Submitted By: Kyle Ewasiuk

On Saturday April 29th 2017, PrepAir YYJ was held at the Pacific Sky Aviation hanger at the Victoria Airport.

PrepAir is a pilot refresher seminar that was introduced by Darlene George and Simon Dennis with the support of NavCanada.  

PrepAIR YYJ was the last of three seminars that took place in April, with the other two previously held in Boundary Bay and Nanaimo.

Over 120 pilots attended the YYJ event and we were all treated to morning snacks and a great lunch. 
This presentations was aimed at improving aviation safety, operating in and around YYJ control zone and fulfilling the bi-annual regency requirements.

We started the day off with Darlene George and Simon Dennis from Nav Canada, who are both clearly passionate about aviation and pilot safety. 

We then heard from
-Mike Garraway the Safety Manager for YYJ’s Airport Authority about airport safety, safety improvements and runway incursions.

-Dave Gagliardi, Kent Wickens and Mike Beese from Transport Canada talked about Safety Management Systems, Enforcement and Follow-up process.

-An Air Force Captain with a great sense of humour from JRCC gave an eye opening presentation on their roll in Air/Marine rescues. The importance of Flight Plans, their filing, following your flight plan, position updates and closing your flight plans, PLB’s and in the event of an emergency how critically important it is to have correct and updated contact information on file with your Spot’s, PLB’s and 406 ELT’s to expedite a rescue.

After lunch we broke into two groups;
-IFR procedures presented by Nav Canada’s Jason Grist from YYJ Tower & Adrian Taylor a Victoria Terminal controller. The other group reviewed VFR weather with Nav Canada’s Simon Dennis a YYJ Controller.

We then came back together to listen to Adrian Taylor, he help de-mystify Victoria Terminal’s Class “C” airspace, VFR/IFR traffic flows in Victoria Terminal airspace and the importance of flying assigned routing and altitude.
​
We finished off the day with Simon Dennis going over flying in and around Victoria Airport; YYJ's Arrival and Departure procedures, safe Taxiing through JYY's vast network of runways and taxiways and how clear concise two way communication between the Controller and Pilot play a key factor in keeping all of us safe on the ground and in the air.

I believe PrepAir YYJ was a great success and would like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work and dedication to our flying community.

Another rust remover was also held today in Vernon where presentations were made by the JRCC, Nav Canada and local flight instructors. The Vernon Rust remover was also Transport Canada Accredited. 

*These are the thoughts of Kevin Maher. He is current in multiple types from the DHC2 Beaver to the Boeing 777. Agree or disagree, Kevin shares an interesting take on doodads and such.

----------

Engine monitors, ANR headsets, and all sorts of other dodads you can spend money on - are they worth it? Warning, long technical post.

I was going to post this in answer to another thread but I think it is a worthwhile one on its own. Not trying to claim I am right, just offering up a point of view that will hopefully start an interesting and thought provoking discussion. I should also point out that this post only applies to you if you operate a normally aspirated carburated engine. And it also only applies if you have a budget. If you have unlimited cash and panel space, fill your boots.

Carburated engines have horrible mixture distributions - fit one with an engine monitor and you will find 100 deg.+ variances in EGT's between cylinders, and the consequent  variances in CHT's , made even worse by baffling variances. Leaning until the engine runs rough (leanest cylinder starting to not run) and then pushing the mixture control in 1/4 of the distance from the rough running point, will always result in a close to optimum mixture setting. Confirmation can be seen in the exhaust after landing. White deposits is too lean, gray brown is perfect, black is too rich. I compared leaning techniques in 4 airplanes fitted with engine monitors. And after leaning to 50 degrees ROP with an engine monitor, the mixture control was in exactly the same place as when I did it the old fashioned way. The thousands of dollars worth of engine monitor wasn't telling me anything I couldn't figure out on my own. Now an engine monitor will also tell you if you have a bad plug, a bad mag, an induction leak, or an engine starting to tear itself apart. But you can hear or feel all of those things as well if you are familiar with the engine and know what to listen for. That is unless your $1000 ANR headset has masked these symptoms - and they will!  So what would I spend the $3000 the headset and engine monitor cost on instead to minimise engine wear and maximise safety?

Carb air temp gauge. The way we manage carb heat in most airplanes is stupid. In icing conditions, we periodically apply full carb heat just in case, which then screws up the mixture to the cylinders. And then run it cold, waiting for it to ice up, and hoping that we notice it in time. Then apply full heat, hope it isn't too late, scare our passengers who have to listen to the engine choke on the ice, then go back to full cold induction air. Repeat. Pratt and Whitney figured out long ago that the optimum mixture temp (measured right in the cab throat) is 7 deg. C. This temperature prevents icing, maximises the charge density, and atomizes the fuel efficiently. So after take off you just run whatever carb heat is required to produce a 7 deg. C mixture temperature, then lean, and fly along safely and efficiently with nothing else to worry about.   

Anti-corrosion spraying of the airframe interior. As I work on airplanes that are parked on the coast, the amount of surface corrosion that occurs is amazing. It is a non-stop battle that we occasionally lose. Have the entire airframe interior sprayed with ACF-50 or Boeshield. Wings, tail, fuselage, all the nooks and crannies. You will save major structural repairs down the road. Additionally, because the airplane has to be seriously stripped down to do this, more so than is usually done at most annuals, you get to have a really good look at the places in the airplane that don't normally get looked at.

Gas money to fly more often. The single most thing you can do to improve the life of an aircraft piston engine is fly it more. Preferably at least once a week, but at least every couple or 3 weeks. Any longer and corrosion is starting to form on internal parts (especially around here) And that will eventually cause premature wear of parts as well as cylinder problems.

Magnetic drain plugs. Oil filters are very good at trapping almost all particles, but the mirco impurities of steel still make it thru. We install magnetic drain plugs in all the engines and always get a finger smear of metal sludge off them that the filters missed.

Oil additives. CamGuard is an amazing corrosion inhibitor with anti-scuff additives. It is excellent for use in infrequently flown engines, or the particular models of Lycoming engines that like to eat their camshafts. AvBlend is an excellent additive for removing and preventing lead deposits in valves and guides. If either of these issues are a concern to you, these products are worth considering. Both are a bit pricey and I suspect that they are not approved to be used together.

There is my take on where to spend your flying $$$ to make our engines more reliable and to save future maintenance costs. Free advice but you get what you pay for. Really looking forward to other opinions, both pro and con.

The 2017 COPA Convention, Trade-Show, Fly-In & AGM is being held in the beautiful Okanagan this June! The Kelowna Flying Club is hosting pilots from across Canada as we gather to celebrate aviation, camaraderie and our freedom to fly. 

The BCGA will have a booth set up at the tradeshow and we are looking for motivated BCGA members that want to volunteer to share their passion for flying in BC and our organization with other conference attendees. 

If you are able to volunteer a few hours or have some ideas on how to make our BCGA display great please contact us info@bcaviation.ca.

We look forward to seeing you at the convention and encourage you to make the trip becasue it is in our backyard and really what better excuse to visit the Okanagan Valley!

The COPA Convention is coming to Kelowna in June. Many pilots east of the Rockies are apprehensive about flying in the mountains so on Friday evening before the survival exercise we shot a video for COPA to give our flat land friends some info and tips on mountain flying in hopes that they will come to Beautiful British Columbia and enjoy some of what many of us take for granted! Thanks Steve Thorne, Bradley Friesen, Ariel Tyk & Dave McElroy for making this video possible!

The second BCGA Survival Shakedown was held on April 22-23, 2017 in Kelowna, BC. This survival training event is designed to give pilots an opportunity to get acquainted with and practice using their on board aircraft survival kit. 

The group of 18 members and 4 Instructors met at the Kelowna Flying Club on Saturday morning. At the pre-briefing the group was treated to a comprehensive presentation given by Shaun Glass, a retired Canadian Forces  Search and Rescue Technician and current volunteer member of the Central Fraser Valley Search & Rescue Team.

We were also fortunate to have the support of Dan & Philip from Central Okanagan Search & Rescue. Dan & Phil gave a safety briefing and we loaded up in vehicles for the 35minute drive up a forestry road East of the Kelowna Airport. The site was at 4000'asl and located in a forested area that had a good amount of snow and a lot of very wet wood.

The conditions for the exercise were challenging. We could not have ordered a better weather sequence to prove the importance of an adequate survival kit. When we got to the airport in the morning it was a beautiful sunny day. Upon reaching the site of the exercise participants walked through knee deep snow to get to their individual sites and most started the exercise with cold wet feet.  It was still nice out with a high overcast developing. Two hours into the exercise as the participants were working on their fires and shelters the sky opened up and unleashed heavy rain that lasted for a few hours.

The wrath of the rain storm left most of the participants very wet and those that did not have a fire going before the rain had a tough time working with all the saturated wood that the storm left in its path. Darkness set in and the next challenge presented itself when the skies cleared to reveal millions of stars with a subsequent sharp drop in temperatures to -6 overnight. 

Throughout the exercise the instructors made rounds to check on the participants' well being and to give hints and tips as to how to improve their set-up. The majority of the participants slept with little more than the clothes on their back and an emergency space blanket. Some had basic sleeping bags in their survival kits but in keeping with the theme of only using what you actually carry we were surprised and impressed by the number of participants that held true to the minimalist approach. 

Some of the participants grabbed their survival kits out of their planes on the way to the exercise without checking the contents and were shocked to find that some key items were missing such as tools to cut wood or a tarp for shelter. The instructors offered them replacement items but in keeping with the theme of the exercise, all declined citing that if this was a real situation they would not have had the items and would make due without them. 

One of the key lessons that was learned by some of the participants is to dress appropriately for the terrain that you are flying over and to periodically check the contents of your kit before you need to rely on it. Cotton is a bad idea especially if you are going to be stuck in wet and cold conditions.

Throughout the night participants fought to find the balance of trying to get some seep, staying warm, and keeping their fire going.  Due to the cold and wet conditions it was imperative that everyone kept their fires going all night long or face the very real and present risk of hypothermia.

This exercise was meant to introduce pilots to the contents of their survival kit and to have them put some thought into the contents of the kit. It was not an episode of survivor man where we withhold, starve and torture the attendees. It is for this reason that as the pilots emerged shortly before sunrise they gathered at Frank's raging fire to enjoy a muffin and hot chocolate  to warm up some chilly and weary bones. 

After a warm drink and a snack the participants were lead in a walk through, where all the attendees as a group visited each and every camp to learn and discuss what went right and what didn't for each individual pilot. 

Once the walk through was complete, the group cleaned up and returned the forest to its original state ensuring that all fires were completely extinguished and all shelters were taken down. The group then gathered for a signal fire demonstration, fire extinguisher demonsration and prizes were awarded for best camp, and most ingenuity followed by the issuing of completion certificates. 

The BCGA is very proud and grateful to have had the support of Central Okanagan Search and Rescue. They provided their vehicles & equipment for this event and 2 of their members volunteered their weekend to instruct our pilots. As a small token of our appreciation, the BCGA donated the remaining $200 from the course fees after expenses to COSAR.

We are very fortunate to have had the support of the Kelowna Flying Club, COSAR and Shaun Glass for this event. This is the second time that despite having no direct connection to our community Shaun has volunteered his weekend to help us make this event happen.

Lastly, we are very proud of our members that came to the event. Despite snow, rain, and cold not one person complained and every single participant embraced the exercise and truly brought nothing more than their typical survival kit. Well done pilots! We look forward to offering this course again in the future!

Note On Course Fees:
One of the core values of the BCGA is to keep our activities affordable for our members. We do not charge a membership fee and rely on members to voluntarily contribute if they feel that they are getting value from what we do. The Survival Shakedown is a net zero event meaning that after costs we distribute all remaining funds to the local SAR team.

The first 2 sessions of this course had a nominal course fee to cover costs. Most would agree that this fee was very low for what the course had to offer. This was based on the fact that our instructors despite having no ties to general aviation volunteered their time. Moving forward we would like to compensate our NON-BCGA professional instructors for the expert knowledge that they bring.

The first two installations of this course were meant to prove the concept and we are more certain now than ever before that this training is a must have for every pilot and anyone who ventures into or operates and aircraft over the backcountry. Future courses will have a registration fee that better reflects the value that this course provides while keeping it affordable (probably in line with the cost of a 1 hour aircraft rental). 

By: John Wheeler

I had the opportunity to practice some emergency skills yesterday. I was flying a route I fly often, from McBride CAV4 to Grand Forks CZGF, via Kinbasket and Arrow lakes. I was southbound over the Mica dam about 1500' AGL (were lots of small weather cells keeping me from staying higher) when the engine suddenly started vibrating heavily and the nose dipped due to loss of power. I was at about 130mph, so I immediately trimmed up (trade airspeed for altitude) for best glide. I had highway 21 below me, but I didn't relish the idea of an off-airport landing. I changed prop speed and throttle, mixture and carb heat to try and find any improvement.

Ultimately, I ended up at near full speed and throttle which provided sufficient thrust to maintain altitude. Once the plane was stabilized, and the vibration wasn't threatening to break the plane, I decided to continue ahead, keeping the highway within gliding range. The Mica Creek strip was ahead, but I soon saw that it had a couple of feet of snow on it so that was not an option.

I tried calling Pacific Radio, and tried the local frequencies, but could not raise anyone. I always keep one radio on 121.5, so I broadcast a PanPan call which was picked up by AC214. They relayed my call to Vancouver Centre. Once they were passing out of range, WJ177 picked up the communications and continued to relay my status as I made the 60 mile journey to Revelstoke (the nearest field).

I made a straight-in approach on Rwy12 - as soon as I idled down for the decent the engine threatened to depart the AC so I tried to shut it down completely, but it continued to windmill and I didn't want to mess up my approach trying to stop it by pitching up. I made an uneventful landing, and almost made the taxiway. I was met by two RCMP cars and a fire truck. Everyone was pleased that they were not needed.
Things I thought might be helpful to pass on:

• Make best use of any airspeed above best glide speed by climbing
  
• Maintain best glide, even if the engine is still running at some power, it will buy you distance, or as I did, get you to a good landing spot, it will always get you the most time to maximize your landing choices
  
• In the mountains, especially when low down, radio range is poor. Don't be afraid to make use of the jets with a clear signal path to you - that is why they monitor 121.5. I didn't request emergency vehicles, but I was glad to see them and they were happy not be needed. If things had not turned out well, help would not have been far away, and they were looking in the right place because the jet pilots had been able to pass on my location and intentions
  
• Don't get flustered or panicked - you make better rational decisions when you are calm. Even at 1500', I had at least two minutes to determine whether I was landing on the road, or if I could maintain altitude. Two minutes is a looong time in that situation!
  

Since we have been discussing flying in the mountains, and emergency procedures, I thought it might be timely.

A pilot's license is a license to learn and we all make mistakes. One of the best things we can do for ourselves and our community is to share our mistakes with others in hopes that our fellow pilots can learn from our errors & omissions and avoid making the same mistake themselves.

The BCGA Flying Confessional can be found in the MEMBERS tab of the BCGA website and is a place where BCGA members can submit short stories anonymously to be shared with other members so that we can learn together and become better and safer as a community. All submissions will be posted to this members only page and the identity of the author will be kept 100% confidential.