Seems like this year just flew by, but as I was looking over past articles, I realized it has been a year since I wrote my first article for the Skywriter. As Past president Robin warned, one of the biggest challenges is getting that magical speaker that holds our interest and excites our desire to fly. I have been lucky in finding speakers with the help of our members. A suggestion here and there and we have been fortunate enough to have good quality speakers fill our meeting nights.

The executive is working on bringing some events that all members will enjoy and we plan to have the winter Gala February 16th or 23rd. Plans are still preliminary as I write this, but we will have more info with tickets available at the Jan meeting.

Thank you to Garrett Komm for joining the executive as Vice President filling Guy Christie shoes, who has moved to the Drayton Valley area.

Plans to fly to Leask, Saskatchewan this summer did not materialize as my planes were not in a flyable state and things just kind of fell apart. Of course, going on a week flight during the time of my wife’s birthday and our anniversary was never a great idea.

There is talk of a mini air tour maybe involving Ram River Falls or Wolf Lake west of Drayton with an evening of camping under the wing. Campfire songs with guitars may be a necessity… or maybe not.

Over the past year I have had the chance to find a local hanger (thank you Glenn Bishell), repair and get airborne a new-to-me Avid Speed Wing, fly to Vulcan as my first flight with the Avid and enjoy a day of golf with Ken Beanlands, Jim Corner and Jeff Gray. I attended Glenn’s fly-in as a drivein breakfast but made the flight to Kirkby’s in the Buzzard, and the North 40 in the Avid.

The Avid took to the air three months after I brought it home and improvements continue to be made to the way she flies. I remember the first circuit in my Avid, I think I got out and kissed the ground after I landed. I found that initially I had the carburetors too rich due to a choke cable issue. I have experimented with different props and pitches and made fine improvements. As I became more comfortable with the Avid, I have adjusted the flaperons to allow for hands off flying using the flaperons as trim and can now use flaps for takeoff and landing at a reduced speed. If I open up the throttle and burn lots of gas it appears I can cruise at 90-95 MPH IAS.

The Avid is a great little plane for running to Red Deer or Lacombe for lunch and I have had the chance to do that a couple of times with the Carstairs contingent.

On the most recent trip to Lacombe my magneto check found a problem as the motor wanted to die on one magneto. I decided to fly her home on one magneto and was unsure if that was the right decision. Talking to Wade Miller he mentioned it is all about risk management. Flying it home may have been an OK decision but in his words continuing to fly it with a bad magneto would just be wrong.

The first thing I did was change to new plugs but that did not solve the problem. I did a lot of trouble shooting and found a bad cap (open with no resistance) to be the initial problem. A Rotax rebuild course from Bob Robertson had warned me about running a Ducatti black box without a spark plug attached as that causes the Black Box to self-destruct. I changed the box with a spare I had from my Buzzard and still had the same problem. I then took the Black Box that I had just removed and replaced the remaining Black Box that was untouched. No start at all. I rechecked the impedances on the stator and the pickup coils thinking I must have another issue, but they checked OK. I put the Black Box that I had just removed back in place of the spare from the Buzzard and got it to start again. One magneto was still not working. As a last effort before pulling the engine to check the stator and pickups I took a Black Box off the Buzzard motor and replaced the last apparent bad Black Box. Voila!!!

The engine ran the way it was meant to. It was not expected that the spare that I had was also a bad Black Box and this really threw my troubleshooting out to lunch. If you are troubleshooting a problem, remember to isolate small bits of the circuit and do one thing at a time. Doing multiple things at the same time mean you may fix the problem but never really know the exact cause.

I have a couple of things that I would like to improve on the Avid including an in-cabin heater. While my snowsuit can keep me fairly warm, I find my feet tend to ice up rather easily. I also have a set of penetration skis that I would love to mount on the Avid and make a flight to the local lakes. I am concerned about the flight characteristics of the Avid and what might happen with skis installed.

In summation it has been a great year for me with the CRUFC. Judy and I have settled in our new home, I have a new plane to fly and a hanger to keep her safe. I have had the chance to meet many new friends and fly in a number of different aircraft. Many have helped me with my transition to the Calgary area. I don’t want to mention names, as I am sure I will miss someone, and I think you all know who you are. I look forward to 2013 and the many flying adventures awaiting us.

Thanks for allowing me to serve as your President and again I restate what I said a year ago, if there is anything I am missing at the meetings or if you can suggest a guest speaker for the evening, please let me know.

Till next time… Good Lies and Smooth Skies