1988/2 Apr/May FREEFLIGHT 
MARITIME ZONE

In the memory of most Maritimers the summer of ’87 was great — just lovely. Warm, sunny days and cool nights made the perfect vacation season. But that’s not quite the way the soaring pilots remember it. The, flying year started out with strong, gusty winds that kept the solo students and the low-time pilots pretty well grounded for safety reasons, and went on through May, June, and the early part of July with fair to good soaring conditions each week from Monday to Friday, but low clouds, rain, and cool temperatures almost every weekend.

Later on, however, there were a few super soaring days and on one of these, Tom Foote, our resident cross-country expert, made a 400 km flight in his Open Cirrus that took him across the province to the Atlantic side and over the Halifax-Dartmouth harbor area where he took a roll of the finest glider-to ground still pictures I’ve ever seen. Speaking of cross-country flying, the Bluenose club now has on its roster one Charles Yeates, whom many of you will remember as having held quite a number of Canadian speed and distance records back in the 50s and 60s. He had been out of the soaring game for many years, but after joining the club in the spring of ’87 and polishing his old skills through the summer, he proceeded to prove that “the past is the present” by breaking a Canadian soaring record while on a vacation trip to Australia. Charles and his wife posted a new speed for the 200 km multiplace triangle while flying a Lark out of Tocumwal in New South Wales.

The poor weather at the start of the season cut the total number of Bluenose club flights to just over 1100 from the normal of about 2000, while the other club in the zone, the New Brunswick Soaring As association, managed only 30 or 40 flights. Unfortunately, their numbers have been going down steadily for the past few years and they ended the ’87 season with only one glider and two active members. They have a winch for sale, by the way, and by the time this goes to press, their 2-33 will probably be available as well. As with most small clubs the New Brunswick outfit was sparked by a small but enthusiastic group of pilots who put much more than their share of time and effort into keeping the club going. In this case, they were all young and, as luck would have it, they all ran into the demands of work schedules, raising small children, and keeping the spouse happy at the same time. As a result, club activities had to take a back seat and the driving core of the group dissolved. C’est la vie!

The Nova Scotia club has remained at the same number (30) for the past few years with the normal attrition being balanced by the annual intake of new students. Every year they hold a week-long training course about the end of May and this proves to be very effective in bringing in the new blood. The SAC Board of Directors visited Stanley en masse when they came to Nova Scotia for their fall meeting. They all flew in the club ships and for several of them it was their first winch launch. (My God! What an angle of climb!)

A potential wave site was discovered on Cape Breton island during the latter part of the year, but there wasn’t enough time to set up a camp and test its possibilities. A new mobile winch is now under construction and we expect to check out this site, along with a number of other good soaring locations in 1988.

Respectfully submitted,
Gordon Waugh, Zone Director