Bits and Pieces

- for Aviation and Canada

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Welcome to Bits and Pieces, EAA's e-newsletter and monthly information digest for builders and fliers in Canada. Its name honours the people and the place where amateur-built aircraft first found a home in Canada. Back in October of 1955, Goderich, Ontario resident Keith Hopkinson carried out the first flight of a "registered amateur-built aircraft, CF-RAD" in Canada, after a year of building a modified version of the Stits Playboy, which he fondly called Lil' Hoagy. Working closely with Keith, Paul Poberezny, then president of EAA, convinced the Department of Transport to allow amateur-built aircraft to fly in Canada. Gus Chisholm built the second Canadian-registered amateur built aircraft, CF-RAC, a Baby Ace called Bits and Pieces.

Meet the Editor

My name is Ian Brown. I’m 62 years old, retired, and I live in Bromont, Quebec. I was raised in England and left at age 34 for a job in Waukesha, Wisconsin, not too far from KOSH, our mecca. I was a regular visitor to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh before it was called that. In 1990 I moved to Guelph, Ontario, and spent 18 years travelling the breadth of Canada on business. I got to know a lot of airports and hotels and restaurants close by, but I can’t exactly claim to have done a lot of touring on my own time.

My work was in the marketing of nuclear medicine products to medical specialists and nuclear physicists, so I may know your local hospital better than your airport. I retired at the end of 2007 and moved to Bromont so that my wife can be with people who speak her mother tongue for a change. It has been a great opportunity to brush up on my English schoolboy French. Hint - it’s different!

I own an RV-9A which I built over eight years (including a couple of house moves and a busy job). I went from a single-car garage, then to a very large basement, then to a warmer single-car garage, then to a well-heated hangar. I can probably say quite a lot about the differences in these locations, but I’ll resist the temptation. There have been several recent articles about workshop choices, and I don’t think I have much to add.

It still blows me away that I can step into an aircraft I built with my own hands and fly until my bladder tells me to pull over. I don’t fly as much as I’d like to, so I’m looking forward to going to more fly-ins next season. I flew halfway to Oshkosh in 2011 before weather sent us home again. Maybe 2012 will be the year of the Fisk approach for C-GOHM. Read more about Ian | Contact Ian