With two weeks still left of summer, we find ourselves once again dealing with SNOW!!! (Hey, if we can’t complain about the weather, what’s left to talk about  ). It’s hard to believe that the summer is already over. I think I logged no more than 10 hours this season and I’ve only been in the air once since the last newsletter. I keep saying that fall is my favorite time to fly and I’m really hoping that the weather smartens up so I can get a few more hours logged in 2014!

As some of you already know, I’m back teaching at SAIT this fall with my biggest course load to date, 14 hours a week in front of the students. As a bit of a change, I get the first year Avionics students for a Standard Practices course, covering the basics of shop safety and laying the basic foundations in hand tool use and hardware identification.

I’m also teaching the second year AME students in auxiliary aircraft systems such as heating, air conditioning, pressurization, hydraulics, wheels, brakes and fuel systems. It’s a very in-depth theory course touching on nearly everything but the paint!

Finally, I get to teach the Structures students about aircraft engines, both turbines and piston. Although the Structures AME’s don’t typically work on engines, it is still useful to familiarize these students with a basic knowledge of powerplants.

As always, I’m having a blast teaching the students and I’ve found that I’m far more comfortable in front of the class this semester than I was last year. A lot has been going on at SAIT this year. It’s the first year for the new AME program. For the past couple of years, the instructors have been busy overhauling the course to better meet the needs of the evolving aircraft maintenance industry and to fold new technologies into the program.

Although I’m not directly involved in that part of the program (as I don’t currently have any first year AME students) it’s still neat to see how the program has evolved even in the 6 short years since I was a student there. Although I haven’t much to report in this issue of the Skywriter, I’m hoping that over the next couple of months we will have some exciting adventures to report on. Currently, Stu Simpson is leading a flight to Washington, DC in his Cavalier. Bob Kirkby is accompanying him in his Cherokee 235 with Al Botting and Carl Forman along as crew. I’ve been following along their SPOT data, and it appears that they are overnighting in Valentine Nebraska… how romantic! Hopefully, they packed their skis for the final leg to Calgary.

Unfortunately, not all the flying adventures ended well this past month. A good friend of mine was killed in a homebuilt plane crash two weeks ago. Gord Tones was flying his Bede BD-5 near his home airport of Killam/Sedgewick Flagstaff Regional airport when it crashed into a wooded area nearby. I haven’t heard any more details at this point.

Gord was very active in the recreational aircraft circles and only recently moved his flying activities from Springbank. He absolutely loved Oshkosh, and this past summer was his 30 th consecutive trip to the convention. He had always hoped to fly the BD-5 there but never got the chance. He did fly his vintage Beech Bonanza there and all-over North America.

Here’s an excerpt from the article I wrote about our trip to Oshkosh in 2005. At this point, we had just arrived in Oshkosh for the first time:

As I shut down, I heard a familiar voice yell “Hurry up, we’re going for supper!” Gord Tones had come down with Ralph and they had just finished setting up camp directly in front of us in the next row. According to Ralph, Gord had called him up when he found out his Bonanza was not going to be ready for the trip to Oshkosh and said “I’m taking your RV-7A to Oshkosh. Do you want to come along?” As soon as the last rope was on the plane, Gord dragged us off to the bus and we were off to the Oshkosh terminal. He promised us that the kind souls of Oshkosh would have cars there to take us anywhere we wanted to go. At this point, I was thinking that Gord had spent too many hours under that bubble canopy to think that people would just wait there to drive us somewhere, but low and behold, he was right. At Jeff’s on Rugby, a local restaurant, Gord explained that this was his 21st year at Oshkosh in a row!

He certainly made believers out of us. The meal was incredible… all-you-can-eat chicken, ribs and fish (yup “AND” not “OR”). We were stuffed and well-watered by the time we left.

Although I couldn’t make it, the Iron Creek Flying Club and the Tones family had a fly-in on Saturday to celebrate Gord’s life. I hear that it went well and was well attended. He will certainly be missed.

See you all at the meeting on Wednesday night!