I made a serious mistake by asking for my medical to be downgraded from Cat I to III (no longer any need for CPL privileges). It took just short of FOUR months to get my new sticker, even though there was NO change from my previous report.

Friday Harbor is 10 nm less straight line distance (over the Coast Range), and there's strips on just about every island in the San Juans if your nibble into your reserve turns out too big a bite. The desire to avoid the hassle of two customs stops and possible quarantine is understandable. A handgu...

Really sad.

If you route over the Gulf and San Juan Islands, it's pretty easy to maintain gliding distance to land plus there's the odd airport and landing strip.

In the good old days, the Harbour Board would need a couple months to send you a fuel bill. Time to put on floats. Living by the Danforth I knew when a C-185 was taking off.

Wikipedia notes that he got an engineering degree and has been involved in human rights issues as an MP.

Will he be the one to clean out the stables?

The weld on the seat tube can break. I know one glider club that had a spare seat on hand.

I was in the rear of an L-19 doing a glider tow. After release (if not somewhat before) the pilot handed control and told me to take it back. Joined downwind, turned base and pulled some flaps which called for more back stick, whereupon the stick came out and the nose dropped which got the attention...

Just put your transponder antenna on top. Ground based radars will see it as long as you're not directly overhead. I've had my carbon fiber glider up at FL200 in the Cowley Block with the antenna through the glareshield and have heard that YEG got all excited that they saw a 1202 code.

Near CFIT implies Controlled Flight which is much too flattering for those moments they were in cloud. We're all grateful the glider stayed in one piece during an energetic recovery after coming out of cloud. That's when lots of GA aircraft come apart. An AHRS might help you stay right side up, but ...

Slowing up to stretch a glide doesn't work well in a headwind. You might want to speed up. Not much in the way of options except for the railroad track parallel to 12. Likely hard on the airframe, but perhaps more survivable than taking a chance on the usual utility poles and wires along an urban st...

I replaced the strap hinges on my garage door with Cannonball tracks, quite popular with farm equipment sheds and simple to install. Our glider club has a bifold Diamond door. Erecting the frame for that door is not simple, but with the winds we have a bifold door is required. Snow loading is seriou...

I joined Wardair the same week that Max announced he was selling to Canadi>n. There was a real pride in working for Max. He was regularly in the cafeteria.

Unusual among bush operators, his bush operation never lost a passenger.

We can define thrust as the force along the vehicle x axis. That force can come from a prop, gases from exhaust including turbines and gravity. Etkin does reserve the T term for engine thrust, but in a glider the T term is zero and the "thrust" is m•g•sin(alpha) which in a steady state = drag. Going...

Etkin's Dynamics of Atmospheric Flight is a rigorous treatment of aerodynamics for those who want to get a real understanding. The math is heavy. In the Vehicle Frame of Reference (one of several), there are forces along the x, y and z axes and moments around those three axes. Surfaces and bodies mo...

It costs about $700 to register an Alberta corporation + annual report fee. Look up "Alberta Corporate Care".

You may also need a business bank account.

When it comes time to sell, you can sell the corporation, but would then have to set up another one for your new aircraft.

Once I heard of the the online portal, on May 15 or so, I opened my account and was put on hold to wait for the activation code which I received by email today – 10 alternating alphabetic and numeric characters that you are not allowed to paste in. Still no update on my medical exam nearly 3 months ...

I had my medical done on March 9 and decided it was time to downgrade from Category 1 to 3. The doctor said TC would send me a sticker. A few weeks ago I phoned and was informed the RAMO office had received the report and passed it to one of their doctors. Since then, nothing after 65 days. I am tem...

The published research on pilot, and driver, performance with cannabis is pretty sparse. As before mentioned, one paper determined that it takes a maximum of 28 days for cannabis metabolites to leave your system. Lower initial dose and BMI may result in a shorter THC elimination time. Minister Garne...