By Doug Martin, EAA 657164
When I read the April issue of Bits and Pieces, the “Fifty Years Ago” archive article caught my attention. The enclosed newsletter referenced the EAAC 1972 Sport Aviation Convention at the Lake St. John Airport. I remembered attending one of those conventions long before I became a pilot.
Having grown up near Malton Airport (now Pearson International) and next door to an Air Canada (TCA) pilot, I had been interested in aviation from my early years. I flew control line airplanes at the local field and later graduated to R/C flying. So with the aviation bug biting at me and a sport aviation convention nearby, I made plans to attend and was not disappointed.
On a July afternoon in 1982, 40 years ago, I made the short drive from Toronto to Orillia. It was a hot and muggy afternoon that saw us all heading for the protection of hangars as thunderstorms rolled through.
Once the weather passed, flying resumed and I was delighted to see a Bensen gyrocopter (CF-PJI) in flight. Up until then, I had been curious about these strange vehicles advertised in Mechanix Illustrated but had always imagined them too exotic to ever get close to one. To my delight, there were three gyrocopters there that day.
Other aircraft that seemed exotic to me were a Quickie (C-GQFS), a VariEze (C-GMEZ), a Zenair CH 200 and a Cricket (Cri-Cri). Over at the water ramp, I enjoyed watching an ultralight on floats taking off and later taxiing back in. Several other homebuilt and certified aircraft were there and I was impressed with the willingness of the builders to talk to the general public. An incident that sticks in my fading memory was a demo of the engines starting on the tiny Cricket. While it was roped off to keep crowds away, they were hand propping the engines. One engine started easily while the other was showing little signs of life. After many attempts, a rather sweaty ground crewman asked the pilot if he was sure that the mags were on, resulting in a rather sheepish “oops.”
For an aviation geek, this was a day well spent to keep my interest fueled. I’ve now been flying full-scale aircraft for 20 years, and fly into Orillia most summers.