The Sunday morning fly outs have been well attended for the past month and a half. On Sunday, April 10th a total of 18 members and guests flew in/drove to Chilliwack for breakfast. With Mother Nature controlling our destinations sometimes Chilliwack or Boundary Bay are the backup destinations.
Sunday April 17 the destination was Victoria. Thanks to a suggestion from Bob Leroux we decided to have breakfast at the Spitfire Grill. At one time it was difficult, if not close to impossible, to get an airplane parking spot near the restaurant. Now with the Fire Tanker Base gone, there is more than adequate parking near the restaurant. A total of 14 people attended the breakfast — and it was quite an excellent breakfast too. Six aircraft including the 2 Club aircraft made the trip. Bevan Thom also joined us in his beautiful Vans RV-7A and kept it out of warp speed in order not to overrun any of the slower “Detroit Iron” types wending their way to YYJ and return.
One should familiarize themselves with the arrival and departure procedures in effect at YYJ. They are not difficult to manage and accompanying others who have done the trip before is a good way of learning. If anyone wants to go to the Spitfire Grill and the wind is favouring 27, you might want to ask the controller if you can land on 21 because the restaurant is just to the right of the button of 03 as you taxi south on 21.
The fly out on Sunday April 24th was scheduled to be Powell River but ended up as a wash out with front after front marching through the YXX area so much so that even getting to Chilliwack was unmanageable. Tony’s restaurant ended up being the breakfast destination and the Powell River flight was rescheduled for May 1st.
Sunday May 1st was a great day with CAVU flying conditions. There were 13 people in 5 aircraft that made the trip. Four of the aircraft went via the North Shore and LCR via East Point and along the Gulf Islands to Powell River. We had breakfast at Julie’s Restaurant which is only a 5-8 minute walk from the airport. The restaurant is quite unique and there are numerous models and pictures of airplanes (as you can see in the picture) throughout the restaurant. Julie mentioned that a lot of the planes and pictures were donated to the restaurant.
On the return trip everyone flew the North Shore routing and this time Vancouver Terminal was allowing all of our group to transit their zone whereas on the trip up a couple of planes had to go through Harbour Control.
There are a number of fly out destinations planned for the future. One of them being the Alert Bay fly out July 1st. Please contact Gerry Crapo for more information. Other suggested destinations will be noted and pinned on the bulletin board in the flight room. If anyone has any suggestions for destinations, please feel free to bring them to my attention.
And just a couple of side notes.
Please remember to bring a tow bar. Because we are unsure of the parking spots available at some of the destinations, the tow bar is a great help in getting the aircraft parked and saves on the wear and tear and minimizes damage the aircraft is subjected to when being man handled into position.
If you can do so in advance, try and arrange your seats with fellow club members because sometimes the seating is limited now that we only have two Club aircraft available. Seating is dependent on how many members who have their own aircraft show up for the event too.
Also, as a reminder to those who do manage to get a lift with the club members who have their own airplane or members using a club airplane, the costs are coming out of their pockets and contrary to what you might think, they don’t fly for free and neither should you think you can too –if you get my drift…..
Fly smart, fly safe,
Bob Robertson
