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The club held its annual Hangar BBQ on June 17^th..

It was one of the few days in June that did not rain. Our west facing hangar, the sun shinning and the croaking of the frogs in the pond, made for a perfect evening. Much better than last year when we spotted a funnel cloud.

» Check out some pictures from the BBQ.

As is the club's custom, there will not be a meeting in July.

Scheyden Eyewear is offering a 40% discount on their eyeware to all members, associates, friends and family of the Borden Flying Club.

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The Borden Flying Club and Scheyden have teamed up to bring you this exclusive offer. Use coupon code 40BFC-1 with phone or internet orders for 40% off retail purchase of all Scheyden products including Rx lenses. This offer is valid till August 31^th, 2010.

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Edenvale Classic Aircraft's annual Gathering of the Classics is on Saturday August 7^th this year. Note that this is the weekend following the long weekend. There will be an air conditioned Hospitality Room, free coffee and snacks at the Registration tent, and Free Lunch for visiting pilots at Fud Grill in the terminal building. Plus trophies for Best Airplane in Show - Pilot's Choice, Best Airplane in Show - Audience's Choice and Best Automobile in Show - Audience's Choice.

While CMQ does not qualify as a classic, the good folks at Edenvale Classic Aircraft sure could use our help nonetheless. If you would like to volunteer please contact Robin Hadfield at robin@classicaircraft.ca or (705) 309-3007.

More information is available at their website including arrival/departure procedures (PDF).

Both CMQ and COPA's G1000 glass cockpit equipped Cessna 182 will be on display during the Gathering of the Classics. In order to break the day up we are asking for volunteers to help staff the display. The plan is to have both planes side-by-side so you get to represent the club, COPA Flight 84 and COPA National. COPA president Kevin Psutka will be there too so this is your chance to find out first hand what COPA is up to on a national level.

If you can spare a couple of hours please contact Sam Sciscione at Events@bordenflyingclub.com.

If you have taken a peak at the booking calendar then you may have noticed that CMQ is flying to Whitehorse later this month. Tom Stiff and Adrian Dickson are participating in the Midnight Sun Challenge.

Over 100 planes will be making the trek to Whitehorse. Edenvale is the departure point for the eastern group with the western group departing from Quesnel, BC. Also making this trip are club members Paul Richardson & Fred Simpson in Paul's Rockwell Commander and past club member Mike Gamble in his C-172. Peter Lubig is the Chief Flight Steward so the club will be well represented.

Good luck lads and stay away from those Sourtoe Cocktails.

The above mentioned lads are not the only ones who will be, or in Allan's case, have been travelling this summer. Club member Allan Bowman and his wife Sylvia flew their Tripace to Virginia this spring. Allan writes of his trip:

Friends invited my wife and myself to stay with them in their home on a lake in North Carolina just a few miles south of Danville Virginia, the nearest decent airport.

We keep our aircraft at Greenbank, a beautiful grass strip near Port Perry.

I mentioned to our hosts that flying was an opportunistic sport and that weather could play havoc with our intended dates of arrival and departure. We therefore picked a date some 4 weeks in the future and hoped for the best. Flight planning had to include the usual considerations, how far could we go in a day, fuel stops, alternates for overnights in the event of bad weather, EApis, etc. We played with ‘what if’s’ for hours and finally came up with a route. Greenbank to Toronto City Center, to Burlington bridge to enter the US at Niagara Falls International. From there the heading was simple, fly magnetic 183 degrees all the way to Danville and make some fuel and food stops along the route.

The nice thing about the USA is the high density of airports along almost any route to anywhere you might pick. I downloaded airport GPX files from the Web to give airports in a 75 mile wide path along the 400 NM route from Niagara Falls to Danville. These were loaded as waypoints into my Magellan handheld GPS unit.

We were somewhat concerned about the number of mountain ranges that we would have to cross on the way there and back. Some reach almost 5000 Feet ASL. At Transport Canada safety seminars they have used AOPA presentations on pilot decision making on almost this exact route. The seminars ended badly with pilots crashing in IFR conditions in the Blue Mountains/Appalachians after ignoring deteriorating weather.

The departure date came and went with rain and thunderstorms occurring in Ontario, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Each morning I would weather brief with Nav Canada, and Martin Marietta, the US briefers. Finally, a week after the initial date we had clear VFR weather the entire way. Some minor fog along Lake Ontario in the early AM but then clear sailing. We had previously pre-packed the aircraft, filled it with fuel and were ready to go in an instant.

Flight following was used for the trip around the shore of Lake Ontario to our first stop in Niagara Falls International “KIAG” in New York and then along the southern route. We had given US customs and eApis an arrival time of 9:50 AM, we touched down at 9:55. We were greeted with 3 US customs officers, one senior and two ‘airport procedure’ trainees. Because it was a training session I was asked for my passport, pilot's licence, the aircraft radio station license, my aviation medical, the C of A for the aircraft, and the CSB decal. It was the most thorough ‘paperwork’ check I’ve encountered. They did not do a Geiger counter scan or check of the baggage we carried as has been done before. After a 15 minute stop for customs we were released to continue our journey.

After leaving KIAG the land goes from cultivated to mostly forested and becomes increasingly hilly as you fly south. Beautiful green hills, little population, and not much ATC traffic anywhere. We stopped for lunch at DuBois (KDUJ), and refueled at KW99 about 2hours north of Danville. KW99 was a nice little airport in a hole surrounded by 4000 foot hills in every direction. Self serve fuel ($3.99 /US Gal), a nice but deserted terminal, and a hot high density altitude day. US Wx channel 122.2 and ATIS units advised the density altitudes along the route. The ground temperatures were in the low 30 Deg C range and some airports were at 2500 feet. Getting into KW99 was easy as we forward slipped from 6500 feet to the circuit. Once fuelled it was a different matter. Our climb rate in the Tripacer dropped to 400 fpm or less and the surrounding hills were too close to fly over. So we spiraled up from the runway until we had reached 4000 feet and then departed towards and over the hills for the balance of our journey.

The route took us within 100 miles of the Washington DC TFR zone. Our flight following controllers along the route kept ensuring that we understood the procedures and impacts of unauthorized flight into this zone. AOPA produces a printable wallet card with the intercept procedures just in case……. Essentially if you stray in, you will be illuminated visually with flashing red and green lasers followed by tour guides in two F15’s. If you can see the lasers, it’s too late even if you do a 180 immediately. The deep doo doo then begins.

We didn’t get that close and made sure of the weather and our course.

Danville was a beautiful airport, the FBO was incredibly friendly and helpful, and there were no charges to leave our aircraft there for a number of days.

The county and municipal airports along the route, both going and coming, had virtually no traffic, self serve fuel, long paved runways, and nice terminal facilities and pilot lounges. The US truly appreciates pilots, understands our needs, and provides excellent service.

The route is quite beautiful all the way from KIAG to KDAN it is hilly, then mountainous, and green. There are a number of reservoirs with dams holding vast lakes along the route. Some ridgelines were covered in wind generators, and the blue ridge parkway snaked along the hilltops for part of our route.

While I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere near these hills with low ceilings or thunderstorms, we flew it both ways only after getting weather briefs that indicated nothing but VFR everywhere on the route.

I’m told that in October the route is particularly beautiful with the tree colour changes and we have been invited back in the fall. Maybe who knows.

On the last leg we had a special treat, Toronto Center vectored us north of the CN tower at 2000 Feet ASL. We were somewhat close to and only slightly higher than the observation deck as we passed the tower and flew between the buildings downtown. Great view but not my favorite place to be for an engine failure.

The total travel time each way, including fuel and food stops was about 8 hours. Although the flight was quite smooth each way, we were tired and glad to be on the ground at the two ends.

The only downside to the entire journey was our meeting with Canadian Customs in St. Catherine's. A snotty self important female agent asked silly questions and lectured us on our 20 minute early arrival. Give me eApis and US Customs any day.

Allan and Sylvia Bowman, CFGKF

We rent dreams