14 Systems and Flight Instruments Dave Kupchenko
To register for Groundschool, or to purchase your Groundschool Kit, please contact the Victoria Flying Club Office at 250-656-2833.
VFC SMILE CARDS
The Victoria Flying Club is excited to partner with Thrifty Foods in their very suc-
cessful Smile Card Program. Pick up your smile card today at the VFC office, and 5% of your grocery purchase will go towards creating scholarships and awards for VFC members. Thank-you Thrifty Foods!
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