“Saturday July 4, 2015. Rob Jaap and I met at the hangar at Innisfail bright and early. Plane fueled up, flight itineray started with my “Responsible Person” otherwise known as “The Wife” with wheels up time about 7 am ish. With Rob at the controls but flying from the Right seat we headed Northeast towards Stettler. Sun was in our eyes and while I remembered to wear a hat, Rob remembered that his hat was still in his truck. He did have his shades on, but he still did a lot of squinting.

Radio traffic was quite sparse on the way up, but that was okay, we were just enjoying the view. We did notice some light haze to the Northwest, “probably forest fire smoke” we thought, but it did not affect us. That would happen on the way home.

Our route took us south of Stettler, then we swung north from Halkirk, then into Forestburg (CEF6). A radio call was made, and a reply back warned us of two Powered parachutes in the vicinity that were NORDO.

We crossed midfield and back into a righthand circuit for runway 28 paved (10/28), elev.2334 ft, length 2950 ft so there was plenty of room to let the 701 rollout (really gotta change those brake pads one day soon!).

Sven was there to direct us and after shut down he gave us the lowdown on what was happening. Sven Bernard is a Swiss exparatrooper, somewhat retired who has taken over control of the field. I am not sure if that means he has bought it or is leasing it. He is slowly working towards making the field a flyin destination for all things that fly, including powered ‘chutes, trikes, ultralights, microlights and also certified craft.

He has Premium fuel on site and hopes to soon have Avgas as well. While there is no food services on site at present, Sven did offer us a car to take into town for breakfast if we wanted. The town site of Forestburg is within sight of the field; about a 2-3 km hike along the highway. We ended up just hanging at the field. Rob did practice inflating then controlling the flying wing that the powered ‘chute guys use. Apparently, part of the training is being able to control your wing on the ground sans harness and motor. It is a lot harder than one would think but Rob got it easily using Sven’s wing, much to Sven’s dismay as he has spent a few days getting to where Rob got it in a half hour.

Another service Sven wants to advertise is a washbay for your plane. He says he has seen enough dirty planes come in to justify it! The club house is small but comfortable with washrooms and seating. There is also a working wall payphone that can be used if needed.

Sven also had on display a number of motorbikes that he has built/modified and maybe for sale for the right price. There were also a few antiquish cars for sale as well.

Overall, it was definitely worth the trip there to see what Sven had and what he has planned. Nice to see individuals that are promoting recreational sport flying.

We would have liked to stay longer; Rob wanted to continue showing off to Sven on how easily he could control his wing but the wind was starting to come up and getting gusty. We bought 25 liters of Premium and off we flew.

Remember that light haze mentioned earlier? As we flew out and headed for home, we were both surprised by the low visibility from all the smoke. We stayed low to keep sight of the ground, and we called a Pirep to report to all 126.70 traffic the situation. The smoke was intense enough to make my eyes water, but Rob was at the controls, and he seemed to fair better than me, so all was ok. I worked the radio instead, but the visibility improved the further we went to the southwest.

We made it back to Innisfail with no further issues and another Xcountry trip in the logbooks. Trip out was 1.8 hrs on the Hobb’s meter and 1.9 hrs back.

We plan on redoing the trip again to check on Sven’s progress in making his dream’s come true.

Sven Bernard can be contacted by phone: 1 780 881 5678. email at sven@cef6.ca. Website is http://www.cef6.ca

Bob McCully