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Vol. 2, No.
1 January 2009
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| Welcome
to Bits and Pieces,
EAA's e-newsletter and monthly information digest for
builders and fliers
in Canada.
We encourage you to forward your copy to your
aviation friends and invite them to subscribe at the
link located at the bottom.
 2009
will see Canadian aviation celebrate 100 years of
powered flight. Simply incredible! From that first
pusher-canard to today's aircraft, aviation has become a
major factor and contributor to our culture and
existence. 2009 will see more advancement, more
innovation, and more challenges.
Our first Bits &
Pieces of this New Year highlights the appointment
of the newly re-structured EAA Canadian Council. We
introduce its five members with a brief bio on each.
Upcoming issues will tell more about each member, so we
can get to know them.
This month we're also
beginning a series on EAA's Canadian Chapters, starting
with our very own EAA Chapter 1410 High River. Ours is a
very active chapter with lots of activity and
excitement. In upcoming issues I want to introduce all
of the Canadian EAA chapters to you. Chapters are the
lifeline connecting your aviation passion with a
worldwide, recognized society with strength in its
members. We want to explore how we can make better use
of this resource!
In keeping with our
commitment to bring to you stories of people and
aeroplanes, see this month's article on the Tundra, a
kit-plane in the spirit of the 'True North'!
And finally, a request:
We need your help to make and keep this newsletter
current and relevant. Send your items of interest to cgyrv@yahoo.com
and we'll try to publish them. May you have a great
2009!
- Jack Dueck, Editor |
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| YOUR
EAA CANADIAN COUNCIL |
| On
December 22, 2008, we received notice of the appointment
of the following EAA members to the newly restructured
EAA Canadian Council. They are:
EAA President Tom
Poberezny announced the appointments, stressing that the
choices were difficult with the large number of highly
qualified applicants, and that the Council could have
been filled four times over!
These are your EAA
Canadian Council members. They have volunteered to serve
you, and their mandate is to help you get the most out
of EAA member benefits, while at the same time
communicating your needs and aspirations to EAA
headquarters so that the strength of this organization
can be applied to your interests. Get to know them and
let them get to know you. Volunteer you own efforts and
participate in advancing your own aviation interests in
this Centennial year.
Click on the names above
for brief bios, and look for more complete introductions
in upcoming issues of Bits & Pieces. |
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| UPDATE:
FIRST FLIGHT OF THE EPERVIER! |
 One
of our stories in the December 2008 issue of Bits and
Pieces featured the Epervier X1 C-FWMQ, an airplane
designed and built by 12 undergraduate mechanical
engineering students at the Université de Sherbrooke in
Quebec. About a week after that issue was e-mailed
(December 16), the airplane made its successful maiden
flight at Sherbrooke Airport. Read all about that great
achievement by our own Canadian students in a story
reported on the EAA
website. |
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| HELP
SAVE THE HAMPDEN |
 Heavy
snowfalls in late December caused considerable damage to
a rare Canadian Warbird at the Canadian Museum of Flight
in Langley, B.C. The museum's Handley Page Hampden, a
World War II bomber that was raised from the ocean
depths off Vancouver Island in 1985, suffered a
collapsed port wing under the weight of the snow. Click
here to read the museum's news release and view several
photos of the damage, which speak for themselves.
There's also information about how you can help in its
restoration. |
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TRANSPORT CANADA'S 406 MHZ
ELT REQUIREMENT MOVES FORWARD
|
 It's
official - Transport Canada is moving forward with a rule
requiring virtually all aircraft to have 406 MHz emergency
locator transmitters (ELTs) installed on most aircraft
operating in Canadian airspace within two years of
February 1, 2009. All aircraft other than gliders,
balloons, ultralights, parachute aircraft and a limited
number of other operations fall under the requirement.
Aircraft owners will need to replace their 121.5 MHz ELTs,
which search and rescue satellites are scheduled to stop
monitoring on February 1. TC anticipates at least a
two-year transition period in which a blanket exemption
would be in effect to allow the thousands of Canadian
aircraft to comply with the rule. The proposed exemption
would allow flight in Southern Canada (below 50° lat.
east of 80° long./below 55° lat. west of 80° long.)
with an installed 121.5 MHz ELT. Our EAA Canadian Council
chairman, Denis Browne, commented that the rule seems to
exceed those of other jurisdictions by requiring virtually
all aircraft to be so equipped," he said. "In
effect they are going further than any other jurisdiction
regarding non-commercial flights." Read
more
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EAA CHAPTER 1410, HIGH
RIVER
|
 It's
a warm, breezy Thursday evening in High River, Alberta.
We are at Hangar P11 at the regional airport getting
ready for the monthly EAA Chapter 1410 meeting. We have
arrived an hour before the meeting starts at 1900, to
move airplanes, set up chairs, and put out a simple
supper with beverages (as well as the cash dish!). Air
cadets have been using the hangar for their meetings and
as we clean up the notes on the whiteboard, visions
appear of young people enjoying all kinds of discussions
from flying and aircraft to public speaking. The flying
community at this airport is alive and well!
Read
more
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EAA SPORTAIR WORKSHOPS
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 It's
not too soon to start planning to attend one of these
popular workshops, where you can learn the basics to
amateur-aircraft building. We are reviewing which of the
several workshops (based on interest) we will offer this
spring. Preliminary plans are to hold the workshops on
April 4 & 5, 2009, at High River Regional Airport,
High River, Alberta. Courses to be offered include:
Sheet Metal Basics ·
Electronics/Avionics · Composite Construction · Fabric
Covering · Annual Inspection of your Homebuilt
To learn more about these
workshops, visit www.sportair.com.
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DREAM AIRCRAFT'S 'TUNDRA'
|
 We
are driving back to Montreal from Sherbrooke and our
meeting with mechanical engineering students and their 'Épervier'
project and we stop at Granby, Quebec, to see Dream
Aircraft Inc., manufacturers of the 'Tundra' aircraft.
Luc Premont, is obliging and waits for us, since it is
after hours, and willingly gives us an unhurried visit
to the large and well-equipped premises of the firm.
The Tundra is the
"dream" product of Yvan Desmarais, president
of D&G Manufacturing. This large, sheet metal
fabrication firm does a great deal of work for the
Telecommunication and Aerospace industries, and has the
latest CNC punching, cutting, and forming equipment.
Desmarais, a pilot and EAA member of many years, has
always had a utilitarian outlook for aviation use in
Canada's rugged regions. So after years of evaluations
and research, he brought a number of engineers and
designers together, and while keeping a critical focus
on the end product and its purpose, allowed the design
of the Tundra to develop. Read more |
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