I’ve just had one of the best weekends of flying this year. It started out with a Friday afternoon (August 25) of circuits at Olds/Didsbury. The landings were all over the place, but I did get one nice wheel landing before heading home. The landing at Carstairs redeemed me as I greased it on. There’s nothing like leaving on a high note. This was the first flying I had done in about 4 weeks! Renee and I have been quite busy building a cottage near Bashaw this month, but we decided to take a weekend off when I heard that Ralph Inkster was having a fly-in breakfast at his hangar in Springbank, sponsored by the RAA Calgary chapter.

The fly-in was a huge success with about 15 aircraft in attendance and 80 breakfasts sold (I wonder if that includes the two that Collin ate!). I took Chrissy down with Mike Sweere and Richard Schmitt flying off my wing in the Chief. The air was perfectly smooth, and the controllers were relaxed and friendly. A number of our members braved the Springbank control zone with no mishap.

The breakfast had to be one of the best we were served all summer. Kudos to Ralph and Cheryl Inkster along with the rest of the RAA volunteers! However, when has a breakfast ever been enough to satisfy my appetite? Mike, Richard, and I saddled up and headed for Linden and some pie for dessert! We finally arrived home around 1 PM, having been treated to wonderfully smooth weather and great company all day!

On Sunday, I decided to take a quick trip up to the cottage and get some pictures. Although it wasn’t as smooth as Saturday, the late afternoon flight was done in severe clear skies with only a light afternoon chop. I got a bunch of pictures of the new cottage and headed home. On the way back, I heard Ralph on the air over Gull Lake on his way home to Springbank with the RV-7A. I put in about 6 hours over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed myself! However, summer flying is nearly over, and September is finally here. I’ve always loved the fall months for flying. The air is cooler, allowing the planes to perform that much better. The landscape becomes a kaleidoscope of wonderful colors to enjoy. But probably the best part of fall flying is … no bugs to clean off the plane!

Of course, it’s also a time to do those last fall maintenance chores on the plane to prepare it for the winter. If you don’t partake of winter flying, it’s a time to pickle your aircraft until spring. For those of us who enjoy year-round flying, it’s a chance to do those maintenance chores before it becomes too cold to work in our unheated hangars. I try to get an oil change in and clean the plugs and air filter in addition to a final exterior cleaning sometime in October.

This year, I’m planning to add wheel skis to the plane. I found a rather neat set at Oshkosh this summer. Although it was odd to be looking at skis while the temperature was well above 30 C, I was able to find a set built by a company called Trick Air (www.TrickAir.com). The 1500 model can be used on aircraft up to 2000 lbs, and they have a 3000 model for larger planes. They are in the process of completing FAA certification but are quite happy to sell their skis to homebuilders. They had also just introduced a new set of 1800’s to the market at Oshkosh. I may still use the 1500’s as they weigh about 40 lbs per pair, whereas the 1800’s are about 60 lbs.

They have a rather ingenious attachment method that allows them to be installed in about 20 minutes after the initial installation is complete. For my application, the initial installation involves welding a fitting to the bottom of the axle inboard of the brake mounts. The bungee cord at the front and retaining cable at the rear will require fittings mounted to the gear attach points on the fuselage. As these are wheel skis, the original wheeled gear remains installed, and the tires protrude below the bottom of the ski for hard surface operation. The 1500 and 1800 will work with either 600×6 or 800×6 tires installed.

Oshkosh is a great place to learn about neat new products and toys for the airplane, and this year was no exception. There were a few neat new gadgets that were introduced at Oshkosh, including the Garmin GPSMAP 496. This little powerhouse has the same form factor and all the features of the older 396 and 296 models but has several enhancements. There is a new SafeTaxi feature to help guide you while taxiing. There is also a new Smart Airspace feature that is altitude aware along with enhanced terrain and aviation databases. It also supports TIS traffic alerts to display other transponder-equipped traffic on your screen. Of course, this feature requires that you have a Mode S transponder installed in your own aircraft. It still supports the XM satellite weather similar to the 396. However, for the type of flying that we generally do, and the lack of XM weather availability in Canada, the 296 is probably the best value in the Garmin handheld line.

Another neat new product was David Clark’s new X11 ENC headset. It’s designed to go head-to-head with the Bose X headset. I tried them out and found them to be very similar in comfort and fit to my trusty Bose X. However, they have a dual hinge feature that allows them to be folded into a fairly small package when not in use. They also come equipped with a cell phone and auxiliary audio (MP3, CD, etc.) jack with accessory cords. The best part is that the price is about $200 cheaper than the Bose X.

For those with somewhat larger budgets, Honda unveiled their new HondaJet at Oshkosh. It has the speed of an executive jet with the reliability of a Honda. On the lighter side, there were a number of new LSA aircraft on display. Unfortunately, many of these aircraft cannot be imported to Canada as they do not fit any of our categories. They’re too heavy for AUL, and as a completed aircraft built to LSA standards, they do not meet the certification categories available in Canada. This is unfortunate as I really fell in love with the new Legend Cub. Powered with an O-200, it has all the nostalgia of a J-3, but with modern construction and equipment and a few more ponies under the cowl.

One other interesting new product comes from Fisher Flying Products. For years, they have sold a number of wooden aircraft kits. A few of these aircraft were available in plans-only form if you wished to build from scratch, but their most popular models (the Dakota Hawk and Tiger Moth, for example) were only available as a kit. They are now supplying the plans for almost all their aircraft except the steel tube version of the Tiger Moth. Unfortunately, this is the plane I’m most interested in from their product line. Oh well, there’s always the Hatz…

I hope to see you at the meeting on the 14th! For anyone that’s interested, a group of us normally meet for supper at the Swiss Chalet at the corner of Edmonton Trail and McKnight Boulevard at 5:30 PM before heading to the meeting. Feel free to join us!