Pilgrimage to Baddeck
100 Years Of Ultralights
COPA Flight
December 2009
by Andre Girard, Mike Prescott,
Claude Roy, Patrick Vinet

In February 1909 the Silver Dart flew off the ice on Bras d'Or Lake at Baddeck, Nova Scotia to make Canada's first powered flight. J.A.D. McCurdy was PIC and Alexander Graham Bell led the design team. The 65 hp pusher engine had the 860 lb Silver Dart airborne at 43 mph. This sure sounds like an ultralight to us! To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of powered flight in Canada, the Canadian Challenger Owners Association made an amphibious Pilgrimage to Baddeck.

COPA Flight is published monthly by the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association.
It has a readership of 50,000 Canadian aircraft owners, licensed pilots and aviation enthusiasts.
COPA goes beyond keeping us informed and entertained - it also represents our best interests.

The pilgrimage took 11 days and covered nearly 2,000 miles - Ottawa to PEI to Baddeck, NS and back. The return trip was executed post haste to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Bill which was bearing down on the Maritimes! Twenty-two stops were made enroute to visit new places, meet new people and make new friends. The full article occupies the front cover, the cover of the second section and three more pages plus it contains numerous great colour pictures.

Here is a sampler - click on the pictures below to see enlargements:

"Dawn Patrol"

"Big Brother Is Watching"

"Green On Green"

"Not Saskatchewan"

"I Wonder What's Over The Horizon?"

"PEI B&B"

"Miss PEI"

"Chicago O'Hare At Rush Hour"

"How Challengers Really Get From A To B"

"Yes Virginia, That Really Is A Runway"

"Amigos"

"You Too Could Be In This Picture"

At the 20th Annual Challenger Winter Rendezvous on January 22-24, 2010 the voyageurs presented these and many more pictures along with the inside anecdotes from their adventure. Attendees had a most entertaining soiree - click here for the scoop on The Big Two Oh!

Why do voyageurs voyage? In the words of Lord Byron (ahem, somewhat modified by Bryan):

          Oh, who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried,
          And danced in triumph through the air so wide,
          The exulting sense - the pulse's maddening play,
          That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way?


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