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Tisdale Air Rally
FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, July 29, 2011

Saturday, July 16th Tisdale Aviation Association/COPA Flight #93 held a Canada wide event. Many of the aircraft were on a cross Canada tour and Tisdale’s Air Rally was the only event of its kind on their itinerary. Most of the aircraft were from Ontario, there was one participant from Manitoba and one from Alberta while a few were from Saskatchewan. (Check out the list of planes and pilots.)

The aircraft involved were an interesting mixed bag of general aviation. The most common civil aviation aircraft is the Cessna 172 but not one participated in this rally. Instead there were several of the slightly larger and faster Cessna 182. Of those two were turbocharged and one was a retracting landing gear version. The lone Alberta participant was in a really nicely painted tail dragging Cessna 180. There were three Piper Cherokees, two with retractable gear. But the surprise to me was to see two fabric covered Pipers from the early 1950s. These were tough short winged machines but because they were fabric covered they were difficult to maintain and there are now about 2,000 left flying in North America. The bright red one at the top of this page is the conventional gear Pacer with its 135 horse powered Lycoming engine and four seats. The other was a two seat version of the tricycle gear of the same aircraft usually used as a trainer and called a “Colt”.

The owner of the red Pacer is Peter Lubig from Shanty Bay, Ontario. Peter is a professional aircraft photographer who criss crosses North American each summer attending aviation events. The owner of the Piper Colt is Ian Pristol of Lochin, Ontario. Ian is one of those pilots who loves to fly close to the ground, usually at 800 feet and his little Piper is perfect for that sort of flying. He told me he saw four moose coming over to Tisdale from Brandon on his Saturday morning flight to the rally. These two teamed up together to compete in the rally flying Ian’s two seater and they were the successful winners of the competition.

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The rally was a real challenge for the participants and the pilots and passenger/observers involved had a difficult task set out in the detailed route worked out by President David Lamb. Each aircraft took off on the rally at their specified time established by a draw. They were given GPS coordinents for the Harvest Valley Viterra terminal then on to a second waypoint also using GPS latitude Longitude descriptors. From then on the directions were in headings, sometimes magnetic compass headings, sometimes true headings. Along the way they had to find landmarks set out in a set of photographs and identify specific things during the trip. In case they got mixed up each package of documents included a sealed set of GPS waypoints to get them back to Tisdale safely. Each pilot had to predict the amount of fuel for the one hour trip and then fill up upon returning to see how close he had come. The landing was a test in itself for the pilot to touch down on a very precise spot on the runway.

briefing
After the planes arrived Saturday morning there was pizza and coffee. At 1:00 PM David Lamb gave about a fifteen minute briefing to explain the nature of the rally and how the judging would be done. From beginning to the end of his explanations the emphasis was on safety and how to make this event free of mishaps. The briefing was done in the hangar and the bright light from outside made it tough to get a pictures but those on the briefing picture page tell the story.

Everyone had stories to tell of their adventures as they made their way across Canada. Yvon Lecours and his son from Timmins Ontario left Tisdale for a flight into Saskatoon after the Rally then on the next day they were going to take two students up into Northern Saskatchewan, then on to Calgary, over the mountains to Vancouver. Yvon’s 2006 Cessna 182 is turbocharged and equipped with oxygen. He is IFR qualified and can cruise along at 20,000 for his trip over the Rockies. His son begins grade ten this fall and he was revelling in his trip across Canada with his father. Yvon owns an M&M store in Timmins while his wife is a teacher. She and their sixteen year old daughter are on an adventure of their own where mom is teaching Chinese teachers English for the summer and the daughter is along for the trip. A few days earlier they had send father and son a picture of them riding camels in the Gobi desert.

The Tisdale Aviation Association were out in force for the event as they needed to handle refuelling, judging and looking after the participants in the rally. Ralph Petersen provided support for the event with his hangar, WIFI and assistance to the whole project. The Tisdale Museum held a BBQ supper for everyone and they are considering the possibility of a similar rally next year. Definitely everyone who was part of this one will spread the word about Tisdale and the outstanding experience of being in the rally. Below is how the work was divided up among the members:

Competition Director - David Lamb
Chief Landing Judge - Charles McKenzie
Landing Judge - Dennis Lamb
Landing Judge - Steve Cook
Landing Judge - Clare Phillips
Chief Refueling Judge - Darryl Gurbach
Refuelling Judge - Peter Fofonoff
Refuelling Judge - Ken Jansen
Parking Marshal/AME - Ralph Pedersen
Chief Pictures and Questions Judge - Leslie Lamb
Chief Scoring Judge - Mark Cresswell
Scoring Judge - Pat Phillips