Time for summer Fly in Season

The plane splintered into toothpicks as it cartwheeled into the field to the northwest of runway 16. It looked like a model aircraft, but this plane was carrying the man that had poured his time and energy into building and making it his, for the last number of years. The image burned in my mind and sent me to a state of disbelief.

It was one of my first fly-ins and I probably had about a 100 hrs or less as PIC. I had flown from Hillman’s farm strip south of Benalto and met two other pilots at Red Deer Regional. Grant in his Challenger, Jim in his Beaver and I in my Chinook were off to Lacombe for the pancake breakfast hosted by the Lacombe flying club. We departed Red Deer early, as we wanted to get into the breakfast before the crowd. The idea of the slow ultralights holding up traffic was not something that appealed to any of us so we thought the earlier the better.

It was one of those early morning summer flights that we all hope to experience numerous times over the summer. The only bump on the road was when we crossed the Blindman River: just a little mechanical turbulence. We approached Lacombe from the west and called the local frequency that we were inbound.

Grant was in the lead as he was the most experienced of us with thousands of hours and at one point was an instructor for a local flight school. (Grant blames me for getting him back into aviation as I walked into his office one day and said, “I hear you’ve got a Challenger. A year later we traveled to Oshkosh in the Cherokee 140 he had recently purchased. But I digress and that is a tale for another time.)

In any case with Grant in the lead, Jim in the middle and I bringing up the rear we called to cross midfield and join left downwind. We heard from a Taylor craft coming from the north that it would also cross midfield and join downwind as per required procedure. Being the slower of approaching aircraft we made our intentions known to follow the other aircraft into the circuit.

Grant was on short final, Jim was short base, and I was downwind abeam the numbers when I saw a plane approaching fast and below the Challenger’s altitude, less than 500 feet behind Grant’s plane. It appeared for a moment that the low wing sport home-built was on a direct collision with the first ultra-light of our group. We had made all the required radio calls on approach, crossing midfield, downwind and turning final.

I couldn’t believe what was unfolding before my eyes directly out my left window. A moment later the home-built turned hard right to a knife-edge position and headed to the west field at less than 50 feet AGL. It seemed like only seconds later when knife-edge turned to a cartwheel that broke the plane to many pieces. Jim having just turned final called the Mayday emergency and continued to land. I called the position of the plane to the rescue crew as I was now turning final myself and had good visual positioning. I don’t remember much from the time the plane started to cartwheel till the time my plane touched the grass next to the runway, but I was down, safe but shaken.

So, what happened?

The pilot of the home-built somehow survived the impact and after weeks of hospital recovery returned home. My understanding is his memory did not allow him to recall the events that led to crash.

Rumour was that radios in his aircraft were not tuned to the Lacombe frequency so if he was making calls, they were not being heard by anyone at the breakfast or in the air. It was further rumoured that this pilot only flew a couple of times a year. So, was it a pilot unfamiliar with procedure or just a momentary lapse of memory? Did he believe that he had called for a direct in on final not knowing that he was on the wrong frequency? Was he on the right frequency with a malfunctioning radio and the radio switched in the crash?

I am not sure we will ever know.

As the spring season is upon us and more of us will be frequenting fly-ins I want to remind you to keep an extra careful eye out. Follow the proper procedure to enter circuits. If you flying a slower plane, then smaller circuits will keep you in tune with the rest of the traffic. Make your radio calls as required and listen for other traffic. Let’s make sure this is a safe and fun flying season.

And now a word from our sponsor:

Plans are underway for the flight to Leask Saskatchewan with the return trip to Calgary via Medicine Hat and visit the Cypress Hills.

June 29, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of Leask Saskatchewan. This is the hometown of long-time fellow flyer Ben Stefanic and when looking for a destination to fly to that would allow participation by many different levels of ultra-light and recreation flyers Leask looks to be a good option while providing support to a fellow flyer.

We are in the early planning stages but so far, the schedule that Ed D’Antoni and I have come up with is

Day One
Kirby’s to Hanna 144 km/90 sm
Hanna to Kindersly 192 km/115 sm

Day Two
Kindersly to Coreman airpark 180 km/110 sm
Coreman to Leask 80 km/50 sm

Spend a couple of days in Leask and take in the parade and local events. Camp under the wing or if your ground support brings that nice 50-foot motor home then you don’t have to rough it.

Return to Calgary via Medicine Hat

Day 1
Leask to Rosetown 135 km/85 sm
Rosetown to Empress 160 km/100 sm
Empress to Medicine Hat 115 km/75 sm

Day Two
Medicine Hat tour of Cypress Hills As desired
Medicine Hat to Brooks 110 km/70 sm
Brooks to Kirkby’s 145 km/90 sm

The idea of this tour is to provide members with a week-long flying adventure. If this is something you have always wanted to do including sleeping under the wing and have suggestions for improvement and changes, please let Ed or I know. We will do our best to make this a great experience for all. Keep in mind the idea behind this is that all types of planes should be able to make this flight. We can add halfway stops to any of this and because we are flying for fun I prefer to fly early in the morning or late in the evening. In the air by 6 AM and down by 9 AM as an example. This is our chance at wild hogs of the air. Let’s make it a success.

Till next time I wish you Good Lies and Smooth Skies
Norm