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December

Bessy’s first Christmas - As rather creaky old folks, The Mary and I talk a lot about the ‘Good Old Days’, and our great adventures with Bessy, our trusty old Harvard 4, RCAF serial 20321, and the magical place where she lived, simply Delta Air Park in 1970, having evolved from Diston’s Field some years before.

November

Cherish your airport - Flying people are family. Those of us, who fly for business or simply the joy of flight, rely hugely on our home airport for service and security. It’s our home from home. If we’re lucky, our field will have an informal coffee shop, friendly flying club, or cheerful terminal building.

October

Those days . . . - We hear from our readers. The story about Mary’s flight instructor prompted this delightful response.

September

Boundary Bay Day - Nudging Delta’s circuit to the west is the fine old WWII airfield of Boundary Bay. Since its re-birth some 40 years ago, it has evolved into a serious airport that Alpha Aviation has expanded into a modern terminal with classy commercial operations.

August

Air fair at ‘the Pitt’ - The Aero Club of B.C. held its annual ‘COPA for Kids’ gofly day in conjunction with the Pitt Meadows Airport Open House and it promised to be a great fun affair, so the M and I powered up the old blue Mazda and headed over there. It’s quite a jaunt from Kits, and to avoid the popular delays on the Port Mann Bridge, we went via Delta and the new Golden Ears toll bridge, (The bill’s in the mail!) and we just whistled through.

July

Tanks for the memories - Big Fred Grisley and I spent our young life in the RAF zooming around in exciting airplanes, much of it NATO training in Canada with the RCAF on Harvards and T-Birds.

June

Tony’s tale of the night nav - It was a dark and starry night. Harvard 3771 climbed steadily sou-south east for Farrell Lake, a dried up slough some 40 nautical east-ish of Penhold, Alberta, then north to the tiny settlement of Rosalind, and thence home, a round trip of about two hours, in the dead of night! The soft glow of the instruments created a cozy cockpit cocoon for RAF Flight Cadet Swain, searching for a nowhere swamp 9,600 miles from his Yorkshire home. The Mark 2’s trusty Pratt & Whitney Wasp thundered into the night, muffled somewhat by the cool headsets of the day. It was Sept. 9, 1953. With 163 hours under his belt, Cadet Swain felt atop of the world. A senior cadet, he was proud to be trusted with this historic 1940’s flying machine.

March

Sixty years later... - We old, boldish pilots cruise on through life as our memories bubble quietly, like the rumble of a grumpy old Pratt and Whitney Wasp.

February

January 1 at Delta great start to 2012 - Way over 100 aviation folks enjoyed Delta Airpark’s open house on New Year’s
Day. The Delta Ladies provided a wonderful selection of scrumptious holiday table fare, and the socializing continued all afternoon.

January

Long time passing - Let the New Year in, meet it with a grin! La la la lalla… etc, etc. Where does all that stuff go? Seems like only yesterday it was last year! Despite my fancy-digi camera, I still have no pics for 2012, so must troll old shoe boxes for this month’s Whatever Perspective.