A Day I'll Never Forget

This article was republished in the Vernon Flying Club Hangar News. Posted at Jill's request. Images are available in the newsletter, available here (PDF file).


Today is a day that, as long as I live, I will never forget.

I was out flying my 1947 Luscombe 8E, shooting aerial photos for work near Ridgetown, Ontario, when for some unknown reason my airplane started yawing side to side without any control inputs from me. This was not something that I have ever had a plane do to me before. I started “playing” with the rudder pedals, they felt unstable and over reactive. It was very difficult to maintain control of the uncontrollable side to side motions and I was only able to get some control back by holding a lot of pressure on both rudder pedals. It was at this point that it became apparent to me that this was not something I wanted to be trying to fix while flying at 100 mph, in a plane that was nearly sixty years old.

I immediately started looking for a suitable field to land in, while at the same time making a distress radio call to London Flight Service, to which I got no response! There were many fields below me, all of which were full of 6 foot tall corn, nothing I wanted to attempt a landing in. I used my GPS and located the Highgate airfield just less then 5 NM north of where I was and after struggling through a turn towards the airfield I initiated contact with another aircraft in the area who relayed my distress call to Flight Service. As I got sight of the airfield my elevator controls started to be affected by what ever was going wrong in the tail section, I was no longer able to hold the nose in a steady position. With constant pitching up and down, right and left, I attempted to make a slight left hand turn to do a straight in approach to the North facing runway. It would have no part of this so I started a turn to the right in order to come all the way around and line up with the
runway. The runway was nothing short of perfect, straight into a 10 knot wind, 100 feet wide and way longer than I would ever need.

Once I was on short final and had the engine at idle I realized I was doing more then 100 mph and was only 100 feet from the ground! I immediately pulled the carb heat on, and turned one magneto off in attempt to slow the engine. I realized that I was flying a plane that had no flaps, and no useful rudder to help me slow
down in a slip. Remarkably the landing was uneventful. Once on the ground I made one last radio call to the aircraft relaying the messages “I’m safely on the ground”. I then took a deep breath followed by a huge sigh of relief.

 Once the initial drama of making an emergency landing was over, I had to get my disabled airplane off the runway and figure out what the hell went wrong. A quick inspection of the tail section I found that the vertical fin and rudder assembly was loose and able to lean freely from side to side about 14“. I removed the damaged inspection covers and discovered the whole assembly was being held on by only two rivets at the
front and the lower most rudder hinge bolt at the rear. I suspect that they both only had a minute or two of stress left before they would have given way as well. Had this been the case it would have left me with no longitudinal control, a situation that I am not so sure I would be here to describe.

 After investigation of my aircraft by my mechanic and the Transport Canada Safety Board, it was determined that the rear fin attachment spar had cracked and failed, thus causing the fin to move and break the other fin mounts. The rudder and levitator were also bent from these unusual fin movements.

Lucky… I think so!

Posted in AvCanada 1 Sep 2006

The Transport Canada take can be read here:
 http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/certification/continuing-alert-2005-09-678.htm

Beyond the Weather Brief Course - 8 & 9 February 2014 - Medicine Hat AB

Posted at Jill's request:

I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be one of the hosts for the upcoming AvWx Workshops that will be held in Medicine Hat, AB (CYXH). We managed to convince Scott http://avwxworkshops.com/ that coming to Canada in February was a good idea.

Super T Aviation will be providing the facility and great hospitality and I will be helping as needed. Price is $350 per person, lunch will be included, plan on a 10:00 am start on Saturday and to be done around 3:00 pm on Sunday. We will get a good group rate (less than $80.00/night) at one of our local Days Inn and will assist in getting folks back and forth. If it's a little snowy and/or cold as people plan on leaving on Sunday we will try our best to get the planes inside so that they are warm and dry. Medicine Hat airport has scheduled air service so runway surfaces are usually good, and also has full IFR approaches.

Jan 5 is our early registration date and we hope to have at least 20 people registered. We will not take more than 30 so class size doesn't get too big.

Attached is a poster on the event, please feel free to pass it on. I have been wanting to take this course for several years but always had trouble getting the dates and times to work so I arranged to bring the course to Medicine Hat. It really is an ideal course for IFR flyers, those who are challenged by weather making decisions like icing, turbulence and thunderstorms.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or to register, my cell is 403.928.4909 and my e-mail is dkthompson@cciwireless.ca.

Sincerely,

Doug Thompson

Lyncrest Christmas Events

Springfield Flying Club

Santa Visit and Potluck Supper

Saturday 7 December 2013

Lyncrest Airport, Winnipeg

Santa flies in to Lyncrest, 10:30 am 

Potluck dinner 5:30 pm

eAPIS and DTOPS Demystified

Shoal Lake Flying Club

eAPIS and DTOPS Filing Demystified

Saturday 14 December 1 pm

Shoal Lake Airport, Manitoba

Soup and a bun available from noon. Please register as described in the poster.

Shoal Lake Airport on Google Maps

Chris Hadfield Book Tour

Wednesday 13 November 2013

7 pm to 10 pm

McNally Robinson Booksellers

1120 Grant Ave, Winnipeg

http://chrishadfield.ca/

Chris will also be at the Winnipeg Free Press News Café on the 13th, from 4 pm to 5 pm. His appearance will be streamed on line here: http://new.livestream.com/WinnipegFreePressNews/events/2524264.

No other Manitoba or nearby dates have been announced yet.
http://chrishadfield.ca/booktour/

If you're not already following Chris Hadfield on Twitter, you can see his feed here: https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield

RAA Tour to Grand Forks and Minot 

1 - 3 November 2013

Nov 1-2-3rd RAA “Project/Hangar Tour” to Winnipeg – Grand Forks – Minot, North Dakota…with stops at interesting projects and aircraft collections along the way and shopping for your partners. A few of the projects, planes and people we’ll meet (details with addresses will be available for those who let me know they are coming):


Draft Itinerary – exact times and locations TBC

Nov 1st – Morning, Grand Forks projects TBA

Nov 1st – Maddock - Bob and Sherry Engkvist Starduster “a project in a builder’s desert”!,

Nov 1st – Velvo - Larry Linrud’s 1929 Arrow Sport, Monocoupe, Kit Helicopter,

Nov 2nd –Minot – Don Larson, Dakota Territory Air Museum, http://www.dakotaterritoryairmuseum.com/

Nov 2nd –Minot – Warren Pietsch / Jethro Bodine, Pietsch Aviation Restorations http://pietschaircraft.com/

Nov 2nd –Minot – Kevin Rosenberg, Pietenpol

Nov 3rd – Morning, Garrison (45 min south of Minot), Breakfast with Darryl J and pilots from the area – P51, 52, Poterfield, Wolf Boredum Fighter, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir373DzZXo0, Fisher Celebrity…and more

Nov 3rd – Noonish, return to Winnipeg via Grand Forks (to do some shopping)


Partners welcome to come and take in some shopping;

Local pilots from North Dakota invited to join us along the way.

Check out last years "Hangar Tour" http://raatour2012.blogspot.ca/, and North Dakota pilots and builders, feel free to check out http://www.lyncrest.org/ to learn more about us and it would be awesome if you joined us for part or all of the tour (it's Free!!).

Pilot Decision Making Course

Lyncrest Airport

30 November 2013

9 am to 4 pm

The Springfield Flying Club at the Lyncrest airport will be holding its second annual PDM Course on 30 November at 0900.

Last year we had an informative presentation from Aaron of Harv's Air. This year we are very fortunate to have Tom Kissock leading us. Tom has a wealth of varied and valuable experience in aviation and will be giving us a very interesting and informative session. We are sure you will find this to be worthwhile and helpful in your daily flying.

This Pilot Decision Making session will fulfil Transport Canada re-currency requirements.

Refreshments will be served and we are lining up a door prize or two.

Cost will be $10.00 at the door.

Please register at: lyncrestpdm@gmail.com

Western Canada Aviation Museum Haunted Hangar 25 October 2013

An evening for the whole family with ghost stories, tricks and treats, and close encounters with the museum’s airplanes. The event is free to museum members and $6 for non-members. The event is free with the purchase of a 2014 family membership (cost: $50). Doors open at 5:30 pm; fun begins at 6:00 pm sharp. For information and reservations, call 204-786-0730 or email: programs@wcam.mb.ca by October 24, 2013. Visit our website for more information: wcam.mb.ca

Event webpage

Assiniboia Airport CJN4

Fly In Brunch

Saturday 5 October 2013

Fly or drive in. Breakfast $5.00, lunch $7.00. Please call if you're planning to attend.

Shoal Lake Flying Club

Fall Fly In Breakfast

Sunday Sept 29 2013, 8 am to 11 am

Regina Flying Club Poker Derby

September 8th, 2013 ( Rain date September 22nd, 2013 )

Time: 10:00 AM  3:00 PM

Destinations and number of cards handed out

Regina International ( CYQR )  2 cards

Regina/Aerogate ( CAG2 )  1 card

Disley ( CDSZ )  1 card

Moose .law Muni ( 0154)- 1 card

Assiniboia (  )  2 cards

Cards given out at each location upon landing. Fly to all 5 airports for 2 extra cards, hands submitted
must contain a total of 5 cards each. Hands must be submitted at Regina International Airport. Prizes
awarded for the best hands!

Entry Fee: $15.00 + $5.00 for an additional hand

Pieae R.S.V.P if possible, day-of entries 0K.

Sign up by emailing: pokerderby@reglnafiyingclub.ca

Donation of a Teddy Bear is greatly appreciated. Teddy bears must be between 8-12 inches and new in a

bag in order to give to a child admitted to a hospital.

Meal and good conversation to follow.

Antique Tiger Moth Rides

George Inman has posted videos at 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpRjzbMidvI

of his ride out of Lyncrest on The CATP Museum (Brandon)

restored Tiger Moth.

Rides are available. Contact Jill for more information.


View the Manitoba Aviation Events calendar.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is Coming to WCAM

The Commemorative Air Force's B-17 is coming to the Western Canada Aviation Museum this August. For more information, see http://wcam.mb.ca/rsvpmaker/flying-fortress-b-17-bomber-to-visit/.

Manitoba Aviation Calendar