OFC News

On Wednesday, September 7th, 2011, Marcel Seguin celebrated 65 years as an OFC Club Member. He started joined the club in 1946 and completed his commercial license with OFC. He remembers those yearly years fondly and recalls the excitement and joy of just being around the planes. There were a wide variety of aircraft available - J3s, Tiger Moths, Fleet Canucks and others. With him were some fantastic people that went on to careers in aviation. Marcel was headed in that direction but started working with the early version of Transport Canada and ended up working on the Canada Air Pilot and enroute charts.

Marcel recently passed his aviation medical and may be the oldest licensed pilot in Canada.
Marcel Seguin: Marcel following his Commercial Flight test at the age of 19.

The Ottawa Flying Club welcomed the new intake of students from the Algonquin Aviation Management Program today. Approximately 50 students are enrolled in the program which prepares the students for a career as a professional pilot.

Today was the first day of the 16 month program, with briefings in the morning and classes starting in the evening. Although a few students have been flying with OFC for a while, the majority will start flight training on the 4th of September.

In the program, the students will achieve their commercial pilots license with additional ratings for instrument flight rules and multi-engine aircraft operation or flight instruction. On graduation, the students will be able to seek employment in the aviation industry with a goal of becoming an airline pilot.

The first milestone in the training is being able to fly solo, which most of the class should manage by the end of October.

The students in this class come from all across Canada. There are also a few international students as well. Please welcome them to OFC and encourage these new pilots in their training.

The Ottawa Flying Club is at a cross-roads and lots of things are going on behind the scenes. I wanted to take a moment and share with you the plans for the future and the rationale for changes that have and will take place in the next few months.

As you probably notices, this spring has been incredibly wet. Despite a large number of students, a renewed contract with Algonquin College, lots or aircraft available, and a severe case of spring fever, the weather has kept us on the ground much of the last two months. For students and instructor, it has been frustrating to say the least. Financially, the loss of revenue has also hurt, causing us to tighten our belts a bit.

What a difference a week can make. Environment Canada keeps forecasting a hot dry summer and it looks like it has finally arrived. For the first time in a month, we have forecasts that show consecutive sunny weather and we are making the best of it. If you've been waiting for good weather, here it is.

While dealing with the weather, we have been working diligently on other activities that may be of interest to you:

• OFC will be opening a satellite base at CARP. There have been a number of requests for flight training at Carp and there are no available schools at the airport. To support pilots in Kanata (only 5 minutes from the airport), OFC will begin scheduled training at Carp starting in early July. Most of our operations may move to Carp while runway 04-22 is repaved this summer. If you are interested in flying out of Carp Airport, please contact Dispatch (613-523-2142) and let us know.
• OFC has gained access to a Redbird simulator located at the Aviation Museum. This is a full-motion simulator that can be used to do IFR renewals. It is a great addition to our capabilities and will be added to our training where it make the most sense. If you are interested in the simulator, please contact Dispatch and make arrangements.
• We have delayed the repair to JFE until such time as we can afford the final repair costs. We remain committed to completing the repairs and hope to do so by the end of July.
• We are reorganizing to ensure OFC remains a robust and sustainable organization over the long term. As part of that reorganization, we have removed the General Manager position which means that, sadly, Mark Champagne will no longer be with us. Mark has been a stalwart member and supporter of the Club over the years. He will be missed. The parting is on good terms. Mark will be supporting us as the PRM until we can get other staff approved.
• There was a good discussion about the Ottawa Flight College at the AGM and the Board has approved a marketing plan which includes this co-brand effort. In a few weeks, I'd like to hold a seminar/information session for members to let everyone know about the plans and how the Club will benefit from this effort. I'll send out more information next week.

So despite past wet weather, OFC is looking at a good summer with lots of activity. Now is the time to fly. Come get checked out, get current and get flying!

Mike McKay
Chief Executive Officer

Fuel prices are on the rise and this will affect flying at OFC. For the last six months, we have reduced the price of fuel surcharges to zero as the price of fuel fell. As the prices rose, we have resisted the re-introduciton of fuel surcharges but, as of December 1st, unfortunately, the fuel surcharges will be back as follows:

Cessna 150 $2.27 per hour
Cessna 172 $3.14 per hour
Beech BE-76 $7.26 per hour

Our board rates for fuel will also increase to $1.59/liter for members and $1.99/liter for transient aircraft.

The fuel surcharge allows us to keep the rental rate of our aircraft constant while the fuel price goes up and down. If the prices fall again, we will reduce the surcharge accordingly.

Out appologies for the inconvienence this may cause but it is a necessary evil.

Michael McKay
CEO

Students and Members can now take advantage of our new agreement with Central Airways/Esso Avitat at Kingston Airport (CYGK).

Any C-150 or C-172 rented on the standard wet rate at the OFC can now fill up at Kingston Airport’s Central Airways/Esso Avitat at no charge to Students and Members.

After filling up, just let them know that you are from the OFC and to send the bill to us- we’ll take care of the rest*.

*This applies to CYGK ONLY.

Dispatch

An early morning flight in C-GJFE ended suddenly when the plane landed with a collapsed nose gear. Both props struck the runway and the aircraft slid to a stop on its nose. No-one was injured.

Double Prop Strike: C-GJFE after landing without a nose gear. The nose was raised successfully but the damage to the props is evident.

With DMO also off-line from a prop-strike in Rochester, OFC will be without any twin engine aircraft for the next few weeks. Rest assured we will be doing out utmost to return one of the aircraft to service as soon as possible.

5 instructors and 10 students have made it to St. John's Newfoundland this evening.The adventurous group led by instructor Terry Otsuji left the Ottawa Flying Club on Monday August 23 in 4 Cessna 172's (FEUH, GCVO, GCOH and FVZN) and the Beech Duchess (GJFE). Their route consisted of Ottawa (CYOW) to Québec City (CYQB) to Fredericton (CYFC) for the night. Tuesday to Moncton (CYQM) to Charlottetown (CYYG) to Sydney (CYQY) to St. John`s (CYYT).

Congratulations to:

Instructors:
Jeff Davey
Cameron Johnston
Kristian Kismarczi
Terry Otsuji
Cory Raby

Students:
Mark Abramenko
Ryan Braid
Jacob Burns
Niko Grosdanis
Chris Kinkade
Liam Ludlow
Chris Scrivens
Dave Thompson
Dan Whitaker
Shane Wilson

Newfoundland Trip: The OFC makes it to "The Rock"

The next Private Pilot's Licence Ground School will start 20 July 2010 at 18:30 in the lower class room at OFC, 20 Lindbergh Private, Ottawa, and will run each Tuesday evening for 18 weeks.

This ground school class is required for anyone wishing to earn a Transport Canada Private Pilot's Licence and is highly recommended for the Recrational Pilot's Licence. No prior knowledge is required to take the class. You will require the standard student pilot kit including "From the Ground UP" and the associated workbooks. The kit can be purchased from Dispatch.

Please register for this class as seating is limited. If you haven't already given your name to Dispatch, please call them at 613-523-2142 or e-mail dispatch@ofc.ca. Dispatch will be calling those who have already expressed interest. In any case, it would be a good idea to confirm your attendance ahead of time.

The cost for attendance is $350.00 + HST. The Study Kit is sold separately and costs $324.95 + HST.

As you may know, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) comes into effect tomorrow. The HST will apply on most items and services at OFC. As a result, you will notice an increase in 8% on anything that only had GST applied. The only exceptions are the following:

• Commercial Dual time - 35 hours
• Commercial Solo flight time (under supervision) - 30 hours
• Multi-engine rating
• Intrument rating
• VFR Over-the-Top rating
• Sea Plane rating (floats)
• All instructor ratings except the build up time portion of the Class 1 and Class 2 Instructor ratings.

These services will be tax exempt.

All other flight training will be taxable under the HST system. This includes the 90 hours of solo build up time for the Commercial License and all the flight time related to the Private Pilots License.

We are transitioning to a new accounting system. Eventually, it will be able to deal with the complex tax rules automatically. In the interim, dispatch will be responsible for removing the HST charges where applicable. I ask you to look at your invoices carefully to ensure the correct tax is applied.

I realize that this is a blow to students who are already in financially difficulty. We are working with Algonquin College to try to find a way to alleviate the burden the HST will cause and will let everyone know as soon as a solution is found.

If you have any concerns about this, please contact me by phone or e-mail

Mike McKay
CEO
Ottawa Flying Club.
ceo (at) ofc.ca
c: 613-724-8169

Chris Busch at the controls of OFC's simulator.OFC is pleased to announce that our new simulator has been certified for use by Transport Canada today. Chris Busch, who has been the driving force behind the simulator, performed the certification tests under the watchful eyes of two Transport Canada inspectors.

The new simulator, a CR-12 model from Precision Flight Controls, will give OFC the ability to perform single and multi-engine aircraft training, with excellent graphics and an modern instrument panel complete with Garmin 430. The instrument panel is modeled after the Beech Duchess so the training in the simulator is directly relevant to the training in the actual aircraft. The same checklists are used and the switches are all in the same position. The benefits to multi-engine training are fantastic.

The new simulator will be available to rent for instruction shortly. Note that we will not be renting this simulator for solo flights. A few people have enjoyed playing on it before it was certified. Now that the certification is complete, the simulator will be treated just like the real aircraft and used only for its intended purpose. While it is a serious tool, it is still seriously fun training.

Give us some feedback once you get the chance to fly it.