Well, it felt like it was almost spring. With the warm weather we have been having lately, it was giving me a false sense of “is it spring yet?”. I say this as I look out the window on the 30th of March at the fresh 2” of snow that fell last night. I was hoping for a nice weekend to maybe put a few more hours on my new Cessna 120. I managed another hour last Friday before heading out of town for the weekend. I spent the first 2.5 hours in the circuit getting used to landing and taking off. (It’s usually good for a head-turner when I return from flying and, when asked where I went that day, I reply, “nowhere, just went round and round for a couple of hours”). This last hour was spent trying out some steep turns, stalls, and forced approaches. The plane is very stable and predictable and is a joy to fly. I’m certainly looking forward to making the trip to Oshkosh this summer with the group Ken Beanlands is organizing.

Thanks to Bob Kirkby for the informative information on the 406 ELT issues. For those of us that this is going to affect, it is nice to have the ongoing proceedings decrypted and laid out in an understandable format. COPA is going to great lengths to try and achieve the best outcome for GA aircraft; thanks to them for all of their hard work.

Nav Canada has issued an “Aeronautical Information Circular 9/08” that will affect anyone using a controlled airport in Canada. This is a brief summary:

Change in ATC phraseology- “Line up”/ “Line up and Wait”

Currently, the International Civil Organization (ICAO) uses these phrases to instruct aircraft to enter the runway intended for takeoff. In Canada, controllers currently use the phraseology “Taxi to position” or “Taxi to position and wait” when instructing aircraft to enter the runway intended to take off.

Nav Canada is intending to adopt these new phrases starting on April 10, 2008. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is studying the phraseology but is NOT planning to adopt it at this time. So when flying out of a controlled airport, such as Springbank, beware of this new phraseology; copies of the AIC will be available at the next meeting for anyone who wants one.

Just a reminder: Garth Wallace will be speaking at the Calgary Flying Club at Springbank on April 19 at 09:30.

If you haven’t paid your 2008 membership dues, please do so as soon as possible. The annual raffle ticket sales are going well and will be available at the April, May, and June meetings, so get yours soon! The prizes are great again this year. Thanks to Ed D’Antoni for rounding up the prizes and getting us the best possible deal on those.

Guy Christie is currently administering our website and, like many of us, has run into some time constraints limiting his ability to achieve his high standards of doing this properly. If you would like to help out in this area, please contact Guy at info@cufc.ca or myself or any other member of the executive. With some additional help, we can keep our website moving forward, adding another element to exposing our club to the general public.

Hopefully, I’ll see many of you at the rust remover on April 5th; these are always informative and remind us of things we tend to put into the back of our minds.

See you soon!