, Spring 2007 - Rockcliffe Flying Club

Spring 2007 

Flying in Africa – Chris Kiff’s Story 

Above, the Strait of Gibralta, approaching Morocco 

Leaving Madrid, we had a couple of 

administrative delays (landing permits for 

Morocco) and a couple of weather delays. 

The airport we were at, Cuatro Vientos, is 

closed when the weather is not VFR, even 

though we are leaving IFR. The flight to 

Morocco was pretty straight forward 

other than trying to figure out what the 

controllers are saying with their accents. 

Our next stop was Agadir, on the Atlantic 

coast of Morocco on the edge of the 

Sahara desert. 

Agadir, Morocco: We landed and 

managed to get fuel pretty easily. I 

learned how customs is done in Africa - 

the police approach you, you fill out a 

customs card, they ask a bunch of 

questions, sometimes repeatedly, then 

they stamp your passport. Agadir is a 

resort town where many Europeans go to 

lie on the beach, so a lot of the services 

are pretty good and easy to use. 

It was easy to get a taxi, and all the 

hotels are on the beach. Since it was the 

,

low season, we had no problem getting a 

room at the Amadil Beach hotel. My room 

overlooked the ocean, and the hotel was 

completely self-contained with stores and 

several restaurants within. The country 

speaks mostly French and Arabic, so my 

French came in handy since Randy doesn’t 

speak much of it (he usually tried 

unsuccessfully to speak to people in 

Spanish). 

We had a day off there because our 

permits for our next stop in Mauritania 

expired, despite my warning the office 

two days earlier, but I took advantage to 

explore. The beach was nice, with a good 

number of people surfing, walking through 

the surf or sitting under huts reading on 

the beach. I wandered a bit away from 

the resorts, and it got a little dirtier - 

typical of Africa, but still friendly. All in 

all, it was a nice place to have a day off 

and get ready for the next leg of our 

trip, which proved to be the big cultural 

shock I was looking for. 

Nouadhibou, Mauritania 

Again the flight was pretty straight 

forward. The flights are the easy part, 

since the procedures are pretty much the 

same worldwide. It’s on the ground that 

things get interesting. The airport in 

Nouadhibou is pretty quiet, and we were 

apparently the first movement there in 

days. We landed, waited for the fuel 

guys. It seems in most places they think 

we take jet fuel - you have to convince 

them that no, you do not have a turbine 

engine, you need Avgas, which is becoming 

harder and harder to find in these places. 

We were told we had to move to the 

other end of the ramp for Avgas, which 

was silly since they drove a tractor 

trailing a tank of gas to the plane, we 

could have been anywhere on the ramp 

for them to fuel us. Two kids in their 

teens told us they couldn’t take any of 

our fuel cards, so we’d have to pay in 

cash. We figured this would happen which 

is why we had plenty of cash. 

The fuel was pumped by hand, and as a 

result took about 20 minutes to fill the 

plane back up. It turned out that the fuel 

was VERY expensive, almost 2 or 3 times 

more than most other places. Once we 

found out how much it was going to be, we 

realized we would be cleaned out of Euros 

(we also had US cash with us, but didn’t 

want to lose all the Euros). We eventually 

found out they would take our BP fuel 

card, but the guy didn’t want to change 

his bill for it. I argued with the half 

naked kid sitting on the ground for almost 

15 or 20 minutes about this, trying to tell 

him we didn’t have enough Euros. In the 

end, we had to give up, and paid with a 

combination of Euros and USD. 

Then came the customs! At first, they 

seemed helpful – they told us the best 

hotel to stay at, which is where the 

president stayed when he visited the 

town (Nouadhibou is the second largest 

city in Mauritania with a whopping 90 000 

people that mostly live in shacks). Then 

they decided we needed visas, which 

wasn’t true for aircrew doing a technical 

stop like us. They claimed the visas cost a 

total of $150 for the both of us, however 

since their ‘boss’ wasn’t there, could not 

provide a receipt. Uh huh… Well we ended 

RFC Crosswinds Spring 2007 Issue Page 2 of 12

up having to pay them the money for our 

72 hour visas, and then they wanted 

money for coffee! Well we told them we 

didn’t have enough, but if they were 

there in the morning after watching our 

plane, we would consider it. We paid our 

airport fees which also involved arguing 

over how heavy the airplane was. Luckily 

it only cost us 10 Euros as opposed to 250 

if we were one ton heavier. 

The taxi was probably a friend of the 

customs/police officer who had a car, and 

charged us 20 Euros to go 2 minutes down 

the street to the hotel. The hotel was 

actually quite nice, and probably the 

nicest building in the town. All the 

streets are sand - if they were once 

paved, they were now covered in sand. 

Across the street from the hotel was 

someone’s shack in a concrete wall, using 

old tires as a roof. A family lived there 

with one really skinny kid I saw the next 

morning. Dinner was so-so at a restaurant 

down the street, which a hotel guy 

showed us how to get there. 

The next morning we had to leave for a 

short flight to the capital of Mauritania, 

Nouakchott, where SGL had another 

crew, so that a mechanic could take a look 

at a high oil consumption rate on one of 

our engines. I was glad to leave!! I was a 

little concerned about our cash on hand 

for the rest of the trip. We needed to 

find a bank or something, but it’s the 

weekend. 

The taxis don’t have phones there, so 

they have to be flagged down on the 

street. The hotel guard did this for us. 

It seemed like it was just some local guy 

with nothing else to do that morning. He 

only wanted 5 Euros for the short trip 

which was far more reasonable. He 

dropped us off at the airport. Thankfully 

it was early enough that there weren’t 

many people sitting around the airport to 

bug us. 

I went to the control tower to file our 

flight plan, and had to wake up the 

controller who was sleeping on a towel on 

the floor. He did even stand up, he took 

my flight plan, said okay and lied back 

down. One guy arrived and told Randy 

that we had to pay parking fees, which we 

paid the day before, but didn’t want to 

give a receipt. Randy’s french is terrible, 

so he came and got me. As I approached 

the guy, I think he gave up because he 

told me to never mind, it was fine. 

We asked for permission to start from 

the sleepy tower guy. He cleared us 

immediately on our way to Nouakchott. 

We blasted out of there, with no 

problems - I was glad to leave there!! 

Nouakchott, Mauritania 

As we approached, things were going fine, 

except the tower controller was telling us 

to fly to some point that didn’t exist on 

our maps. Even after we asked for 

another point for this reason, we still had 

to go there. So we went where we 

thought it was, and told him we were 

there, then he cleared us to land, all was 

good. 

The view on landing was astonishing. 

Nouakchott is a sea of shanty town – lots 

of huts, some of them just sticks and 

Page 3 of 12 RFC Crosswinds Spring 2007 Issue

fabric, with little dirt roads filled with 

donkeys carrying loads seemingly a storey 

high. 

We landed, and met up with one of our 

SGL people. Since we went through 

customs already in Nouadhibou, this was 

not a problem here. Fuel was pretty 

simple too, since the crew already had an 

account with the fuel company. It still 

took a while to get fuel, and the fuel guy 

wasn’t very good at fueling, he must have 

poured a couple of gallons of fuel all over 

the top of the wing. 

The crew here has a Land Rover and a 

local driver, so it made things really easy. 

They made us reservations at their very 

nice hotel, and we had lunch and dinner 

with the 13 member crew. We joked that 

this was the new SGL headquarters for 

the weekend since we had so many people, 

and 4 airplanes. They were also able to 

solve our cash problem, by transferring a 

load of US dollars to us. It’s not Euros, 

but USD is just as acceptable 

everywhere. 

That brings us to now. I am getting 

ready for our next adventure to Bamako, 

Mali, followed by Accra Ghana. I’m not 

expecting the same kind of experience as 

Nouadhibou in these places, since they 

are capitals, and more people go through 

there regularly. Also many of the 

company’s planes have gone through these 

spots, so there is a lot of knowledge 

available to me. 

I’ve posted a bunch of photos of Agadir 

and Nouadhibou, so please take a look! 

http://public.fotki.com/ckiff/uk_angola/ 

agadir/ 

http://public.fotki.com/ckiff/uk_angola/ 

nouadhibou 

Visit my website at: 

http://ckiff.spaces.live.com/ 



Sunset horse ride along the beach 


46 th Annual Wings Dinner 

Welcome to our 46 th Annual Wings 

Dinner. 

Of all the Club events, the Wings Dinner 

has become one of my favorites. What 

better way to spend an evening with 

those you work and fly with and to 

recognize their achievements. My 

sincere thanks to the board, staff and 

membership for another successful year 

and for continuing to make the Club 

such a great organization. 

Tonight over eighty certificates and 

awards will be presented. 

Congratulations to all those who are 

being recognized. Your hard work and 

dedication have come to fruition and 

tonight is yours to enjoy. Have a 

wonderful evening. 

Simon Garrett 

Operations Manager & 

Chief Flight Instructor 

Above, Simon Garrett is awarded the 

prestigious David Charles Abramson 

Memorial (DCAM) Flight Safety Award from 

Jane and Rikki Abramson. 

Above, David Bozzato, 1 st Solo 

Above, Manon Simard, 1 st Solo 

Above, Antonio Petrelli, 1 st solo 


First Solo 

� David Andrews 

� Didace Baberakubona 

� Stephane Barbarie 

� Jean-Luc Beaudoin 

� Francois Bigras 

� David Bozzato 

� Adrian Cosstick 

� Christian Desloges 

� Patrick Drolet 

� Marc-Andre Gervais 

� Martin Guimond 

� Robert Hawley 

� James Helferty 

� Jonathan Hipkins 

� Victor Khodko 

� Matthew Merrigan 

� Jeffrey Nerenberg 

� Tri Nguyen 

� William Norris 

� Jasmin Renaud 

� Antonio Petrelli 

� Gaston Roy 

� Alexander Rudy 

� Gregg Ruthman 

� Joseph Satenstein 

� Paul Saucier 

� Lindy Sgarbossa 

� Manon Simard 

� David Smith 

� Dana Sponder 

� Adam Whitehorne 

Recreational Pilot Licence 

� Frank Bigras 

� Mathieu Dumas 

� Sergei Gorodetsky 

� Gregg Ruthman 

CONGRATULATIONS!! 

(2006 Wings Dinner to April 2007) 

Private Pilot Licence (PPL) 

� Wassim Abdayem 

� Nathan Abdelnour 

� David Andrews 

� Paul Barry 

� Francois Bigras 

� Jeremy Brown 

� Michael Greenwood 

� Oliver Javanpour 

� Yiwen Jiang 

� Karen Leung 

� Charles Ollivier 

� Paul Lemme 

� Gregory Marshall 

� Jeffrey Nerenberg 

� David Smith 

� Dana Sponder 

Night Rating 

� Oliver Javanpour 

� Flavio Jorge 

� Keith MacIsaac 

� Neil McGrath 

� Michael Merriam 


Commercial Pilot Licence 

� Jonathan Batterham 

� Louis Lavigne 

� Jamie Lynch 

� Neil McGrath 

� Christian Monteith 


Instructor 

� Tony Hunt (4) 

� Steven Hyde (3) 

� Ryan King (2) 

� John Saintonge (2) 


SE Instrument 


� Claude Beland 

� Ian Dewhirst 

� Daniel Lalonde 

� Hubert Sauter 

Scholarships 

� Alexander Hayes-Thibault 

� Genevieve Millaire 



Marriages: 

� James Feagan and Hannah Taylor 

(August 5, 2006) 

� Jean Dorais and Margaret - 

(November 5 th , 2006) 

� Red Sutton and Jane Sterling 

(February 22, 2007) 

Births: 

� Catherine Ollivier (Oct. 27, 2006) – 

Proud parents Charles and Annie 

Ollivier. 

� Paul Marmet (Dec. 29 th , 2006) - 

Proud Parents Nancy Robertson and 

Nicolas Marmet. Born December 

29 th , 2006. 

� Sophie Dorais – Proud parents Jean 

and Margaret Dorais. Born January 

23, 2007 

Calendar of Events 

� May 5 th – Wings Dinner 

� May 12 th – Spring Clean Up 

� June 23 rd – Jaguar Event 

� July 1 st – Canada Day Breakfast / 

Fly-Day 

� Aug. 24 th – RFC Volunteer Day / 

Cricket Match 

� Aug. 25 th – Webster Banquet (in 

Ottawa) 

� Aug 25-26 Classic Air Rallye, 

including Warbirds, Classics flying 

demo 

Upcoming Ground Schools 

May 1 st – Intro, Private 

June 7 th – Intro, Private 

July 30 – Review and Exam Prep 

On the lighter side.. 


Fun and Games at the “Casino”? You bet! 

Written by Alison Hobbs 

It wasn't a real casino. For the fifth 

year running, members of the Rockcliffe 

Flying Club enjoyed an evening of innocent 

pleasures on March 10th, 2007, gambling 

away their funny money at the Sports 

Club on Youville Drive in Orleans. The 

Casino Entertainment Services, Sugar and 

Spice, wearing appropriately smart, black 

and white attire (unlike most of the 

punters) provided the money, the gaming 

tables, the chips, the cards and the 

discipline, the Sports Club bar kept us 

supplied with liquid refreshments, and our 

social committee (Brenda) with the help 

of several donors, arranged for a large 

number of aviation-related prizes to be 

on hand. 

The pit staff weren't the only ones to 

spice up or sweeten the occasion, because 

this year we also got to celebrate the 

sensational revelation that Red and Jane 

of Sutton Aviation, having sneaked off to 

get married without telling anybody, had 

just returned from their secret 

honeymoon in Hawaii. We'd thus deduced 

that Red and Jane hadn't wanted any 

sort of fuss regarding their wedding 

plans, but it was thought that club 

members ought to let them have a card 

and a cake at least, and give ourselves the 

chance to wish them well. 

Having applauded the happy couple and 

having helped them to consume the 

wedding cake, most people then went 

back to placing their bets in the on-going 

games of Blackjack, Hold 'em Poker or 

Craps, although it must be admitted that 

the rules of the Craps table were a total 

mystery to some of us. A few lost 

interest in making a small fortune out of 

the $1000 we had been given to start 

with, hung onto our meagre winnings and 

sat around and gossiped instead - which 

was just as enjoyable!! 

At the end of the evening each person's 

virtual dollars were exchanged for an 

appropriate number of raffle tickets, the 

theory being that the more you'd won, 

the better your chances of winning a 

prize. The laws of chance being what they 

are, it didn't necessarily turn out like 

that, but enough prizes had been donated 

for the majority of our party-goers to 

take home something worth having. 

Thanks, Brenda! 


List of Flying Activities Committee 

Events (see bulletin board for 

notices), by Chair Nicole Harris 

� May 19 (rain date 20) Canadian 

Warplane Heritage Museum, Hamilton 

Airport, museum 9h00-17h00, admission 

$10, meet at destination at 12h30 

� June 2nd (June 3rd) Lunch at Lachute, 

meet at destination at 12h30 

� End of July/Beginning of August, Trip 

out East, i.e. PEI 

� Flour Bombing and Spot Landing 

competition TBA 

� Overnight trip to Quebec City, late 

September TBA 

Safety Committee Corner, by Chair 

Roger Delisle 

The Safety Committee at Rockcliffe is 

there to help you! Do you have safety 

issues or concerns you want to bring to 

our attention? Questions related to 

airspace, weather, ground operations, 

regulations, recency and health 

issues, maintenance and airworthiness, 

etc.? Have you witnessed or experienced 

a safety-related incident and would like 

to share with other club members? The 

goal of the Safety Committee is to share 

knowledge between pilots so we can all 

learn from each other's experiences, and 

do so with discretion and respect. So get 

in touch today. Send an e-mail to 

rfc@rfc.ca, or call or write to the 

Club care of Roger Delisle and feel free 

to attend our Committee meetings every 

2nd Tuesday of every other month (next 

meeting May 8th, 2007). Also look for 

our upcoming Safety Newsletter: In May, 

we'll talk about flap retraction failures 

and what to do about them. 

Historical Committee, by Chair 

Janice Templeman 

The Historical Committee is working on 

the continuing history of the club. The 

first history book, “Rockcliffe 

Ramblings,” covered 1954 through 1986. 

We would like everyone who ever had 

anything to do with the club to help us 

by sharing stories, fond memories, or 

photos, which we hope will be captured in 

print and online. Submissions can be 

forwarded to the committee through 

Brenda Reid at the club. 

Here are a few ‘firsts’ from the history 

of Rockcliffe Flying Club (1961): 

1963 - the club newsletter was named 

“The Rockcliffe Fly Paper” 

1968 - the first Cessna 150 was added 

to the Club inventory 

1969 - a Cessna 172 joined the fleet; - 

the first Private Pilot gets his 

Commercial Licence at RFC 

1975 - first female CFI – Gean 

Hemming (nee Vogler) 

1979 – new radio frequency 123.5, and 

the first official French language 

Instructors and students 

1981 - Mr. D. Buchan on the Board of 

Directors for the first time 

To trigger your memories, you 

may want to have a look at the 

copy of “Rockcliffe Ramblings” 

at the Club. 


The fly-in breakfast season begins soon, but 

what about lunch? Here are some 

recommendations for lunch venues less than 

an hour's flying distance from CYRO, and not 

only in the summer months. 

Lachute, CSE4, a favourite of RFC members, 

guarantees you a warm welcome and a wellcooked, 

promptly served, hot meal at the 

airport restaurant, Des' Airs. It's always 

rewarding to fly to Lachute down the Ottawa 

River on a clear day, with views of the Mont 

Tremblant massif to the north and the 

Adirondack Mountains to the south. Beware 

of marginal flying weather though. As 

Jacinthe of KEJY Aviation says, “Quand la 

montagne disparaît, c'est pas bon signe.” 

Mont-Laurier, CSO4. A restaurant on 

Highway 117, L'Ami du Passant, tel. 819-623- 

6219, is adjacent to the field, a few steps up 

the grassy slope from the parking apron. 

Under new management, the food quality is 

better than it used to be. The views from 

the air enroute are superb, all year round. 

Kingston, CYGK, is a destination with a whole 

range of downtown restaurants to choose 

from, but you'll have to take a taxi to and 

from the airport, thus spending an extra $30 

or so. On the other hand, you could always 

pack a picnic lunch and eat it on the shore of 

Lake Ontario; there's a little beach a couple 

of minutes' walk from where you park your 

plane. Another possibility might be to walk a 

kilometre or two or take a less expensive taxi 

ride down Front Road (the airport road) to 

Hoagie House, 708 Front Road, tel. 613-634- 

0101, for one of their hoagies. 

Brockville, CNL3, is another destination 

where you'll need a ride into town for your 

lunch. 

Fly to Lunch 

Morrisburg, CNS8, closed in winter, is the 

quickest place to reach from Rockcliffe. You 

can walk to the golf club restaurant, tel. 613- 

543-3282, or cross the road to the Upper 

Canada Village, with three eateries to choose 

from; to eat at the Village Cafe, next to the 

Village Store, you don't need an entrance 

ticket for the museum. 

Iroquois, CNP7, also closed in winter, has a 

challengingly narrow runway (2000' x 23' of 

asphalt, bordered by turf) on the north bank 

of the St Lawrence, west of Morrisburg. 

Park on the grass and walk to the Rise N 

Shine family restaurant at 58 Dundas Street, 

tel. 613-652-4334, where you can enjoy a 

hearty meal. On Sundays you'll have to 

compete for tables with the church goers. 

You could also take a walk to the locks and 

watch the ships go through, or visit the 

Carman House museum at the western end of 

the airport. 

Westport, CRL2, beyond Perth, is only open 

during the summer months because of its turf 

and gravel runway. The landing and take-off 

should be done with care, practising your 

obstacle clearance skills because of the 

nearby lake and tall trees, but from there it's 

only walking distance to the town, where 

you'll find a choice of places to eat and shops 

to explore. You could also bring a packed 

lunch and eat it at a picnic bench in the 

waterfront park. 

Or you can join Tony for lunch.. 


"Plane Speaking" 

At a recent software engineering 

management conference, the keynote 

speaker wanted to make a point about 

thorough testing. "Our industry is plagued 

by public perception that our products 

are unreliable." 

He looked around the room. "If you had 

just boarded an airliner and discovered 

that your programming team was 

responsible for the flight control 

software on the plane, how many of you 

would disembark immediately?" 

Slowly hands began to rise until only one 

man sat with hands in his lap. When asked 

what he would do, he replied that he 

would be quite content to stay onboard. 

"You're really that confident in your 

team's work?" asked the speaker. 

"With my team's software," the man said, 

"the plane is unlikely to even reach the 

runway, let alone take off." 

If Airlines Sold Paint 

Customer: “Hi. How much is your paint?” 

Clerk: “Our lowest price is $ 12 a gallon, 

and we have 60 different prices, up to $ 

200 a gallon. “ 

Customer: “ What is the difference? “ 

Clerk: “It’s all the same! “ 

Customer: “Then I’d like the $ 12 paint. 

And I want to paint tomorrow. “ 

Clerk: “Sir, the paint for tomorrow is $ 

200. “ 

Customer: “How do I get the $12 paint? “ 

Clerk: “You buy the paint now, but agree 

not to paint for 3 weeks. And you must 

paint over a Saturday night! “ 

Customer: “You’ve got to be kidding. “ 

Clerk: “Oh, the price per gallon just went 

to $ 16. “ 

Customer: “ The price went up as we were 

talking? “ 

Clerk: “We change the prices hundreds 

of times a day, so I suggest purchasing as 

soon as possible. How many gallons do you 

want? “ 

Customer: “ 5 gallons. Make that 6, so I’ll 

have enough. “ 

Clerk: “Well, sir, if you buy paint and 

don’t use it, there are penalties and 

possible confiscation of paint you already 

have. “ 

Customer: “Forget it! I’ll buy what I 

need somewhere else. “ 

Clerk: “I don’t think so, sir. You can buy 

paint for your bathroom and bedrooms 

for someone else, but you can only buy 

paint for your connecting halls from us. 

That’ll be $ 300 a gallon. “ 

Customer: “You’re insane! “ 

Clerk: “Thanks for painting with us, sir! “ 


BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

President Don Buchan 

Vice President Laurie Davis 

Treasurer François Kupo 

Secretary Bill Carscallen 

Director Paul Cuillerier 

Director John Lutes 

Director Roger Delisle 

STAFF 

Mgr/CFI Simon Garrett 

Office Manager Brenda Reid 

Instructors 

� Jacques Carriere 

� Gary Connolly 

� Kathy Fox 

� Tony Hunt 

� Steven Hyde 

� Maliha Khan 

� Ryan King 

� Andy Mitchell 

� Andrew Murton 

� Terry Peters 

� Jean Rene de Cotret 

� Marc Tomaro (New) 

Dispatch 

� Brian Cameron (New) 

� Adrian Cosstick 

� Steven Hyde 



Ramp 


� Adam Chehouri 

� Nick Roome 

Departures: 

� Dana Sponder is undergoing training in 

St. Jean for the air force. 

� Fari Abasabady has moved to the 

Caribbean. 

RFC Website Administrator – Jean Rene 

de Cotret (www.rfc.ca) 

Crosswinds Newsletter – 

We’re back! 

Editor Dorothy Berthelet 

Advertising – Joe Scoles 

Writer – Alison Hobbs 

Administration – Brenda Reid 

To be successful, we need your help. 

Want to submit an article – it doesn’t 

have to be perfect, as we’ll help fine-tune 

it. Want to provide comments or 

suggestions? Do you have some news (e.g. 

marriages, births) or photos you’d like to 

share with RFC members in the 

Crosswinds newsletter? Contact the 

editor Dorothy at canadian99s@yahoo.ca 

. 

RFC Contact Information 

The Rockcliffe Flying Club 

1495 Rockcliffe Parkway, 

Ottawa, ON K1K 4R3 

613-746-4425, 

Fax 613-746-3354 

Email rfc@rfc.ca 

Website www.rfc.ca

, Spring 2007 - Rockcliffe Flying Club

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