May finds me looking at retirement (voluntary).
In September I will be turning my companies over to my daughter and her
husband. What to do?
For a long time I've been wanting to return to flying for fun. I
trained with the R.C.A.F. in 1957 on Chipmunks and Harvards, but haven't
renewed my Private Pilot's Licence since 1975.
June 12th I pass a complete medical and renew my Private Pilot's
Licence. At the Sainte-Foy, Quebec, airport I pass my Certificate of Proficiency
in Radio and prepare for dual time in a Cessna 172, in which long ago I
have previous time.
Then fate takes hold! I find myself in the Laurentian Mountains,
about an hour and a half north of Montreal, playing in a golf tournament.
This is the first week of August and we take the chair lift to the summit
of Mont Tremblant. At 3800' ASL on a beautiful day, we can see for miles.
From there I spot, about 10 km away to the south, what appears to be a
small airport with a grass runway.
I return to the base of the mountain, jump in my jeep and start home
toward Montreal and eventually Quebec City. Approaching Saint-Jovite, I
see the small plane sign indicating the airport I had spotted from the
summit of Tremblant earlier. Curiosity (and the call) takes hold and I
turn off Autoroute 15, and drive in to the tiny Saint-Jovite airstrip.
I park beside the one (and only) building which turns out to be the hangar,
tower and home of the airport operator.
There, lined up on the apron of the runway, are four aircraft of
a type I have never seen before in my life. A tall, lanky, gray-haired
type, about my age, is ambling towards one of these beautiful Iooking aircraft.
I stop him and introduce myself to John Millette, a retired Canadian Pacific
Airlines captain. He explains to me that these fascinating aircraft are
Challengers and that, after some hours of love labor, the one in front
of me called L'il Empress is his.
We are conversing back and forth in English and French when along
comes a charming young chap (much younger than us) who introduces himself
as Jean-Marc Côté, the airport manager and flying instructor.
He quickly understands that I have never seen a Challenger, much less flown
in one, and asks if he could take me up in his for a flip about Mont Tremblant.
I say "yes", John Millette says "too bad", and
Jean-Marc and I fly away, doors off. Half an hour later, after flying over
mountains and landing on lakes, we return to the Saint-Jovite grass strip.
Now I know why John Millette said "too bad". I'm hooked!
Jean-Marc explains that he is a Challenger dealer and that these
are kit planes which take a couple of hundred hours to build. I explain
to him that I am totally enchanted with the Challenger, but that I would
never fly something I had built. If anyone ever saw me with tools in my
hands, it would be because I'm selling tools. (Not handy okay!)
Jean-Marc says "come with me". There, in his hangar, is
a brand new Challenger II,
about 85% completed, including wheels, skis and Puddlejumper floats.
This is Sunday. I give Jean-Marc a deposit to reserve this Challenger
for a while, allowing me time to go home to Quebec City and decide what
to do. Monday I buy the plane and Jean-Marc promises delivery for August
30th. I put in for registration letters to include my name if possible,
and luck in with CF-MCB (McBain).
September 5th Jean-Marc is making all kinds of excuses for not being
able to deliver on time. Saturday, September 9th I'm driving north of Quebec
City to an annual corn roast. As I arrive in the country plains and approach
my daughter's home, the road is blocked by a bunch of people.
This turns out to be a surprise birthday party for me, a bit early
as I turn 60 on September 30th. Well, there are about a hundred people
out in the fields plus an open bar, dining tent, and a méchoui -
two lambs roasting on spits over an open fire.
About one hour after my "surprise" arrival, it gets all
of a sudden very quiet and my granddaughter, six year old Kaylee, tugs
at a pant leg and says "look grampy its your plane". Sure enough,
overhead circles an aircraft and I say "not today Kaylee, but soon".
Then I take a second look.
Guess what!! Those people had fixed up an airstrip right there in
the fields. And Jean-Marc had flown three hours from Saint-Jovite to Valcartier
to deliver my birthday gift, from me to me, at my surprise birthday party.
What a shock! Well the party was a total surprise and a total success.
Jean-Marc flies back to Saint-Jovite the next day. We've made arrangements
for me to go there for my flight training in ultralights and, for the first
time ever, on floats.
September 28th I solo at 6:00 p.m. after 8 hours of dual instruction
in the Saint-Jovite / Mont Tremblant area.
September 29th at 8:00 a.m. Jean-Marc is in his Challenger, his wife
Suzanne in the back seat and five extra gallons of gas strapped to the
float struts. I am alone in my Challenger with five extra gallons of gas
strapped in the back seat. Together we take off for the COPA Fall Fest,
a fly-in at Huntsville, Ontario.
Suzanne is receiving an award and so has to be there, a great excuse
for us to make the trip. Not a bad cross country after only 8 hours total
in my plane! The weather is unreal, in the positive sense. On the way we
fly over small towns and villages at low level. Twice we stop for gas after
locating service stations from the air and landing nearby on the lakes.
This is real recreational flying! We take 5.1 flying hours to reach
the Deerhurst Resort near Huntsville.
When
we arrive at Deerhurst, Jean-Marc and I land on the lake and taxi to the
shore. With the wheels on our Puddlejumper floats lowered we proceed to
drive right up on to the beach. While other people who had arrived in "ordinary"
floatplanes are being brought ashore in small boats, we Challenger people
- Jean-Marc, Suzanne and I - simply unload our bags into a nearby Bentley
owned by Mr. Claude Michaud who drives us to check in.
Saturday, September 30th, Jean-Marc and I move our Challengers from
the beach to the airstrip, where the majority of the fly-in aircraft are
parked, in order to share the beauty of our craft with other, less fortunate,
flying folk. Here we leave our babies and start celebrating, as today is
my 60th birthday. At the evening banquet Suzanne receives her "Award
of Merit" and we have a great time celebrating this too.
Sunday the two Challengers take off on a beautiful morning and depart
Huntsville for Saint-Jovite. We have a tail wind and Jean-Marc figures
we can make the return trip with one gas stop instead of two.
Over the Ottawa River we are running on the smell of a grease rag.
However, Jean-Marc with wife and baggage, is heavier than me and his grease
rag runs out first. He does a deadstick onto the Ottawa River, right in
front of Davidson, Quebec, with me, still under power, right behind him.
Jean-Marc has the extra five gallons lashed to his float struts and
does a fast mid-stream refuel. Meanwhile, I taxi ashore. It is now 2 o'clock
on a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon. The local population had both seen
and heard the two aircraft overhead. When I taxi ashore the locals are
there to watch. Jean-Marc follows me in. We are treated as Sunday afternoon
entertainment. Four wheel drives pick us up, fetch extra jerry cans and
off we go to the nearest, and only, service station, about 5-6 miles away.
We
return and fuel up, then our driver wants to know if we are hungry. His
sister has a snack bar about a hundred yards or so from our planes. We
go there and she is happy. The lady says that with our two planes on the
beach she will have a good afternoon. I offer to rent her my Challenger
as a sign.
We have lunch and, after good-byes all round, take off in formation
for Saint-Jovite. Our total flying time from Huntsville to Saint-Jovite
is 3.8 hours.
Monday it's another beautiful day and I'm off to bring Challenger
CF-MCB to its new home base, Saint-Lambert de Lévis, 15 minutes
south of my home in Sainte-Foy. Jean-Marc said he would fly with me to
Trois-Rivières. The two Challengers are in the air again, heading
east.
The owner of the Saint-Lambert Airport, Daniel Sasseville, knows
we are on the way. When we arrive at Trois-Rivières, Daniel is awaiting,
having flown in with his Rebel. At this point, Jean-Marc decides to escort
us to Saint-Lambert, so the three aircraft head east together.
Exactly 2.5 hours flying time from Saint-Jovite, the Saint-Lambert
Airport welcomes home its first Challenger.
From September 28th to October 2nd the Challenger and I have flown
21.5 hours together. The aeroplane has found its man!
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