Obits, Drones, and Oshkosh

March 2024 –It’s time to salute two Canadian aviation legends. You’ll read Mike Davenport’s obituary to his dear long-term friend, Werner Griesbeck, and Marilyn Bruinsma’s memorial to “Hoppy” Hopkinson who died tragically 60 years ago this month. To balance this, we have new content about new opportunities. If you weren’t already aware of it, the burgeoning drone world is overtaking the rest of aviation. Michael Martin’s article is fascinating and explains why we should not be unhappy that TC is trying to balance the freedom to fly drones with the need to regulate them.

I checked fairly recently, and the volunteer awards mentioned in Michelle Holt’s article are definitely open to Canadian members. Since volunteerism is so strong in our aviation community in Canada, how about taking the time to pick your favourite volunteer and proposing them for an award? Women are especially honoured with the Dorothy Hilbert award, so why not propose two candidates while you’re at it?

Thanks to Raquel Lincoln, Michael Martin, Mike Davenport, Marilyn Bruinsma, Michelle Holt, and John Wyman, our contributors this month. If you see them, thank them for their efforts. 

If you feel you have anything to contribute, please drop me a line at newsletter.EAACC@gmail.com. It could be brief, but ideally it would have something like 500-1,000 words and some special photos. It’s helpful if you provide a description with the photos, although I have been known to just make wild guesses!

Are you working on an aviation-related project? How about writing a couple of sentences about it? It could just be in the text of an email with some pictures attached.

Enjoy this month’s Bits and Pieces. Fair flying weather wishes to you all.