Chic's Take Flight

The day had finally arrived! After 7 months of planning with a great group of ladies, our endeavour had finally come to be!


I arrived at the clubhouse early Saturday morning to help set up. Although things fell through with the 187 Squadron Dream Flyer flight simulator, the SAC sim was amazing! Three large projector screens illuminated by projectors on stands. They use the Condor flight sim software which was really cool!

Mini ground school lessons didn’t entirely go according to plan, only because we didn’t receive the number of people we had hoped for and therefore there were times when the tow planes were spooling and the gliders sat empty. So there was a drive to get paying individuals through their Theory of Flight and Walk Around lessons before sending them down to the flight line. This gave others that had previously been seated an opportunity to walk around and thus altered the ground school plans we had in plan.

I’m certain that if the winds had been from the East instead of the West, the flow of people would have been a lot better/different, as an East wind would have kept the launch site right beside the hangar and all of the action.

Speakers were a huge hit!! Thanks to Selena and Rebecca for a great job!! Lunch (as with any event) was also a hit! The wives of some of the club members did a great job BBQ’ing and all seemed to go over well.

When things finally started to wind down, I got a chance to fly! I was going to get in their new DG1000 the club bought from Germany, but there were a couple of people ahead of me in the pecking order. The Duo Discus however was vacant, so I said I didn’t mind going in that one. In hind sight I wish I had of gone in the K-21 or waited for the DG, only because I am a little selfish and had I of flown with an instructor I could have logged it! (Not that I need the dual time, but to be able to put the DG in my logbook would have been great!) So the Duo Discus was privately owned, and the gentleman that flew me was not an instructor. Actually, when he asked if I’ve ever flown in a Duo Discus before, I said “apart from the flight in the one flight in the K-21 I had about a month ago, all of my other 1500+ flights have all been in a 2-33”....He looked at his co-owning partner and said “I think I’m not qualified to fly you....you have more flights then the two of us combined....”.....oh lord.....haha. So he flew the launch and after release let me practice my thermalling techniques. And then I flew the circuit while he did the checks and then he took control and landed. It was AWESOME! I felt like I was looking out the window of a West Jet flight! LONG white wings (20m wing span with a glide ratio of 47:1!) I expected her to be extremely responsive, but her weight and sleek wings gave her just the right amount of sluggishness and made her a dream to fly!!

All in all, it was a great day, despite a couple of hiccups. Lessons learned for next year though! Right Chic’s? http://www.chicstakeflight.ca/

Bev's Alberta Adventures!

As I’m sure you can imagine. Life is never dull when you make my acquaintance :) Such is the case for my mother's visit. She flew out on her birthday, June 29th and stayed for two weeks.


Friday: Her flight got changed from arriving at lunch time to arriving at 11:40pm….This put a little hitch in the plan, because we had originally discussed going to Camrose to visit my cousin and the kids. So we went straight home from the airport and spent the next few days around High River. In fact, I met her at the airport with balloons (that all popped before she even saw them because of the air pressure inside the terminal) [which as a side note, if you don’t want people to look in the direction of a sound that comes across as gun shots or a bomb...don't take balloons to the airport....] In the car I had a strawberry cheesecake waiting, with two spoons and a trunk full of more balloons!

Saturday: By the time we woke up and got ready, it was after lunch, so we stopped into my work- the palace- and she took pics and videos of EVERYTHING…then went to the farmers market in Calgary, before going for a feed of sushi at my fave sushi bar, Kinjo!

Sunday: We drove to the world heritage site of Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump where there is an interpretive center. Met up with her cousin Suzanne and Suzanne's daughter and grand-daughter. Long drive but lots of big sky to look at. When we got back, I did up a big BBQ and then got to walk off all the calories when we walked into High River where they had Canada Day fireworks.

Monday: Thought we’d try for the mountains, but unfortunately the weather didn’t look great, so we drove to the city and to the grave site of her brother- very emotional, followed by the Canada Olympic Park of the ’88 Olympics, and then to Calgary tower before going home. There was a very obnoxious Indian family there. The children were running around screaming the whole time. Bumping into people without regard or apology and leaving their garbage on the floor. Seriously. It was an instant dose of birth control and completely appalling that parents would let their demonic children behave that way.

Tuesday: I worked that morning and then her and I drove into the city and met up with my cousin and we went to some big indoor gardens thing in a mall. It was very humid inside and was covered large windows. It felt as though we were in a green house....while high end fashionista's shopped below us.

Wednesday: I took her to my cousins in the morning on my way to the city for work and then worked all day before driving up to the city and having dinner with my cousin, her husband and my mom.

Thursday: was my first day in the field. She came with me. Really wanted to see what I do. She found it very interesting, albeit smelly....I had to keep reminding her that that was the smell of moola...no pun intended...ok, some pun intended... Then we went to the Chinook honey factory to see the people I house sit for occasionally. Taste tested some mead and bought some honey, preserves and their new STAMPEDE MEAD (Thursday was their release day in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede).

Friday: worked again in the morning, went home for lunch, and then picked her up a couple of hours later and we went in to the stampede and watched some heavy horse stuff and team cattle penning with Charlotte.
Saturday: took the morning light, and then had two back to back ball games that afternoon. She helped us out big time, because we were short a player and would have had to of forfeited the games if she didn’t help. So she served as the back catcher. This was the first time she played ball since her youth, and needless to say, she was a little sore the next few days.

Sunday: went to spruce meadows for the day. This was a first for me as well. There were TONS of people there, as it was the North America championship. A lot of big name competitors were there. Also a large military presence as they were paying homage to the Queens Diamond Jubilee. After that we drove into the city a little further and dinner with a family friend. It was late before we finally returned home.

Monday: Was in the field this day as well. She came with me again, and in the evening we went to the movies with a bunch of girls from work. We saw "Magic Mike"......well, I would just like to say for the record, that I clearly did not have a solid appreciation for what that movie was about..because had I of known, I WOULD NOT have taken my mother to it!!!! Lord, I laughed....a lot, and out loud, a lot. But the laugh was one of nervousness and embarrassment. I tried to occasionally steal a look at her, to gauge her reaction, but maybe a little unsuccessfully. I didn't really bring it up with her much after the movie. I think I was still embarrassed!

Tuesday: Worked in the morning and took the afternoon off. We went up to the BIIIG mall north of the city because she wanted to go to the Coach purse outlet at the mall. She bought two purses! a Guess and a Coach purse…We had a ball game that night too and only because we were short players, I decided we'd go. This time she kept score for us because we had a player or two more than Saturday's back to back games.

Wednesday: Mountains all day. Had a flight booked- but had to cancel because we wouldn’t have made it back in time. Left at 8 am and didn’t get home until 1030! We went for another feed of sushi once back in the city. We visited Banff and Lake Louise, rode to the top of Sulphur mountain in the Gondola, got a good sunburn, walked along Banff Ave. and visited in shops here and there along the way. Even found us a Christmas store!! Only we would manage to find a Christmas store on a day that was +30 degrees out!! She bought me a really cute nativity scene I saw and liked.

Thursday: I worked this day- she again came in the field with me. I went to a funeral that night for a good cowboy that lost his life after struggling to regain his health following a massive heart attack. Originally had the flight booked for this day, but rescheduled to Wednesday because of the funeral.

Friday: Took the morning off work and went in to stampede. I worked at the stampede from 3-8 so mom just walked around. We took in “Tails”, the rodeo and chucks, as well as the grand stand show which was basically a cirque de soleil performance with unreal fireworks!! Paul Brandt was a main performer and was phenomenal!

Saturday: I worked- had 5 deads in 4 stops. Took her to the set of “Heartland” the TV show on CBC, and then to Ian Tyson’s café in Longview and the Longview jerky shop (world’s best jerky- or so they say). Went for dinner with my aunt and cousin that night. Last time either of us saw them in person was 1992. That was a lot of fun and it was great to see them after so long.

Sunday: Mom took the morning to pack before we headed to the city and had breakfast at Cora’s before taking her to the airport. After dropping her off, I made my way back to the stampede grounds so that I could take in a few of the displays that I had wanted to see, but didn’t have time to on Friday. In fact, I even got a free ticket from work to go and watch the Rodeo finals!! Although it RAINED, and I got SOAKED, it was a stellar end to the 10 days of rodeo. I headed out into the field after that, and unfortunately missed my Chic's Take Flight meeting- but the rodeo was definitely worth going to, albeit the later start to my work day.

And that is the quick and dirty of my mom's trip to the wild wild west!!

Stay tuned for the full recap of Chic's Take Flight!! http://www.chicstakeflight.ca/

The eve of Christmas eve (in July)...

Well! I'll start by wishing you a Merry Christmas (In July)! Not that that has anything to do with the post Im about to write :)


The last time I wrote, I told you about May long weekend and all of the flying that I've done. This time I’m going to recap about "Uncle Lyle's" branding. THEN! I think in a separate post I'll tell you about my mom's trip out to cow town, and then finally a third post highlighting our Chic's Take Flight event!

So here goes!

I drove down to Medicine Hat Friday night and had a great feed of sushi with Joany and the boys. Joan made a big breakfast Saturday morning before we headed off to Uncle Lyle's branding. Words can’t even describe how delicious the breakfast was! I'll have to find a recipe and post it. We arrived at the branding at about 1pm and started right away.

Uncle Lyle is one of my favorite uncles :) Joan’s family welcomed me back right away- I love this about them! Her uncle gave me a big kiss and thanked me profusely for making the trip down to help. This was my third year attending his branding. They're always a lot of fun. Lots of people, lots of laughs and lots of great food!

We branded 100 calves, but luckily it went very quickly, unlike the branding I had been at a few weeks before where about 10 people were descending on one animal….this time the calf was only getting two vaccines, a tag, a brand and if a male, was castrated. To put that into perspective, a few weeks before we had two vaccines, 2 tags, dehorned, branded, cut, and given an analgesic if male, and then some antibiotic for sick ones.

As I said, his wife, Karen- a saint! put on a HUGE spread of food for us all. It was fantastic, really. After a delicious meal, and desserts, we cooked up the nuts. DELICIOUS!

We finally made our way back to Medicine Hat and got cleaned up so that we could go bowling with some friends. As a side note...I hate losing……. But MAN did I ever suck at bowling. Eventually I gave in to my crappiness and accepted that I can’t be good at everything. Now bowling can be added alongside driving a trailer and snowboarding to the list of things I suck at.

Sunday was spent fairly lazy. It had rained all night and all day Sunday. (Thank god the weather held for the branding). So Joan and I headed to the mall so that I could spend some money before heading back to High River early.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and a great opportunity to get away for a few days and relax by doing something I love!!

Stay tuned for Bev's Alberta Adventures....

May long 2012!

What a fantastic weekend! Relatively great weather, filled with flying, flying and more flying. Three days of it actually!!

Saturday we were gliding out of Vulcan. It was a little bit of a cold day with lots of low hanging cloud and a good clip of wind. Around the time we packed up and finished for the day the big ball of bright light in the sky finally showed up to the party. Seriously- I spent the ENTIRE DAY in my winter flight jacket! But we got all of the cadets flown, and that's all that matters.

On Sunday, I got to put my power fam upgrade to use! I flew 5 cadets in two shifts that resulted in 2 hours of free flying time!! We flew from Okotoks to High River and to AJ ranch and back. The weather was absolutely great in the morning and then come afternoon the convective activity had increased and it was a little bumpier. Man I wished that I had of been gliding! Once I was done power flying for the morning, I found my way to Vulcan to do some trailer driver training. I was a little bummed, because I was expecting to be tested in order to receive my trailer endorsement on my military drivers licence........I didn't do so hot however...in fact, I had never even DRIVEN anything hauling a trailer before! AND THIS WASN'T NO DINKY LITTLE TRAILER! This was a 30 something foot tin can! And Greg (the examiner/instructor) decided it would be best to go into town and make left and right turns on basically one way streets......needless to say I was hyperventilating a little... ok, a lot..... I may or may not have broken down into tears. Only after I drove the tin can back to the airport though.... I fought back the urge to call it quits DURING the trip though. Or, I also thought about just pulling over and making Greg drive it back. I got better though....apparently. I eventually stopped hitting the curbs.... Not before town-folk got their comments in..."you know the airport is THAT way right?" or "You folks LOST?????"......yup.....that happened..... So then I went back to practice backing up with said 30ft tin can. That too got better and better. Eventually I got the trailer backed up 90 degrees, unhooked it and then hooked up the "DINKY LITTLE TRAILER" I mentioned earlier. That too took a few(x10) attempts, but I did get it backed up 90 degrees too.  That escapade concluded the day.

TODAY! I went out to the Cu Nim gliding club. This was all in prep for our Chics Take Flight event this summer (http://www.chicstakeflight.ca/). I've never previously been to a civilian gliding club before. Back home, there were only ever two in the region, both of which were/are in Nova Scotia. So I never got to fly anything other than the 2-33. Today, that all changed!!  I bought a tow ticket and got towed to 2000' in the ASK-21with an instructor strapped in behind me. It was the first time in God knows how long that I've flown aero tow- so that was a little on the weak side..... And then we thermaled! It was great. It was the first time that I've ever really done any amount of thermalling. We don't really encourage it in the air cadet gliding program because it doesnt really go hand in hand with an efficient operation. So this was an awesome experience. I flew the K-21 from take off straight through to landing it!! They were even working on me pretty good to take up membership there and come out to fly...we'll see!

Here's a picture!

All in all, it was a great weekend filled with flying, flying and more flying and I loved every minute of it!!!

Up to speed...

Well hello again! It's been almost a year since my last post.  As it turns out, I had been just about to build Noah's ark due to the ridiculous rain during the writing of the last post, and right now I'm beginning to collect supplies for a second year in a row in preparation for the impending flood...seriously! When is it going to stop raining???  It hasn't been all bad though! I've been super busy lately and the weather hasn't been bad THE WHOLE TIME!

Here are some updates from the land of Ashley to get you up to speed...

Spring has sprung, and so has spring gliding operations. We're back operating out of the Vulcan municipal airport this spring, although the field has been a little wet, and our staff has been a little short to actually get a launch off. In the mean time, our staff has been up at the Netook gliding center getting current and proficient so that when we're up and running in the South then we'll be GOOD TO GO!

In Jan/Feb/Mar I did weekend courses completing my Captains Qualification course! FINALLY! It's only the third time that I've been loaded on the course (couldn't attend the other 2 times). So I finally have all of the prerequisites to get promoted....all but one that is. I need to assume a position requiring the rank of Captain- which I will step in to come September.

In October I applied for a grant through the military in order to time build on my private pilot licence. This grant would help me get up to the required time for doing power familiarization flights in the Air Cadet program. I only found out that I got it on Jan 13th, and my first flight was on Jan 30th.  All flying had to be completed by March 11th. THANKFULLY I completed all of my training flights and am now eligible to do power fams!! I have my first job lined up already with my home unit, 187 Foothills RCACS.

At the end of March I traveled to Gimli, Manitoba with the Commanding Officer (CO) of my gliding site to attend the Regional CO's conference and Field Supervisors Seminar. It was a great conference and provided me with the opportunity to network and meet new friends and place faces to those in the program that I have either only heard about or had the privileged of speaking to on the phone. We had some great guest speakers come in as well from Ottawa and Winnipeg. Unfortunately we didn't fly when we were there, because we got winded out :(  Suited me fine though, because I had basically been on my death bed prior to travelling to Manitoba and felt better, so I left my drugs at home (unable to fly with them) only to regress and hate life for the few days that I was in Gimli. Although I'd like to blame it entirely on being sick, I have a feeling that the sleep deprivation, dehydration, excess liver work out, close to 3000' elevation difference and extreme change in humidity also played a factor.

Just before leaving for Gimli, I found out that I had been picked up to attend a national Flight Safety course in which upon completion I would be certified as a Basic Investigator capable of conducting aviation based crash investigations. I just got back from Winnipeg last week, where I had spent the 2 weeks previous, attending the course. It was a lot of fun! Again, I made a lot of new facebook friends! and gave my liver a work out, all while attending classes from 8am to sometimes 5pm. Three meals a day. Lots of grease. Lots of hockey games (damn you Pens, Boston, Ottawa, and Van). Lots of laughs. I look forward to the challenge that being a member of the flight safety team brings, and although I sincerely hope that I never have to use my new found skills, I know that I have been taught well and will be able to apply myself when the time comes.  Hazmat suits, interviewing, media relations, impounding...oh my!

Thanks to my friend Cherie Andrews of Chinook Honey, I have been helping to organize a Women in Aviation (WIA) event that is being hosted at the CuNim gliding club in Black Diamond, Alberta. It's called "CHICS TAKE FLIGHT". I just KNOW that it's going to be a great success! We've been meeting regularly and things are progressing really well. Check out the website for the event: www.chicstakeflight.ca
I've even made contact with Capt Riel Erikson from the Discovery Channel show "JET STREAM". She's going to be one of our special female guests for the event!  Unfortunately though, she won't be bringing her CF-18 in to the airport....a little tough to take off on the grass :)

This weekend is our 70th anniversary and open house/grand opening of our cadet building in High River. I'll be in uniform all day :( I already know my feet are going to hurt.... Right now the forecast is calling for rain on Saturday, so although I SHOULDN'T be happy, if we don't fly because of the weather, then I won't feel bad for missing it for the 70th :) Good rationale, right? 

No for non-aviation related news...

I tried my darndest to get Garth Brooks tickets...but apparently they sold out in 58 seconds  (and in entirety in 36 mins). I had no chance in hell...But apparently neither did any other Calgarians! People are P***ed off! And he has no intentions of doing another show. Not only that, tickets were 62$, and a max of 6 tickets per person! So those that got through, bought them all, and are now selling them on kijiji for 4500$!!! NOT EVEN LYING!

I'm playing slow pitch again this summer with coworkers. Should be another fun filled experience. I feel I could only have improved after last year....

Spent Easter in Camrose visiting with my lovely family.

My mom is coming out here this summer for 2 weeks.

Moved into a new apartment in January. My coworker Charlotte moved down to Oklahoma to attend graduate studies at Oklahoma State University. She's coming back this weekend though to spend the summer here, working PT for FHMS and PT doing he graduate research. Im super excited for her to be here!!

And although there are definitely a few other things that I can think of right now to mention, Im not. Im going to go to bed instead . I don't generally function well on less than 8 hours of sleep..... that too is a story for another time.

With so many exciting things happening this summer though, I think I'll try to update my blog a little more frequently than once a year.....

Toodles for now! And remember, check out www.chicstakeflight.ca and keep the blue side up.

-A