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“You’re going to Canada to meet someone you met on the Internet?” Said with just the right amount of disbelief and amazement, this was my long-suffering wife’s response to my initial pitch. That I travel 7,500km or so merely to watch other people fly model planes? I’m sure other responses might have been more appropriate, but agreement did follow. On condition that another year I took her to see rather more of the country than a grass field and a smallish pond, preferably!
Chilliwack is about 100 km east of Vancouver, and is set in the beautiful Fraser River valley. I got there via Frank’s place on Vancouver Island, and travelled with him, Trevor and Mary Hewson (also over from England) and Beverley and Sam “Team Tracon” in a small convoy. The first evening we met the famous Ivan Pettigrew, Hal Norrish and Ron Dodd, the Fraser Valley Club Chairman, but the weather was too damp to fly much. The following morning I test flew the “Scooper” off the wet grass and we drove over to “The Pond” arriving in time for a master’s demonstration of precision flying by the 4 Solents, one at each quarter of a circle, each “touch and going” in front of the large audience. Soon everyone was flying and I got my first taste of flying from fresh water surrounded on 3 sides by trees. The fourth side has a clear downhill section which, when clear of spectators, makes a grand approach for a landing or a low pass.
The flying field was still wet that day but saw plenty of action, but the best weather was reserved for the Sunday when most of the 60 or so modellers flew. Canadians are nothing if not enthusiastic, and I was woken up before 0600 every day by the sound of brushless motors spinning around. Some of us lived on the site, and one of us, Glen Peden, was up with the lark at 6 and didn’t stop flying his Nieuport until after 9 at night when it really was too dark to see the runway.
I took my 48” span Depron Bombardier CL-215 Scooper as my hand luggage. It took apart into 7 major components to fit in the largest carry-on box I could take. The staff at Air Canada were very helpful and my trip though security could not have been simpler. I found a couple of rules sufficed: tell as many people as possible what you are doing, and stick to their rules while you are doing it. All sharps go in the hold, your batteries in your hand baggage and the model in its box must be immediately accessible if anyone wants to have a look. The security lady at Heathrow said “What’s in this box then – let’s have a look.” “It’s a model aeroplane” I said. “Oh, I’ve got one of those” she said. I knew I was home and dry!
The little Scooper flew well and we were rewarded on the Sunday by a fly-over of the real thing on a proving flight from ConAir at Abbotsford, where they are converting one of the piston-engined 215s to turboprop power: to a 215T in fact. We visited the airfield – just a few miles to the west – and got a fairly close look at the plane on the tarmac.
Trevor and Mary and I had a wonderful holiday and a superb time at Chilliwack. We were looked after as well as you could possibly hope, principally by Frank Jaerschky, his wife Lee Ann and their children and dogs and by Ivan Pettigrew and Rosella. Ivan took us on a couple of sight-seeing tours round the beautiful Fraser Valley area (the English Lake District, but huge), entertained us, let us fly his models, provided accommodation and from Rosella, a final picnic at Lake Chilliwack. We also met our on-line friends Sam and Beverly of Team Tracon, Luke and Sarah from Corvalis, Oregon, Glen Peden, Hal Norrish and many others, to whom very grateful thanks, all of you.
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