Guess What Canadian Chapters Were Doing 50 Years Ago

June 2020 – Free breakfast fly-in. Whaaat? This must have been before chapters realized that fly-in breakfasts were a fundraiser for the chapter. Here is just a sampling of what Canadian chapters were up to in the summer months 50 years ago. Note that the world soaring championships were being held in Marfa, Texas, just ten days before the Canadian championships were held in Carman, Manitoba. — Ed.

JUNE 21—ST. THOMAS, ONTARIO, CANADA — EAA Chapter 112 Breakfast Fly-In. Free breakfast until 11:00 A. M. for those who fly in. Afternoon program and awards. Rain date June 28.

JUNE 21-JULY 4—MARFA, TEXAS — Twelfth World Soaring Championships, sponsored by Soaring Society of America, at Presidio County Airport.

JULY 14-23—CARMAN, MANITOBA, CANADA — Twenty-second Canadian National Soaring Championships.

JULY 18-19—ORILLIA, ONTARIO, CANADA — Canadian EAA Annual Fly-In; air show featuring Gene Soucy, Bob Lyjak, and Bob Heuer.
Contact Herb Cunningham at 16 Acre Heights Crescent, Scarborough, Ontario.

JULY 25—EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA — Klondike Breakfast Fly-In sponsored by EAA Chapter 30 and Edmonton Exhibition Association.
Awards for various pilots and aircraft. Contact George Chivers at Box 1233 in Edmonton, Alberta.

SEPTEMBER 5—CANADIAN AEROBATIC CONTEST — U.S. contestants invited. Contact Herb Cunningham, 16 Acre Hts. Cr., Scarboro, Ontario, Canada

And here is a letter from Lt. Col. George Reid to Paul Poberezny regretting having missed him when he spoke at Montreal's Chapter 266. He discusses the decision to relocate the annual EAA fly-in to Oshkosh. It's 50 years ago this year that EAA made that change, and by now, I'm sure we all agree that it was a stunning choice.

Dear Paul,

Last November I drove 270 miles one Saturday afternoon to attend the Chapter 266 banquet in Montreal at which you were speaking. To my regret I missed meeting you because early in the evening you were surrounded and at 12:30 A.M. when I had to depart for the 270-mile drive back home I couldn't locate you. I wanted to express personally my appreciation for, and admiration of, the tremendous effort you have put into the development of the EAA over the past 17 years. Perhaps one small way that I can find to express my thanks is to support completely your executive committee's decision to locate the 1970 Fly-In at Oshkosh. Before I finished Mr. Jackson's letter I was thinking of many reasons why the event had to be close to Milwaukee, and I found that in your editor's note you had listed them all and many more besides. The requirement for an experienced and dedicated staff must surely be the prime reason that the event cannot wander too far away from the Milwaukee area. Problems of communication with the airport and other representatives would be numerous if the event was to take place in a distant location.

If I, as a Canadian, may be allowed to assume that Kansas City is approximately in the center of the 48 states, keeping in mind our friends in Bangor and Bar Harbor, I am sure not too many west-coasters living in Southern California would mind the extra 300 or so miles from Kansas City to Oshkosh because they are such a dedicated bunch anyway. I am sure that Father John will blow in with CF-PEI, his new (?) de Havilland "Puss Moth", regardless of the location. I sympathize with Mr. Jackson if he is truly disgusted with the decision to locate at Oshkosh. I am sure that the reasons which you stated will do much to soothe his ruffled feelings.

George W. Reid, LCol. (EAA 14750)
14A Hewson Boulevard
Trenton, Ontario, CANADA