CHANGING WEATHER, CHANGING HABITS 

Snow is upon us and just like we change our driving habits, we must change our weather habits. Being a little more diligent checking the weather from your favorite weather office will ensure the correct “go-no-go” decision. During summer conditions, taking off under blue skies without checking the weather may have worked, not recommended, but it may have worked. During the winter months, I will guess more likely than not; that habit will not work!  Departing may work, but a few hours later trying to get back to your point of departure may have the pucker factor off the chart or worse. The likelihood of spending a cold lonely night, 30 miles from town, in a snow storm, wishing you had checked the weather, becomes very real! The weather this time of year changes so quickly, we must be on our toes.

What I like to do, and it can be done in short order, is to go to weather.gc.c (Government of Canada Weather Office) and take a look at the “Current Conditions” of my departure point and my route. I then take a look at the “Radar” to see what weather is really happening or may be moving in. Then I move down to “Aviation”, the link to Nav Canada’s website; where I can read the “Metar/Taf” for the areas I will be flying; if you are like me, click on the “Plain Language” feature, it takes the guess work out of it. Finally I take a look at the “Graphical Area Forecast” to get an overall picture. Notam’s, Winds, Pirep’s and many other weather products are also readily available from both these sites. So like our driving habits make sure you adjust your “Weather Habits” to suite the conditions. 

Safe Flying!

Glenn Graham 

GACP President 

CONGRATULATIONS!

To Jake Gougeon On His First Solo

Client Testimonial 

“We recently purchased a Bell 206 L3 from Glenn and had it shipped down to N.Z. Glenn was an absolute pleasure to deal with and conducted the whole process in a friendly & professional manner. He had a great team to arrange shipping and getting the outstanding work on machine done. We were kept fully informed throughout the whole process - complete with photos. We wouldn’t hesitate to use his services again.”  ​ ​

Tim Rayward Operations Manager / Air Safaris

AIRCRAFT FOR SALE 

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1978 Bell 206 Bill JetRanger

                  2009 Bell 206 L4                                                  2007 R44 Raven II

    Call Glenn at (705) 923-1552 or email at glenn@grahamaviationconsulting.com

Trivia From AirCache

What was the name of the helicopter used in the TV series "M*A*S*H"?

Radar O’Reilly could always hear them coming before anyone else — the choppers, bringing the day’s wounded from the battlefields of the Korean War. The chopper was so central to “M*A*S*H” that sometimes only the sound of the spinning blade could signal drama about to unfold.

There is a particular poignant episode, “Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde” where the main character, Hawkeye, goes three days without sleep as the wounded keep coming and coming aboard the helicopters. Whenever he hears the sound of the choppers, he reacts like Pavlov’s dog.

The unique-looking bubble canopy helicopter is almost as unique as the television show itself, but what helicopter did “M*A*S*H” feature?

It is the Bell H-13 “Sioux” light helicopter. It was developed from the Bell 47 model built by Texas’s own Bell Helicopter. The H-13 had a long and storied history in all five branches of the United States armed forces and those of many other countries as well. More than 2,400 were built, including hundreds built by Westland Helicopters for the Royal Air Force.

The “Sioux” was extremely reliable and utterly simple to fly, as far as helicopters go. The helicopter served U.S. forces from the late 1940s through the start of the Vietnam War before it was replaced by the Hughes OH-6 “Cayuse,” based on the MD 500. A variant of the MD 500, called the MH-6 “Little Bird” is in service to this day and was the smaller helicopter featured in the book/movie/real-life battle “Black Hawk Down.”

The “Sioux” was used for observation and medevac missions. It was also used as a trainer. It could be armed with machine guns, but the recoil put too much of a strain on the chopper’s engine, and it was rarely used in an armed role.