Well, it’s been a busy time at the Drayton Valley Flying Club since I last wrote in the Skywriter.

Just before Christmas we entered the Drayton Valley Santa Claus parade with a float representing our flying club. We put the Volksplane (minus wings) on a trailer and decorated it to represent airplanes and the Drayton Valley airport. The deck was set up as runways 32/14 with center line, hold short taxiways & runway lights. We built a mini control tower on the front of the trailer complete with a rotating beacon on top but due to the amount it snowed, it stopped rotating a 3rd the way along the parade route.

We applied for COPA Flight status and are now COPA Flight 186. COPA has been great in their support of our group except on initial start-up. They thought we were a commercial training facility and not just a club but once that got that clarified we were good.

I’ve wanted to buy an airplane but not having the proper license I was finding it difficult to justify it. To upgrade I would have to drive 1½ hours one way to take lessons which in reality takes a up a whole day of your time and thought it would take way too long.

My next thought was to bring a satellite flying school to Drayton Valley as I figured there would be others that wanted to learn and a couple in our club wanted to recertify. The hoops you have to jump through to do that were crazy and thought there must be another way.

I ran into a guy in Lacombe who is a freelance instructor and that’s all he does. He would come to Drayton Valley, set up ground school (needed only 5 students) and give flight training. All you needed was for you to either buy a share in his plane ($100) and he could put you on the registration and was able to teach you without having a commercially certified airplane which is also commercially inspected. The other option is for you to buy your own airplane and he can give you flight training in that. The maximum that can learn on one plane is five due to insurance reasons.

My next thought was to advertise this flight training enterprise and maybe entice a couple more people into it. I set up a Facebook page, started a DVFC website (www.draytonvalleyflyingclub.com) and advertised on the Buy N’ Sell Drayton Valley website. Well needless to say we were overcome with phone calls emails and Facebook ‘likes’.

Another way to attract future pilots was to have an open house which I organized for January 25th. Our flight instructor agreed to give familiarization flights to people who were interested but were sitting on the fence about it. I also realized that with the calls and emails it might be wise for me to have club members volunteer to take people flying if need be. Dennis, our flight instructor, also rallied some people he knew to come and do the same.

Well, the day came and when I got outside in the morning the winds were just howling and I was really disappointed. I went to the airport thinking it would be a bust but to my surprise things came together quite well. By the end of the day we had 27 aircraft from all over central and southern Alberta make a showing. I lost count of the number that went flying but it was a lot. It was almost a blessing as at one point we had no more room on the apron in front of the terminal building for airplane parking.

I guess you could say, ‘be carefully what you wish for’ as my work was now cut-out for me.

Organizing the ground school instruction, our flight instructor and all the students was now a huge task as we have 22 students from various backgrounds and schedules. And on top of that I was looking for an airplane to purchase for a group of 5 of us to train in.

Well, I found an airplane, a Cessna 172B out of Lacombe, set up a partner bank account, got the plane inspected and insured.

Now the school is underway as of last week and we still have 22 students and flight instruction is moving along as well. Our ground school guy has worked out schedules with everyone so that makes a huge difference, he even set up Sundays as a tutor/catchup day for those with busy lives.

I’ve met with County and Town Economic Development and they’re going to decide if they need to do a feasibility study for the airport. They’ve asked us for our wish list based on our needs and what the needs are for infrastructure. We will be included in the planning for the Drag Racing in the future which takes place every September.

So, we’ve come a long way in a short period of time and it’s really exciting. I know I can count on the various clubs around the province and from COPA in the future. We’re planning a breakfast this summer and a COPA for Kids as well.

Guy Christie
COPA Flight 186
President DVFC