NOTAM
Next Event: Stetson Winter Fun Fly... 2 March, 2019
This Notice to Air Men (NOTAM) is a permanent feature to keep you informed about the Stetson Club. Check back often as this information is updated in real-time.
Thank you
January 5, 2019 is...
...the annual Stetson first flight of the year event!
Although it did not occur on New Year's Day due to the risk of unsafe road and field conditions, the 2019 First Flight held on 5 January was a total success. The flying conditions were almost perfect, with above freezing temperatures and very light winds. The day began with hazy and light gray skies, which posed challenges to pilots flying white planes, but this improved considerably as the morning progressed.
Sixteen members took part in the event, and after the usual first flight friendly competition and presentations, several people stayed on and enjoyed a very pleasant morning of flying.
The honours for first in the air went to Nigel Chippindale in the Electric power category, and to Gary Robertson in the IC engine category. The winners each got a very nice engraved medallion donated by John Jackson, and a pair of fingerless gloves donated by one of the 'knitting ladies' from the Blackburn Hamlet Community Church Knit Café.
Many thanks to Simon and Hal for taking photos, and to the executive for organizing the event and preparing the field.
Enjoy the pictures. Jon's ultra micro SE5A looks great!
Pierre Coulombe
Treasurer/Field Coordinator
Photos: Goose. Click image above for the album.
November 29, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson Christmas party!
Over seventy Stetson members and family filled our room at the Mandarin this past Thursday evening for the annual Christmas Party. Children young and old had a chance to sit on Santa's knee and several lucky ones received gifts from the jolly old Elf himself! It was gratifying to see so many spouses join us again this year. Our hobby/sport often finds us taking time away from them to fly, so it's great that we get to say thanks with this Christmas Party.
The Mandarin was ready for us, providing an excellent banquet once more, with incredibly fresh and tasty dishes for all tastes. Thanks to Mason Ma and his staff for taking great care of us once again.
This year saw a special Thank You presentation made to our mowing contractor for his hard work over the past 4 or 5 seasons. Michel, we wish you good times ahead in your retirement, and thank you for a great job on our behalf!
We want to thank Great Hobbies as well, for their generous donation of gift certificates. These were given out to the lucky ticket holders as door prizes, along with several additional items including an airplane, some free student memberships, and Spa gift certificates for the ladies.
Our 'Special' awards this year celebrated three very different circumstances:
Christopher Simon, only 4 years old, was recognized as our youngest ever pilot. A very proud papa stood up with his boy to receive the award. Even Santa was impressed with Chris's achievement!
Gabriel Muglia was rewarded for the most crooked flight of the year and presented with a suitable trophy and a free invitation to Goose's Flight School next year! We hope that works out for you, Gabe!
Norm Kihl was recognized for his NEVER-ENDING efforts to fly his little electric Mini-Stik around the world! (one flight at a time) He has nearly two thousand flights on this little wonder, and it is still going strong! By calculation, he is about 1/3 of the way….
A big thank you goes out to our Santa Claus, for showing up and entertaining all with his spirit! Major thanks also to Dan and Pierre for their tireless behind the scenes efforts to ensure our event ran flawlessly.
Merry Christmas to All, and may Santa bring everyone the true gifts of peace, health, and joy this season.
Gary Robertson
Events Director
Photos: Gary Robertson. Click image above for the album.
August 25, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson Giant Scale & Pig Roast Event!
34 registered pilots, countless spectators and many volunteers were in attendance for a weekend of flying, fun and friends. Weather was perfect on Saturday despite the Southerly wind.
A lot of flying was done on Saturday. 31 people stayed for the roast pig dinner catered by the Master Chef Ed Whynott who left no-one empty and put on a feast!
Huge thanks to Event Director Gerry Nadon, and all the volunteers for your assistance and hard work.
Thanks to Larry & Goose for the pictures. As you will see from the pictures, the weather was nice and windy on Saturday. A decision was made during Saturdays dinner to cancel Sunday because of expected weather. This summers weather is up and down... even Environment Canada has a problem to keep up.
Dan Marcotte
President
Photos: Goose. Click image above for the album.
August 11-12, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson IMAC Event!
Stetson Field was host to twenty three pilots and families this past weekend, August 11-12. With absolutely perfect weather, we all enjoyed a really superb weekend of flying and friendship. The great attendance was wonderful to see, and hopefully a positive sign of things to come. Notably, we saw four from Northern Ontario, plus several from the Quebec region join us this year. A number of the IMAC regulars travelled up from the GTA to join us as well.
This is a World Championship year for IMAC, and we were pleased to see several of the Team Canada members at the event, including Captain Canada, Lee Prevost!
As always, the Stetson Canteen Crew took great care of us for lunches both days. Thanks go out to the Denyers, who set up and ran the canteen for both days, with help from Les, Rene, and other Stetson helpers.
Our Chief Scorer, IT Guru and Statistician, Michel Boulerice, kept us up to date instantly with results and standings throughout the weekend. Hiding in the "Bat Cave" for the whole weekend isn't the most fun, but he made the most of it and kept those results coming! Such a Jokester! He greeted me first thing Saturday AM with the statement
"The System Just Crashed!" Fortunately, he got it going again! No wonder we pay him so well!
The Pit Master, Head Infield Whip, and Major-General of everything to do with keeping us organized was David Martin, doing another wizard job again this year. David has a tough and thankless job, tracking down judges and scribes for two days. It is simply amazing how quickly the carefully made up judging matrix is trashed once the event starts! Thanks David! Just charge up the headache remedy on your invoice please!
Flying dual flight lines provided some added excitement, however all worked out well with zero mishaps. Of course, yours truly had to add some level of misadventure with a couple of dead sticks! There I was, inverted over the treeline, yadda yadda….you've heard it all before!
Saturday evening saw most of us at the Royal Crown Pub for dinner and refreshments.
It is a fun evening of talking aerobatics, equipment, flying, judging, and just relaxing.
It's amazing to me how the more refreshments we consumed, the better we flew!
Sunday morning featured the dreaded UNKNOWNS and all the focus and hyper-attention they bring. Then the unique experience of flushing the unknowns from your mind and flying the regular sequence again…very bizarre!
When all the dust settled, Michel had the winning scores for us:
Basic: 1. Ed McMann, Stetsons. (first IMAC contest!)
2. Tony Garbisch Stetsons
3. Marcel Bastien Montreal
Sportsman: 1. Juan Velasquez Jr. Montreal
2. Pierre Coulombe Stetsons
3. Jason (Hollywood) Thompson Sudbury
Intermediate: 1. Dan Reichert Brampton
2. Glen Lundrigan Toronto
3. Paul McMillan Toronto
Advanced: 1. Dave Rees, Stetsons
Unlimited: 1. Juan Velasquez, Sr. Montreal
2. Denis Dionne Montreal
3. Lee Prevost Sudbury
Thanks to ALL the pilots who entered and helped us enjoy a tremendous event this year. Without your participation, there is no event!
We wish Team Canada the very best this September as they travel to Muncie, Indiana AMA headquarters, to do battle in the World Championships of IMAC!
See you all back in Ottawa next year!
Gary Robertson. CD.
Photos: Gary Robertson. Click image above for the album.
June 23, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson Heli and Multirotor Fun Fly Event!
The Heli and Drone Racing Fun Fly was held on Saturday, 23 June 2018. Weather kept changing every few hours/minutes and maybe kept a few people away but the weather was decent and certainly allowed for an enjoyable and relaxing event.
Special thanks to our contest director Jim Denyer and his volunteers for all their help and for volunteering their time to make this event happen.
Special mention must also be made to Shami and his Ottawa FPV Riders for their very exciting and informative Drone Racing, thank you guys.
Hal MacDonald
Vice-President
Photos: Goose. Click image above for the album.
June 2 & 3, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson Ed Rae Memorial Fun Fly Event!
In spite of the wind, we had 42 registered pilots and at one point on Saturday we had 73 persons in attendance.
Big thanks to Great Hobbies and Orleans Hobbies for their generous contribution of a total of 6 gift certificates for the pilots in attendance.
Also, special thanks to the executive members who always help organizing this event and to our dedicated registration and canteen workers Sue MacDonald, Jim Denyer, Claude Dostaler, Jessica Dawson and Jonathan Harper who did an excellent job.
We had the opportunity to see several types of aircraft, jets, helicopters and multirotors. Lunch hour saw a fantastic special 3D demonstration flight by Gabriel Muglia and a free style flying sequence with music by Pierre Menard.
We also presented the People Choice Award trophy to Don Glandon, for his beautiful Beast biplane.
MANY THANKS to all involved!
Daniel Marcotte
President
Photos: Goose. Click image above for the album.
January 1, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson First Fly Event!
This year's First Fly event was the coldest on record with the temperature recorded (by Dan at 6:30am) of -32C, -39C with wind chill. It was cold enough
that a gas engine threw a rod and Hal's camera (brand supressed) autofocus froze.
13 brave souls showed up to compete for the all important 'first to fly' honor.
Many thanks to Dan, the executive, Hal & Sue for field prep, rice crispies and the essential hot coffee courtesy of Casselman McDonalds.
Special thanks to our sponsors Great Hobbies and McDonalds.
Enjoy the pictures.
Photos: Goose. Click image above for the album.
March 3, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson Winter Fun Fly Event!
How do you describe a Canadian winter flying event? ...cool... ehhh
A warm morning (6.5°C compared to the 1st Flight of the year, but a stiff cross wind just to make things interesting and keep you on your toes..... rudder lads, rudder.
What a great way to spend a morning, flying with friends at a great club; how can one not enjoy themselves; warm shelter, hot coffee, Sue's chili, buns and coffee and the same rule still applies - sure beats a warm day at work anytime!
A special thanks to our sponsors Great Hobbies and Orleans Hobbies, and volunteers who braved the elements to make this another great Stetson Flyers event.
Thanks guys and gals, your time and effort greatly appreciated - you make these events happen!
Sue & Hal MacDonald
Event coordinators
Photos: Hal MacDonald. Click image above for the album.
January 1, 2018 was...
...the annual Stetson First Fly Event!
This year's First Fly event was the coldest on record with the temperature recorded (by Dan at 6:30am) of -32C, -39C with wind chill. It was cold enough
that a gas engine threw a rod and Hal's camera (brand supressed) autofocus froze.
13 brave souls showed up to compete for the all important 'first to fly' honor.
Many thanks to Dan, the executive, Hal & Sue for field prep, rice crispies and the essential hot coffee courtesy of Casselman McDonalds.
Special thanks to our sponsors Great Hobbies and McDonalds.
Enjoy the pictures.
Photos: Goose. Click image above for the album.
Stetson Web History...
Wednesday September 26, 2018 is the next scheduled meeting at the Aviation Museum. Catch up with club members and let everyone know what you have been upto this winter.
Meeting starts at 7:30, come in through the front door.
April 2018 Newsletter Available!
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