During a recent autumnweekend our pilot and his wife decided to take advantage of the beautiful dayand enjoy a leisurely flight to Heber City, Utah to visit friends and proudly showoff them their bright red Kitfox. They took their time performing theirpre-flight checks breaking up the tasks now and again to chat with friends thathad casually stopped by to visit. 

As would usually be the case on a good VFR weekend our pilotand his wife, both pilots, were taking their Katana DA20-A1 on one of theirfavorite flights from Ottawa, Ontario (CYOW) to Lachute, Quebec (CSE4) forbreakfast. Lachute, a small general aviation airport in the Montreal, Quebecarea, is a favorite destination for them because there are plenty of openfields en route (just in case), a relatively low volume of traffic east ofOttawa, a friendly staff, and great breakfasts. They also provide a free taxi serviceinto town and bikes if you want to get some exercise on your way there.

Last February, on a cold day in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canadianastronaut Bjarni Tryggvason lifted off in a working replica of the legendary SilverDart to commemorate the centennial of flight in Canada. July 2009 will mark thejourney of 100 aircraft from the west coast to the east coast so that as a massthe Century Flight may congregate on the historic maritime site to celebratethe time when 100 years ago J.A. McCurdy mounted the original Silver Dart andembarked upon the very first flight ever to take place in Canada.

Our pilot lived in San Diego, California in the early 1950sand spent his extra money feeding his Ryan PT22 fuel. He worked the swing shiftat Conair at the time. That gave him a lot of available time that he used for flying.Friends would say to him “next time you’re going flying on a nice day, I’d loveto go.” If the weather was good and their schedule permitted, our pilot gavefriends an open invitation to fly that they could take him up on by calling ifthey wanted to fly.