| Piper PA-28-151 Archer at the Alexandria Fly-in, 2004 |
This page was last updated on Thursday, 17 May 2012
Flight 8 News
COPA Flight 8's curling team finished in the money at the 2012 Air Traffic Control Bonspiel. The team was runner up in section B. Flight 8 Captain Mike Shaw provided some photos of the action.
Read the complete story on the Flight 8 blog.
Click to enlarge
COPA Flight 8 members Michael Dixon and Nathalie Huard went to a ski fly-in held at Wendover, Ontario 18 February 2012. Wendover is located in the rural area between Ottawa and Montreal, near the Quebec border. Michael and Nathalie report:
Claude Roy organized a few Challenger meetings/fly-ins. This one was last Saturday, the 18th, at Wendover, Ontario. We dropped in to say hello and were impressed with the group, the place (especially the sloped runway to the river) and the number of Challengers present!
Here are some of Nathalie's photos from the event:
Click to enlarge
Once again COPA Flight 8 members Michael Dixon and Nathalie Huard were at the Chateau Montebello, Quebec, on 4-5 February for one of the earliest flyins of the year.
Michael said of the event:
Saturday was a perfect winter day. Many Challengers were present as well as a few larger birds! Snow conditions were great and the Vintage Wings fly-by was much appreciated by the crowd.
Here is a selection of the photos Nathalie took of the fly-in:
Click to enlarge
COPA Flight 8 members Michael Dixon and Nathalie Huard attended a small fly-in on the Ottawa River, early in January 2012.
This may qualify as the first fly-in of 2012!
Click to enlarge
COPA Flight 8 members Michael Dixon and Nathalie Huard went to the 2011 Reno Air Races and it turned out to be a momentous occasion.
Michael commented:
2011 will be a year to remember. Started with the tornado at Sun n' Fun and ended with the crash at Reno...This was Nathalie’s first time at the races and after a full day of photography she had just commented how great the event was. We then witnessed the horrible crash. As you probably all know the races were cancelled. So we drove the rental to Tahoe lake, Trucky and Virginia city and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The races will be held this year and Nathalie and I will probably attend (just love those big radials!)
Here are some of the photos they took at Reno in 2011:
Click to enlarge
COPA Flight 8 webmaster Adam Hunt attended the 2011 Carleton Place Fly-in held at the Carleton Place Aerodrome on 10 September 2011. The fly-in is an invitational event hosted by the Carleton Place Flying Club (COPA Flight 121) and focuses on ultralights, especially Quad City Challengers.
This year the weather was perfect, with temperatures reaching about 21°C, light winds and clear skies. The event brought in about 22 Challengers, including a rare (at least in Canada) single seat Challenger I. Many of the Challengers seem to be sporting "nose art" these days, in an informal competition to out-do each other. Most Challengers were on wheels, with a few equipped with amphibious floats. One Challenger arrived with wheel-skis on. I guess he can't wait for winter to arrive!
There were also an equal number of non-Challengers, including an unusual American Aerolights Falcon XP canard, two helicopters, a few amateur-builts and even some certified aircraft.
Because still photos don't quite capture the action at a fly-in Adam also put together a video of some of the highlights of the event.
Click to enlarge
COPA Flight 8 Captain Mike Shaw attended the 2011 Stanley Fly-in held at the Stanley Airport. The fly-in is held every Labour Day weekend.
Mike sends this report on the event:
Kevin [Psutka] and I returned from Stanley last night, to beat the bad wx. I had a great time. Stayed at Ernie Mclean's place first night, his Scottsfield CCF9 was too soft for us to use, so we had to go to Fredericton. At Stanley Kevin and I shared a room in Windsor's Super 8 Motel. We flew with Ron and Carol Cook, often in formation. Kevin just loves formation stuff. He even let me try it, but he kept the throttle (to save the turbo). Could be stressful and tiring, but in calm air it seemed to work ok. Rob Erdos was there with Vintage Wing's Harvard.
Stanley was great. Lots of nice people and airplanes.
Click to enlarge
Every July 1st the Rockcliffe Flying Club holds a fly-in breakfast to celebrate Canada Day in the nation's capital. In recent years the event has been lightly attended with only six fly-in aircraft showing up in both 2009 and 2010. This year the weather was perfect, warm and sunny with light winds and the fly-in did a bit better with about ten aircraft attending.
As in past years Adam Hunt and Ruth Merkis-Hunt attended the fly-in, cycling there from South Keys and shot some photos and a video.
• Video of the highlights of the 2011 Rockcliffe fly-in
Click to enlarge
COPA Flight 8 Captain Mike Shaw attended the Wings and Wheels show that was held on 18 June 2011 at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum at Rockcliffe Airport. He reports:
By far the largest group of exhibitors were the Ford Mustang group, I think from Montreal. There were more wheels than wings in attendance. Not a big crowd but great day.
Mike took some great photos of the event, including Patrick Gilligan's RV-8, The Rockcliffe Flying Club's Super Decathlon that is used for tailwheel training and aerobatics and some interior and cockpit photos of the Canadair North Star that is undergoing restoration at the museum.
Click to enlarge
