Power Gets You There
This is the Cessna 172, C-GPKF, the club plane of my current club, the Tri-County Flying Association, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. As of April, 1999, the above colors will change drastically. The red will be duck teal. The control panel and seat covers will be replaced with new ones as well as other improvements.
Soaring is a sport and always interesting when flying. Power flying can be boring but it will get you from one place to another. I had never intended to take up power flying, but I found the winters unbearable because I could not fly.. Bad enough that the Ottawa area is very cold, and gets tons of snow (in 1972 we had 178 inches), but to not be able to fly was really terrible. So I decided to go for it. I joined the Rockcliffe Flying Club in February of 1974. Because my wife Marge will not fly in small planes (she hates the big ones too) I only wanted to fly locally for fun and to make the odd flight to North Bay to visit my mother. I had my first lesson on the 3rd of February 1974.

Normally first flights are half hour flights with the instructor doing most of the flying. Because I had 210 hours in gliders by this time the instructor never touched a thing during our entire start up to shut down, 1.7 hours. Most of the flight was in the practice area and then we headed back to the runway. When I turned onto final I said, "My God, we'll never get down from here". The instructor said that all glider pilots said that. Most gliders have the brake control at the end of the spoiler pull. You haul back on the lever and after touching down use a bit of pressure and start to brake. I rounded out and touched down on the pavement and immediately heard a terrible screeching noise followed by a second one. The first was because I had both feet tightly on the rudder pedals, including the top portions which are the brakes. The second was the instructor screaming at me to get off the brakes. I did and we went around again. From that time on I always made sure that my heels were touching the floor until after touching down.


I didn't use the radio much in gliders and when the control tower spoke to us I would immediately say to the instructor, "What did he say? What did he say?" After I got my licence I took a friend up for a flight. As we were taxiing out to the runway the tower called me with the message that there was a forest fire 30 miles north and if I was going in that area to watch for water bombers. My friend immediately said, "What did he say? What did he say?"

The club had a number of Cessna 150's and later we got two Grumman American Travellers (AA5). It is a low wing plane and was my favourite. I loved to fly it. Eventually the club sold them because most students had landing problems with them. The prop is close to the ground and you round off more gently (like in a glider) and lower the nose very slowly. If you don't the prop will clip the pavement, as it did with many of the students.


Rockcliffe - - - - - - Grumman AA5 - - - - - - Grumman AA5
I don't have any pictures that I took at Rockcliffe. The three above were taken by friends that I took up as passengers. The first one shows the Rockcliffe airport on the landing approach. It was taken from the right seat. The tower is on the right side, half way down the runway. The clubhouse is on the left a little further. The parallel taxi strip to the left shows club planes on the left of the strip, the full length. That is a lot of aircraft.

The center picture is myself in the cockpit of the AA5. It can be seen how low the fuselage is to the ground and how close the prop tip will go. In the right picture I am standing on the wing of the AA5. One thing I liked about this particular aircraft was the ID, GDR, which is a short form for glider.


In March of 1977 the club leased a Citabria, the type of plane we preferred for towing gliders. I had a few lessons flying it. On May 27th I had my first tow check at GGC. I towed the glider with a regular tow pilot with me. After four checks I started towing solo. I enjoyed towing almost as much as flying the gliders. It meant getting the glider up and finding a thermal for the pilot so that he could release and start climbing right away. Then you get down fast to get the next glider hooked and away. On release the tow plane would dive to the left and the glider would climb to the right, to get out of each other's way, and to pull the towline away from the glider. Because the engine gets quite hot during a tow the pilot has to keep full power on at first, after release,  and then ease back on the throttle as the engine temperature came down. To get back fast I would look for sinking air and put the plane up on its wing tip in a circle. You could come down at 2000' a minute.

On landing the tow pilot has to watch for gliders in the circuit (their's is tighter than the tow plane's) and if on final he spotted a glider anywhere in the circuit, or was warned by radio, he would then do a wide 360 degree turn away from the circuit. Sometimes he would just line up again and another glider would start his circuit, so another 360.

 
TO Signal - - - - - - Taking OFf - - - - - - Back for Next
The first picture was taken in my second year during the Canadian National Championship meet. I am waving the tow plane off as I walk backwards. For each take off there are two persons required outside the aircraft. One holds the glider wing tip level. When the glider pilot completes his cockpit check he gives the wing man a thumb's up. The wing man then starts passing his hand back and forth and hanging down. The tow plane man repeats the signal to the tow pilot who then accelerates very slowly to take up the slack in the rope. As it comes taut the wing man continues his arm swing over his head and the tow plane man repeats, indicating full power for take off.

The second picture show a tow plane and glider as they start to climb together. The flight line can be seen in the background with a number of aircraft and the field manager, helpers and pilots. The third picture shows the tow plane landing. He has just released the rope which can be seen over the glider at the right middle of the shot. The rope end nearest to the tow plane has a steel ring that was attached to the plane.

All take offs are from the ashphalt runway and the landings on the grass strip beside it. The paved runway is much better for take offs while the grass is easier on the tires, glider skids and wing tips.