Well, spring has sprung, and with it comes the typical unstable weather associated with this season in Calgary. Reports of thunderstorms, snow, rain, fog, hail and even tornadoes seem to abound this year.

Despite the weather, I’ve had a great month of flying with about 14 hours logged! The Mother’s Day weekend was a flurry of aviation activity with a few of us heading down to Vulcan on the Saturday for breakfast. Jerry McDonald, Barry Wood and Jim Corner met me there around 10 AM, passing over the Chestermere/Kirkby airfield on the way. The field was buzzing with a number of club members flying Kids for COPA.

We arrived in Vulcan to find both the Air Cadets and CASARA engaged in flying exercises. Again, it is important to remind everyone to be vigilant in your radio procedures. While passing Airdrie, I overheard a 182 heading into Vulcan. Since I was on 122.90 MHz, I assumed that Vulcan was on the same frequency. When I got within 20 miles, I decided to double check the CFS and was surprised to find that the actual frequency was 122.8! It never hurts to check the map or CFS before that first radio call.

The next day was the Mother’s Day fly-in in Sundre. It was a beautiful morning and Renée decided to join me. Despite the weather, the turnout was down quite a bit from previous years. I suspect that there were only about 50 aircraft in total. However, the aircraft that showed up were very interesting. Among my favorites were the L-19, Harvard, Stinson Gullwing, the Stampe biplane, the Beech Staggerwing and three Harmon Rockets. We had a great time.

Two weeks later was the second major fly-in of the season… Camrose! Unlike Sundre, Camrose was VERY well attended! I arrived at 9:45 AM and was the 100th aircraft to sign in! Of course, a busy circuit means that there is a large potential for screw ups. My head was on a swivel as I joined the downwind behind a Cessna. Glenn Bishell pulled in behind me.

There was a lot of chatter on the radio, but it became clear that the lineup of departing traffic was getting quite long. As a result, the five aircraft in the circuit spread things out a bit and extended the circuit to accommodate everyone. Everything was looking good with number one on a 1 mile final, me on a 3 mile final, Glenn turning on a 5 mile final, one on base and one on a long downwind. With the two mile spacing, there was room for aircraft to depart between the arriving planes.

Unfortunately, a Glastar Sportsman decided that he wasn’t going to follow the rest of the aircraft in the circuit and cut across four planes to turn a final approach less than half a mile in front of me. When he called turning number two for a two-mile final, I firmly informed him that he had just cut me off with only half a mile to spare. He informed me that he didn’t realize I was doing an extended circuit. I guess he also missed the fact that four other aircraft were also doing an extended circuit and I ended up having to go around.

When you’re coming into a busy fly-in, make sure you get a good mental picture of what’s going on as you join the circuit. If you have a passenger (which this guy did) make sure they know to keep quiet as you approach, limiting the conversation to pointing out other aircraft. Make frequent radio calls and include your sequence number in the call. This helps other aircraft build that mental picture, and can help out if two aircraft think they are at the same place in the circuit sequence.

The last flight I did included an hour of solo refresher training. I spent some time doing medium and steep turns, concentrating on maintaining altitude and hitting my wake . The other thing I practiced was simulated engine failures. The thing that always surprises me is just how much altitude you lose in a turn. From 1000’, I can get about 2 miles. With two turns, I get about 1.2 miles. I find that this is a useful, challenging and entertaining exercise to practice on a regular basis.

Well, that’s it for this month. Please remember to put your summer escapades into words and send them to me to grace the pages of the Skywriter. Hope to see you all at the June meeting, the last before the summer break.