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Perhaps we should start practicing landing the aircraft using the copilot yoke while sitting in the pilot seat! Yves

Received email today about the STC for tailbeaconX. Can any expert out there explain to me why this one needs a control head while the original tailbeacon does not need one? Yves

My friend Patrick managed to find a few pictures of Asti and Sue (and Ned and few others) when they arrived for the pizza dinner at Oshkosh. Yves

I can confirm they were both in attendance at our last Oshkosh Pizza social held in 2019. Very sad indeed. I do not have ways to contact their families. Yves

José, here is the cell coverage map of one of the national providers. The other national provider map is similar. I circled the location in red. There is no cell coverage at any altitude. We have tried.

Hi José, long time no talk. I am actually coming back (labor day weekend) from the biggest Canadian airplane get together (250+ airplanes). This happened at the Casey airstrip (abandoned runway) and guess what? No cell coverage there. One pilot came to my friend Vincent who is also a ham operator and does the coms for the event saying he could not close his flight plan from the air. We were actually testing a solution to allow the ability to contact the flight service to allow such flight plan closing. We had installed a 5 elements yagi directed towards a fairly local repeater that had a phone patch. When the pilot came to us I told him no problem come with me we’ll fix you up. I was able to make the call and close his flight plan. There were probably among the pilots some with satellite phones but ham radio did allow this kind of communication and could also have been used for any emergency call required. Yves C-FQKM VE2GBK

Not currently. I have an old TS-520 Kenwood collecting the dust that might still work but I do not have an antenna for it installed. It might not work between us on 20 meters since you are too close. 80m band would probably work. Yves (VE2GBK)

After over 20 years of a break (due to several reasons of which aviation is) I resumed the hobby I had while I was a teen: amateur radio. This hobby is not only about chit chatting on the air in my case… I like doing projects like designing and building antennas. So I erected a 60 foot delhi tower, constructed a 2m antenna (and aviation) ground plane, bought a radio and came back onto the air. Here is a picture of me climbing the tower… neibours say I am crazy going that high!

This was posted a few days ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/16/coronavirus-latest-updates/ Not sure when your vacations are but this would allow you going to your lake near Kingston and perhaps come to Casey. Yves

Becca, you can tell Byron the organizer told me there would be washrooms this year (for the first time). Would love see you or both coming over. For the border, there are still two months to go, it might be relaxed by then. In case you don’t have it the runway is located 47.94N 74.09W Yves

I have found a link that gives good detail on the Casey event with pictures: https://skiesmag.com/news/2020-casey-aero-camping-fly-in-100-aircraft-aviation/ Yves

Thanks Alan. We will miss you and Brenda as well. We hope next year will be better. Yves

For those who wonder about what is the Casey event. In a nutshell: About 7 years ago few pilots decided to go camping (wild) at the Casey airstrip which is an abandoned cold war era runway out in the stick. They invited others and slowly it gained traction and in the last few years we have seen over 100 airplanes coming there. The event is during the labor day week-end. Two years ago Mike came along and was the first American airplane to join the event. There are no services whatsoever there. No electricity, no cell coverage, no internet, NO WASHROOMS. This is not for everyone. So you need to come equiped with everything you would need including what is required to properly dispose human waste. But this is no Oshkosh! No vendors, no restaurant… just wild camping and bond fire at night. I will post some pictures in the next few days. Yves

The best place to clear customs (today) is Kingston Ontario. Several airports where in the past you could clear them are on hold. This could change by the date of the event. But currently, non-essential travel is still prohibited. This also could change by labor day. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html There are significant changes in Casey this year. An entrepreneur managed to lease the land from the government. Several changes are for the better but some are not. We should talk on the phone. I will contact you. Yves

I believe many are stretching the rules however, I could not attend a Mooney Caravan clinic which is mandatory to be part of the caravan due to Covid… just going to Oshkosh for Oshkosh alone is not as appealing to me and the wife. I hope you enjoy it this year. Yves