Pacifics Pilots/King George flying group Christmas lunch

It's getting to be that time again group. I have booked the tables for our Christmas lunch, Noon on Sunday  December 13 at the Big Ridge pub, same place as the past three years. Everyone is welcome, pilots and non-pilots. Bring your friends.

It's dutch treat again meaning that you order your own lunch and pay for it. We are hoping for a great turnout again this year. See you there.

James.

New Aviation News Journal Magazine Nov/Dec 2015 is ready - ENJOY

You can access the new copy here via : www.tinyurl.com/ANJMagzter,

(actual PDF copy is too big to post here)

Enjoy!
TEAM ANJ and Elke Robinson
aviationnewsjournal@live.com
604.897.4749

Lunch in Bamfield

Bamfield is located in BC along the Pacific Rim National Park at the southern entrance to Alberni Inlet. 89km South West of Port Alberni, the area is a mecca for sports fishermen chasing giant Chinook Salmon, or gargantuan halibut. It is also the northern terminus of the 77km West Coast Trail, which attracts serious hikers from all over the world, and there is also some commercial whale watching operations in the area.

With the demise of the commercial fishing and the forestry industry in the 1990's, tourism has become king. The only large employer is the Bamfield Marine Research Centre, which is undergoing a $12-million dollar expansion.

The village, which is accessible only by grinding gravel road, by sea, or by air, lies on both sides of Bamfield Inlet, a narrow stretch of water with houses, lodges, shops, and sundry businesses clinging to both shores. It is an idyllic scene, almost like a Hollywood set except that is not contrived.

Our Pacific Pilot flying group had been thinking about a trip to Bamfield for some time, and after reading the stories about the millionaire owner of the Bamfield airstrip who was supposed to be renovating and improving the airfield, we were intrigued and determined to check it out.

So, on a bright sunny in June, two airplanes headed out from our home base at King George Airpark, flew through Vancouver Harbour, along the Sunshine Coast to Half Moon Bay, and crossed the strait to Vancouver Island, over Qualicum Beach and direct to the strip at Bamfield. The trip could not have been better, with smooth air and high ceilings. I was co-pilot to my buddy Greg Stump in his Tecnam, and Darrell and Sharon were flying their Eurofox.

We had heard that the gravel strip was fairly rough, but a couple thousand feet long which is more than enough for our Advanced Ultralight aircraft. Although I did not pace the strip, I believe it is not quite that long as both airplanes were on the brakes to stop before the end of the usable part of the strip.

Once on the ground, we decided to walk the 2.2km into town although there was a taxi in the form of a lady driven full size van. Price for a run into town, $15.00. Before our walk we checked in at the customs shack at the terminal building. Not sure what the story is with the customs office.

When we arrived in town, after a nice walk through the trees, we started looking for somewhere to have lunch and we were advised that there was a nice boardwalk Bistro on the other side of the inlet that served great salmon dishes. We had to call for a boatman to ferry us across the inlet and met with Dane Stabel, our ride across the bay. A very interesting guy and no ordinary boatman, Dan was born in NWT, and moved to Bamfield in 2005. He says he will never leave. Dane has a bachelor of Science in Biology, and a Masters of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria (UVIC). A very interesting and knowledgeable guy, Dan is an underwater photographer and videographer, and travels the BC coast working on fisheries and other projects. He is planning to write a book on the area one day. Dane also runs and owns GPO Charters, a Kayak rental and charger business in town. I would highly recommend anyone visiting who needs a guide or charter to call Dane.

The Bistro was idyllic. The salmon burgers were superb. Good food and great company. It doesn't get much better than this.

After a great lunch and a walk along the beach back to where we were being picked up for our ride back to the other side of the inlet, we called our water taxi and enjoyed another trip across the inlet. Dane had left a 2-way radio in a telephone box on the boardwalk so we could call him for the return trip and he arrived a few minutes after we called. Not that were in a hurry to leave.

Because the day was so nice, we elected to walk off some of our lunch calories on the couple of kilometers back to the airstrip rather than call the taxi.

We checked out our birds and took off for home base back at King George Airpark, but taking a different route back. What a great flight back along the west coast of Vancouver Island, through Victoria's zone and across the strait to White Rock.

The trip to Bamfield was one of the most enjoyable trips our flying group has taking this year. There were only four of us on this one as it was one of those days where everyone seemed to have something else to do. I for one will be going back to Bamfield. Maybe we can scare up a larger group next time. There is some interest among the group for flying in for an over-night stay so we can explore the historic area. I'm in!


Written by: James Shepherd
Photography by Sharron Toorenburg and Darrell Zimmerman.

Announcement by Aviation News Journal Magazine

Dear Pilots, Readers and Aviation Enthusiasts

Great  news and excitement all around:

My time as your Publisher/Editor in Chief/Owner of Aviation News Journal Magazine was simply AWESOME!

As new  and  spectacular chances  have presented  themselves to me , it is now my time to move on and make space for a new Publisher/Editor In Chief/Owner of this extra ordinary publication!

These last four years were filled with forging new friendships around the world, sharing photos and stories of your flying adventures and articles from  your aviation explorations…Aviators are “grand peoples” - after all , pilots love pilots, wherever you go!

Aviation News Journal Magazine is  now  offering YOU this outstanding  and exciting adventure of a lifetime as the new Publisher/Editor In Chief/Owner !

For more details ,  please  contact elke@aviationnewsjournal.com

Much  light and laughter , blue skies and  happy landings along the way!

P.S.: Stay tuned for the new re-launch soon!

  
Elke Robinson
Publisher/Pilot/Editor/Owner of ANJ
www.tinyurl.com/ANJMagzter
+604.897.4749

A smiling plane that flew on 10-10-2015 one of hundreds participating in the first W.U.F.I

the World Ultralight Fly In
The weather did not cooperate on that Saturday here on the coast of B.C. so that was to bad  , but better next time on  01-10-2016 this world record attempt will go again so lets hope that the weather God's smarten up , and again Ultralights from all over the world will share the same sky on the same day .
Now I was abit surprised that here in South Surrey where we have the largest Ultralight community in western Canada
only 2 party's ( pilots) had committed , and pinned them selfs on a map to participate in this event
have a look at the facebook photo page ( wufi photo page) and see the hundreds of pilots that have participated this year .
so I hope that next year we can all join the other Ultralight pilots in the World in this wonderful
event
Ron Smit

Flight to Tofino & Vargas Island

Hi Aviators,

This isn't good.

We are planning a trip to Tofino this Saturday Sept.26.  We need to go retrieve the Chinook that has taken residency at CYAZ for 3 weeks now due to a cracked muffler bracket.

CYAZ

We will fly out in the morning to CYAZ, get the Chinook fixed up, and do a quick hop over to Vargas Island to relax for a while and have a picnic lunch before heading home.



Last May's Vargas Fly In

Anyone interested in joining us, send me an e-mail and I'll keep you updated with departure/arrival times. dcbianchi12@gmail.com

WUFI World Ultralight Fly-In

WUFI World Ultralight Fly-In
this sounds like fun great initiative

Middletown Ultra-Cool Flying Contest - Dayton Ultralights

Back to the old day,s of toilet roll drops at king George

looking  for a name for her ,a  new( to us) beaver rx 550 to go on amphibious  floats

Bob and Ron

2015 99's Poker Run

Photo Credit: BC Coast 99's

In all my years of flying, I had never done the famous 99's Poker Run, but I have wanted to participate every year ever since I learned about it, over 10 years ago. Sadly though, every year I couldn't join in on the fun, either due to a lack of aircraft or lack of having the right days off work. 

With great luck, the stars aligned for me this year! The Jodel was healthy and raring to go, and I was organized enough to have booked the day off work. The poker run is an exciting fundraiser put on by the BC Coast 99's. The 99's work tirelessly to encourage young women to follow their dreams of becoming pilots. They raise money to put together scholarships for prospective pilots, as well as encourage the fun and fellowship of flight, and that is where the Poker Run comes in. 

The way you play this interesting game of poker is, you start at any one of the participating airports, Victoria (CYYJ), Nanaimo (CYCD), Squamish (CYSE), Boundary Bay (CZBB), Delta Heritage Air Park (CAK3), Pitt Meadows (CYPK), Abbotsford (CYXX), Langley (CYNJ), and Chilliwack (CYCW) and you fly to four more airports, collecting playing cards to build poker hands and whoever has the best hand at the end of the day wins the top prize. 

Then, in descending order the next best hands gets to pick their prize, and this continues until all the prizes are handed out. It's not as easy as you may think. There are more details to how the game is played. At the beginning of the game you decide how many hands you are going to buy. Either 2 hand for $10.00, or 5 for $20.00 (some planeloads have quite a few hands - Betters their chances to win prizes!). Each hand is given to you as a blank sheet with a grid of boxes that correspond with each playing card value. You fly from one airport to the next and go to a little tent where you pick a card from a bin full of cards all face down, "Go Fish" style. The first card you pick gets recorded on your first hand sheet, and then you pick another card and it gets recorded on your second hand sheet and you keep doing this until all your hands have a card recorded. That way they keep us all honest is by using specially selected stamps at each airport. The stamps have images of animals such as elephants, birds, deer, etc. When you're done at one airport, you fly to the next airport and go through the same process until you have five cards randomly selected for each hand. 

Photo Credit: BC Coast 99's

The morning of the Poker Run also coincided with the Delta Air Park Pancake Breakfast, so David B met me at CAK3 where we had breakfast and discussed our plan of action for the Poker Run. With CAK3 being a participating location, we registered and got our first hands before even moving the Jodel out of the hangar. Yes, the double David's would be doing the Poker Run together in the Jodel.

From CAK3 we took off and made the long trek westward to Boundary Bay Airport. We picked our cards quickly, got our hands stamped, and jumped back in the Jodel; next stop Langley Airport. 

We parked the plane, found the 99's tent, had a wonderful chat with the volunteers there, picked our cards, got stamped, and then blasted off for Abbotsford. Abbotsford was rather busy, but we were able to find parking, did the deed, then headed for Chilliwack. At this stop we decided to have lunch, and pie of course. We were clearly not alone in arranging Chilliwack to be our lunch stop.

The apron was full of airplanes, and the airport restaurant was packed with patrons. Our idea was to then fly right over the mountains to Squamish to say hello to Collette and the gang at Glacier Air, but as we consumed our lunch we realized that time was not on our side and we'd be cutting it close just getting to Pitt Meadows in time for the meet up and prize draws. 

So, sadly we had to scrap our plans of flying to Squamish. Arriving at Pitt Meadows, we finally had time to breath, and to look at the poker hands we had built up. Out of my five hands, I only managed to scrape together one hand with a pair of fours. Otherwise the rest of my hands were a Jack high or worse. David B faired only slightly better. Astonishingly though, some participants had great luck with picking cards and some had put together some amazing hands that would even win against the pros in televised poker tournaments!
 

Photo Credit: BC Coast 99's

 Some of the prizes included an annual inspection at Coast Dog Aviation, introductory ultralight flights at King George Aviation, a BBQ set from Johnston Meier Insurance, one hour in the sim at Classic Aviation, $100 in Avgas, tickets to Vancouver Canadians baseball games, whitewater rafting, instrument and avionics work at Maxcraft Avionics, and underwater egress training at Pro Aviation Safety Training, among other great items. As the winners were being announced there was a BBQ that was a bit of a fundraiser for the Aero club of BC there that many people were enjoying, and David and I would have too, had we not filled ourselves up at Chilliwack Airport less than an hour before.

It was really great getting to meet so many wonderful aviators and continually bump into them as we flew from airport to airport while on the Poker Run. Even though we didn't win anything, we had a fantastic time, and we will absolutely be playing again next year!

Until next time, fly safe and fly smart.

Written by: David McIntosh