Stetson Flyers

Winter Fun Fly 9 March 2025

Overcast skies and gusty winds welcomed 13 registered pilots to the annual Stetsons Winter Fun Fly on Sunday 9 March. The early arrivals quickly noticed that Mike Lalonde’s, Charlie Colwell’s’ and Any Leu’s field preparation efforts earlier in the week had been largely undone by the wind, but several helpers quickly cleared the snow drifts around the shelter areas, setup tables, and restored foot paths to the pilot stations. 

Thanks, guys! Our Events Director Chris Rebidoux launched the event with a pilot briefing at 10 am, and we were off to a good start with mostly electric planes on skis and floats taking to the skies.

Jon Harper and Pierre Coulombe soon got their cooking pots ready for hot chocolate and chili respectively. An early start paid off, because the cold wind was fighting hard against the BBQ burners, but eventually, we were able to partake of delicious hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) and hearty chili. Overall, though, the culinary hit was the loaves of home-made bread baked by Chris’s wife Jennifer. Thanks Jennifer!

Stetson’s First Flight

We welcomed 2025 with the First Flight Fun Fly on January 1 with an attendance of 25 members and spectators. Seven pilots competed for the first flight bragging rights while others watched on in excitement.  

The typical Ottawa winter weather greeted us with a 15 km/hr. north-east wind, a grey sky and wet snow flurries!  Warm temperatures and rain had washed away the snow just prior to the start of the new year. This made for a very interesting situation and decision for pilots, especially the ones competing. “Should I opt for wheels over skis for low rolling resistance or put silicone on the bottom of my skis, etc.  to get that competitive advantage”?  Pilots had many different thoughts. They arrived with an assortment of aircraft configurations: wheels (conventional and tricycle), skis, pontoons, push or pull arrangement of motors and amphibious aircraft. In addition, we had a large array of types of aircraft and sizes. 

Christmas weather greeted us with blowing snow and very December-like conditions as 40 plus members and families met at Mandarin Orleans for a fantastic night of seriously good food and somewhat less than serious presentations. President Pierre greeted all and got things rolling with a call to the buffet! Some waistlines may have been damaged in the ensuing culinary onslaught!

We started out the proceedings with our elf presenting Chris Simon with a pre-Christmas gift, followed by a special award to Brian Pepin for his continuing excellent work in promoting the control line activities at Stetsons. Brian showed the gathering a real live Ringmaster and gave us the low down on the World Ringmaster event we participate in each autumn.