Canadian Content Tops EAA “Most-Read” Articles

January 2017 - Not surprisingly, events at AirVenture Oshkosh 2016 made the list of the most-read articles on the EAA website. Our Canadian readers will find it especially satisfying that the Martin Mars and the Snowbirds were first and second most-popular articles. The Martin Mars outpaced all other articles by a factor of three. It certainly was breathtaking to see the water bomber dumping 7,200 gallons of water over the runway at Wittman Field. The Martin Mars owned by Coulson Flying Tankers is based at Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The Canadian Forces Snowbirds were gracious in attending an ice cream social at the EAA Canada Tent, and you can find superb videos produced by one of their own, Capt. Matciej Hatta (call sign “Match,” hence Match Productions). This video sums up an extremely busy year for the Snowbirds, and one of my personal favourites is the excitement expressed by the Snowbird pilots on arriving at Oshkosh. Every time they pass over the runways, they say things like “Holy smokes” and “Whoa, that’s a lot of airplanes.”

The Century Flight Club has announced its summer 2017 flight plan. This year the destination is the Okanagan. A preview of their potential fly-out destinations includes Penticton, Nelson, and the Flying-U Ranch. If you are interested in signing up for this cross-country adventure, go to the Century Flight Club website.

By the time you read this, we will be well into January and bracing for the coldest weather of the season. According to the Canadian Farmer’s Almanac, we should be expecting colder than normal temperatures. On the other hand, according to the latest Environment Canada forecast, from Ontario to the Maritimes, we should expect warmer than normal temperatures. Does anyone apart from meteorologists ever look back and check on how good or bad the forecasts were? When we get to April, we’ll know what the weather really did. But hopefully you will all be able to get in some aviation activities before then, whether it’s actual flying in Canada, working on a project in your hangar or basement, or visiting Sun ’N Fun like your editor will be.

Please feel free to forward this e-newsletter to your friends and encourage them to subscribe, which they can do by clicking here.

Our past editor, Jack Dueck, has a set of skis for sale for a Cessna 172. You can contact him at jackpdueck@gmail.com if you want more information.

We always seem to receive enough original content to make this monthly newsletter interesting, but we'd love to have more. It would be great to have some articles in the pipeline for future months. Some suggestions for future articles might be “Aircraft I have flown,” “Places I’ve been,” “Dumb things I did when building my aircraft,” “Neat things I learned when I built my aircraft,” or “Why I’d never build an aircraft again!” How about you readers who fly certified aircraft? You probably have ideas on articles. Maybe you’d like to write about your implementation of the EAA STC for the Dynon EFIS D10-A. Maybe there is an avionics expert out there who would like to write an article on horrors you’ve seen in homebuilt aircraft, or something as simple as how to correctly wire magnetos to the ignition switch!

Hint: We've had some fine articles that are a quick read that take nothing more than a couple of paragraphs in an e-mail, a few photos attached as “attachment files,” rather than embedded as “pictures,” with suggested captions, and your EAA membership number. We have our own way of formatting content, so the less energy you spend on it, the better we like it.

Have a safe, healthy, and happy 2017.