September - October - The Recreational Aircraft Association

Cyclone Continued from page 11
no longer suffering from “get-home-itis”, we relaxed and
visited more of the wife’s relatives and friends. Especially
friends like fellow COPA member and pilot Tom Prince of
Tom Prince Motors, who gave us the use of a courtesy vehicle
from his car lot for most of our stay in Renfrew, Ontario.
Finally a day-long gap appeared to be in the making
from Sault Ste. Marie to Duluth and beyond on the satellite
weather network. All we needed now was for the ceilings
and visibilities to improve in the Ottawa River valley, and
we fi nally had liftoff on Monday, August 28 at 9:41 a.m. Fog
stayed in the valley along the Ottawa River as far as Mattawa,
while the land on either side was totally clear. We were
now underway going home!
Refueling at Sault Ste. Marie gave us the chance to grab
a snack in the cafeteria, call the American side for Customs,
fi le a fl ight plan and acquire a discrete transponder code for
crossing international borders. As by now we had an American
Customs decal on the fuselage of our Cyclone, we spent
less than 10 minutes on the ground before we were on our
way to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where we spent another
pleasant overnight stay.
The next morning’s weather briefi ng indicated a high
pressure system across the prairies from eastern Alberta to
the Lakehead. We fl ight planned for Canadian Customs
clearing at Piney Pine Creek and then to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Later that morning we were almost over Yorkton
when I noticed the oil pressure needle moving an eighth
The Brampton chapter clubhouse has been completely rebuilt
with picture windows and a porch for the summer.
Left: Brampton Chapter 41 President Earl Trimble (centre)
furnished the new clubhouse with leather chairs and couch. The
wall of fame will soon have over 100 photos of completions.
of an inch towards the low pressure direction. As we were
by now over 2 hours in the air, we decided to make a precautionary
landing at Yorkton to investigate what possibly
caused the needle to move. Shortly after leaving 8500 ft
we had the opportunity to see how the Cyclone would ride
in mechanical turbulence and wind sheers as Yorkton was
reporting surface winds at 29 gusting to 50 knots, at almost
90 degrees across the long runway. Fortunately, Yorkton still
maintains a short gravel strip which had a lesser crosswind
component and the landing was a greased on wheel landing.
Taxiing in was more challenging and required full attention
and care! Only after the a/c was pushed inside the large
WW II hangar could one relax.
After a quick lunch at Tim Hortons, thanks due to the
courtesy car by the local fuel agent, we called in for weather
and fl ight planning. How quickly the weather can change!
Now the briefer cautioned us against continuing the fl ight
to Saskatoon due to a low level jet stream crossing Saskatchewan
from south to north. He seemed particularly worried
about the winds where we had just landed. We assured him
that this Cyclone of ours had just proved itself very steady
on either its legs on the ground or on its wings while in the
air. Shortly thereafter we were into the sky climbing back
to 8500 feet at 110 mph. Our GPS was indicating a ground
speed of 159 mph.
Flying for most of our lives (since 1957) on the leeward
side of the Canadian Rockies, we had experienced stronger
winds than that, the greatest headwind at one night fl ight
30 Recreational Flyer September - October 2006