Winter 2011 Newsletter - Brantford Flying Club

Electrical Failure continued from page 7
the right place at the right altitude for a landing at the airport. How they calculated this for a
Cessna 182 in a matter of minutes when they deal mainly with jet aircraft is still a mystery to me.
In any event, they eventually (it seemed like hours) turned me to a northerly heading and told me
I was lined up with the active runway. At this point, I was still 4000 feet above the clouds in twilight and many miles from the airport. He “steered” me by telling me to turn a little to the left or
right and for descent, a little up or down (I had no way of steering accurately since I had no
directional gyro). He did not give me any altitude instructions, presumably because he didn’t want
to divert my attention to the altimeter when in the clouds. By the time I had descended to the
tops of the clouds, I was feeling comfortable with that type of instruction. I let him know, at his
request, when I was about to enter the clouds. At that point, a female controller took over and
used exactly the same method to talk me down through the cloud layer. Strange as it may seem,
it was not an uncomfortable feeling by that time since we had “practiced” all the way down from
8000 feet to 4000 feet. During this part of the descent (in cloud) and virtually in darkness, my
eyes were glued to the Electric Turn Coordinator (which as I mentioned earlier is not located in a
comfortable position), while following their instructions. My wife was listening to the instructions
and conversation on her headset and informed me when we were well clear of the cloud. When
we broke through at 800 feet, we were perfectly lined up with the active runway and at the perfect distance from it to make a normal VFR landing, by this time in darkness.
When we landed, the runway was lined on each side with fire trucks, ambulances and many
other vehicles and people. Ground control then guided us to a parking area where two engineers
came to help us out of the aircraft and to discuss with me what I thought caused the problem.
They agreed that I was probably right in my assumption. I was then told that the base commander wished to speak with me by telephone, which made me a little nervous. He was very welcoming and asked if I was satisfied with the way the controllers talked me down and asked if I would
mind critiquing them. I then spoke with both of them and, of course, thanked them. There was
nothing to critique. They could not have done a better job.
We were driven by a soldier to a nearby motel to spend the night. They tied the aircraft down
and welcomed us the next morning for a VFR departure to Brantford. I can’t say that reading that
article in Flying magazine saved our lives but it certainly helped to have enough knowledge to
recognize the problem immediately and take action. I never fail to learn something from those
articles and many others that I read.
BRANT AERO
Aircraft Avionics
Brantford Municipal Airport
150 Aviation Avenue
Brantford, ON, N3T 5M8
519 753 7022
www.brantaero.com
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BRANTFORD FLYING CLUB NEWSLETTER December, 2010/January, 2011
Brantford Flying Club
2010 Board of Directors
Darrell MacLean
John Searle
Geoff Kempster
Rob Badger
Bill Sass
Fred Reeve
Glenn Gale
Janet Riley
Phil Quinlan
Randy Harvel
President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
Flight Centre Staff
CFI-MANAGER
Mark Culshaw
ASSISTANT MANAGER Shawn Broughton
CHIEF PILOT
Bob Michalchuk
INSTRUCTORS:
Ashely Edelman, Shea Augustine,
Bob Coleman, Joel Hensen,
Bob Malchow
GROUND SCHOOL
Bob Ogilvie
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Dawn Fenton
MAINTENANCE MANAGER Stuart McAulay
MAINTENANCE ENGINEER Dave Park
MAINTENANCE APPRENTICES:
Jeremy Woytaz, Nathan Farrington,
Andrew Gillespie
LINE SERVICE:
Roland Lachance, Michael Thornton,
Wes Donaghy, Joel Wilson,
Steven Hoo,
CO-OP STUDENT:
Jon Edwards
Contact the Club
9am - 5pm 7 days/week
110 Aviation Ave., P.O. Box 903
Brantford, ON N3T 5S1
Tel: 519-753-2521
Fax: 519-753-3617
flybfc@worldchat.com
122.825 Mhz
Welcome
New Members
Dave Blais
Darrin Lester
Bill Janushewski
Leaving the Nest
First Solo:
Bill Brimley
Dylan Bartolini
Paul Vreugdenhil
Private License:
Wael Ayad
Jeff Bowen
Rick Sopko
Night:
Miroslav Budzinski
Commercial
License:
Miroslav Budzinski
Ahmed Majdoub
Instructor Rating:
Peter Lise
Instrument Rating:
Jocelyn LeCluse
Congratulations
to you on all on
your splendid
achievements!
2
Electrical Failure
IN MEMORIAM
We are very sad to
record the loss of
our own
JUNE SMAILES,
beloved wife of
John Smailes,
on October 30, 2010.
June's great laugh and
sense of humour will be
missed by all of her and
John's friends at BFC.
Club parties will never
be quite the same
again!
Rest in peace, June.
DAVIS FUELS
Petroleum Products
Wholesale & retail
Commercial Card Locks
RR#4, Brantford, On
N3T 5L7
Tel: 519 449 2417
Free: 1 800 369 48
Fax: 519 449 5942
by Clark Holden
It was about 5:00 p.m. in November, 1987. My wife, Isobel, and I were returning to Brantford
from Montreal’s Saint Hubert Airport in our Cessna 182 CG-PKL. On arrival at the airport we had
found PKL covered quite heavily in snow, although we had asked the FBO ahead of time to have
it cleaned. We departed about an hour later than planned because of the time spent removing the
snow and ice from the aircraft. The weather forecast for the entire route called for ceilings of 800
feet and cloud tops of 4000 feet.
We were cleared to 8000 feet and everything went smoothly until around 4:30 p.m., by which
time we were somewhere between Trenton and Toronto, when I noticed my artificial horizon
showing fairly steep turns to the left and right when we clearly were flying flat and level. The
directional gyro was also swinging gently back and forth through a large number of degrees.
Ever since I have subscribed to Flying Magazine, the first two articles I read each month, and
always have read, are “I Learned About Flying From That” and “Aftermath”. Just two or three
months before the Montreal trip, there appeared in “I Learned About Flying From That”, an article
written by a former US navy pilot who was flying a Mooney at 10,500 feet in cloud when he suddenly lost control and tumbled through thousands of feet until he fell out the bottom of the cloud
about a thousand feet above the ground and was able to recover the aircraft by reference to
lights on the ground. He learned, after landing, that his vacuum pump (which drives the artificial
horizon and directional gyro) had failed. As a result of reading that article, I immediately assumed
the same had happened to me, which turned out to be the case. Fortunately, for me, I was above
the cloud, not in it, and had visual reference to the cloud tops.
At this point I was “talking” to Toronto Centre. I informed the air traffic controller of the problem
and what I thought was the reason for the failure. I realized that I would have to be “talked” down
through the clouds. The controller suggested I might want to go to Trenton since it was closer and
there was probably less traffic there. Toronto called Trenton and made arrangements, then gave
me the frequency to use. When I called Trenton, two controllers were waiting to assist me. I was
still at 8000 feet and it was starting to get dark, although there was a bright moon which was
shining on the tops of the clouds. The controller to whom I was speaking told me they would vector me to make an approach at Trenton and they would talk me down.
My 1974 Cessna 182 has a small Electric Turn Coordinator (artificial horizon) at the lower left of
the instrument panel, which is difficult to use because of its location. The first controller, a male,
vectored me out over Lake Ontario a considerable distance south of the airport. I wondered at the
time why he took me so far south but later realized he was positioning me so that I would be in
continued on page 8
Cheques • Business Forms • Stationery • Labels
Flyers • Brochures • Graphic Design • Full Bindery
THOUGHT DU JOUR
"Quality is never an accident; it is always
the result of intelligent effort. ... The
bitterness of poor quality lingers long after
the sweetness of low price is forgotten."
- John Ruskin (attributed)
34 Alice Street, Brantford ON (Off Clarence near West St.)
Fax: 519-752-9777 • Tel: 519-752-4268
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Brantford Flying Club Donates "An Airplane of Food" to the Food Bank
Flying in Africa continued from page 5
freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, swam in the Indian Ocean and learned how to make the
402c do my bidding.
But of course I won’t soon forget that elephant, grazing without a care despite the roar of
the Caravan’s big turbine, or that giraffe family bounding in slow motion across the runway
threshold a few minutes later during our taxi out for departure. Just remember. Blink often.
Use that short-field technique. You’ll be fine.
On Sunday, December 12th, a
determined group of BFC members
gathered to create a sculpture using
the donated food items for the
"Feed Brant" food bank challenge.
What did they create? An airplane
of course! The Expositor took a
picture and hopefully our entry
will win the most creative display
category of the competition. Best
of all, we collected a substantial
amount of food to donate to the food
bank.
Craig is a coffee addict and can be easily persuaded to tell Africa stories when bribed with caffeine!
Recreational Flying
by Bill Sass, Brian Mehlenbacher and John Calvesbert
October 17 was our Fall Colours fly out to CYQA Muskoka. Winds were out of the
southwest at 8 kts with 9 SM of visibility in CLR skies. This flight was well attended with
11 people in 4 planes traveling round trip just over 1000 nm! Runways at this MF location are 175’ wide so for any of you newer pilots or first timers to this airport watch out
for the illusion upon landing (you might think that you are lower than you really are).
November 21 Predicted rain and mist for the entire area prevented our originally
scheduled fly out to CNC3 Brampton on the 14th and then low ceilings in the Toronto
area once again prevented an attempt on the 21st. Weather however was clearer to
the west so 7 members of the club in 4 aircraft made a short hop over to CNQ4
Tillsonburg for a very nice breakfast in their new terminal and restaurant area. Note
that this restaurant has now closed for the winter.
December 12 The fly-out to CYHM Hamilton & CWH
Museum was weathered out. There will be no rain date
destination this month due to the busy holiday season.
Happy Holidays to everyone and hope to see you in the
New Year!
Thank you to everyone who donated
and created. BFC makes a difference!
BFC Members and their Families are invited to
BFC’s Annual Boxing Day Open House
December 26
1 pm to 5 pm
Free beef on a bun, coffee and treats – cash bar
Bob has promised his secret punch once again!!!!!
Come on out for a great social afternoon.
Bring a plate of treats for the dessert table if you can.
Digital Newsletter
Yes, NEW HORIZONS will “get with it” and be going digital during 2011! This will
save the Club quite a bit of money in printing and postage costs. It is planned to
continue printing a minimum number of copies for those who do not have email,
but we would ask those who do to ensure that the Club has your correct email
address, so you will continue to get your copy.
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From the Ground School
By Bob Ogilvie
The Fall Ground School session is nearly finished and a new class begins on
Monday, Feb. 14 at 7:00. The fall class has seen numbers drop off slightly, but we’ve
been able to maintain an excellent core group and anticipate a number of successful
Transport exam writers.
An innovation this session has been the introduction of a dedicated Ground School
website where class members can get information, updates, and communicate with each
other. Our thanks to Paul Vicano for his leadership in getting this going. We hope to
make this a feature of all future classes, not only for use during the session, but also as
a method whereby students can keep in touch after they graduate
I mentioned last time that we would like to pair up our ground school students with
more experienced members for a little practice at navigation, radio procedures in zones,
and cross country flying. To date, little interest has been shown, but I thought I’d give it
another try. The benefit to you would be getting some help with fuel or rental costs, plus,
an added bonus is making a new flying acquaintance. There wouldn’t be a schedule or
any expectation beyond giving you the new student’s contact information with the hope
you would find an opportunity to fly together at some time. Contact me directly at
robert.ogilvie@rogers.com or 519-759-4258 if you’re interested in working with one of
our students.
Did You Know…
As I write this, hundreds of motorists are stranded in their cars on Hwy 402 between
London and Sarnia. While none of us would fly in those conditions, it is a reminder that
preparation for a night stranded in the cold is good practice in a car, but essential when
flying, even in fair weather. A small gym or duffle bag with appropriate survival equipment weighs very little, is easy to carry on to even a rental aircraft and can make a life
or death difference in the event of a forced landing. Build your own kit or check out the
offerings of Aircraft Spruce and other suppliers.
Flying in Africa – Part 2
by Craig Daniels
Craig Daniels is working on his flight instructor rating at BFC. This is the second of a two-part series on his
experiences flying in Tanzania, East Africa.
Africa takes some getting used to. Drinking water comes from a bottle, not a tap, and if it
does come from a tap it has to be boiled. Electricity sometimes goes out for days at a time,
and even when it’s working it can go off and on again a dozen times in day, which makes
good planning vital (keep that car gas tank full). In the cities, there is no public space or
parks or playgrounds. Internet infrastructure is in its infancy and wildly expensive, slow and
unreliable. Credit cards are virtually non-existent. Speaking of expensive, Huggies diapers
cost $75 U.S. per package, and breakfast cereal is $15 a box. Police routinely stop drivers
and extract bribes – will I ever forget that policeman at Nairobi’s airport, blind drunk at 10 in
the morning, waving a pistol and demanding money from my taxi driver? You drive on the
right. Street lights don’t work. Intersections are a free-for-all with no apparent right of way
(bravest and biggest goes first). A driver’s licence can be bought with a $30 fee paid to the
right person, even if you’ve never driven a kilometre in your life. I saw poverty so acute it
made me cry.
The climate? Shockingly hot and humid. The medical and all other public infrastructure is
largely broken or non-existent. And don’t get me started about the malaria or the insects
(roaches the size of mice, and rats the size of ... well, trust me, you really don’t want to
know).
Flying out of Dar, as it’s called, is an adventure. Big jets from Emirates Airlines, Qatar,
British Airways, South African Airways, Swiss and KLM compete on the airfield with dozens of
Let 410s, Twin Otters, Cessna Caravans, 206s and 182s operated by tourist and safari outfits
and NGOs. It’s a busy airfield. Lots of wake turbulence. You have to have your wits about you.
Local pilots and Tanzania’s air traffic controllers use a bizarre IFR/VFR shorthand that
takes some getting used to, as does what passes for English from ATC. Navaids and radar
are often non-functioning. Fuel is paid for in local cash (picture a wad of bills two inches
thick). Radio contact with ATC is often lost for hours at a time during a cross-country.
Weather briefs are often unavailable, and thunderstorms are the norm. Altimeters, set in millibars, not inches of mercury, are uniformly set to standard pressure, once clear of the circuit.
Airfield security, weather forecasting and ATC capability are all of a standard ... let’s just say
significantly different from what we’re used to in North America.
But I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
From Tanzania I flew into South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Mozambique. I
watched the thunder of Victoria Falls. I flew past Kilimanjaro’s majestic snowy peak a dozen
times if I did it once (it’s always good to see Kilimanjaro because it means you’re not flying
into it ). I dodged bad weather, ate fried grasshoppers and was vectored onto final at the
same time and place as another aircraft and lived to tell the tale. On one trip with my employer
I stayed in a hotel room that came complete with its own butler. I drank sweet, sweet,
continued on page 6
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