| ISSUE 744 - June 21, 2022 • Over 9,000 Total Ads Listed • 1,000+ NEW Ads Per Week |
| Cottage Country Breakfast |
| Kevin Moore, Contributing Writer & Photographer |
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In Ontario, Canada, once you get out and north of the Greater Toronto Area, you start to enter, what is referred to as, "cottage country" and, once the nice weather arrives, people leave their city homes in droves to get back to nature and a more relaxed, quiet life, even if only for a week, a weekend or a day.
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| Rideau Lakes Flying Club & Airstrip boasts 3200' grass strip, a couple of hangars and numerous tiedowns, and with COPA Flight 50, offer up a delicious breakfast during their fly-in. |
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| Aircraft began arriving around 8:30am, with the first a nice little replica PA-12 Piper Cub (registered as a Super Kamray) on amphib floats. |
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There are thousands of fresh water lakes across Ontario where people come to swim & relax, canoe, kayak, sail or power boat their day away. There are thousands of trails through mostly unspoiled land where you can see all kinds of wildlife. However, there are also a number of small airstrips where pilots can fly into, whether heading to their cottage, a resort or just a fly-in breakfast or lunch.
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| Though there weren't many aircraft that risked flying in due to a poor forecast, the few pilots and locals who did enjoyed a delicious breakfast and nice flying weather.throughout the morning. |
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The Westport Rideau Lakes Airstrip is one of those lovely little country airstrips. With a 3200' mostly grass runway, numerous tiedowns and a few hangars, Rideau Lakes is set back off the road off a quiet, unassuming gravel driveway which, if not for the sign by the roadway, you'd never know there was an airport there.
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| Light winds that were almost right down the runway made for pretty smooth landings for both tricycle and tail wheel aircraft. |
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At one time, the airstrip was fairly short with just a 1200' strip with tall trees at both ends. Several years ago the Ministry of Natural Resources of Ontario were looking for a place to base their aircraft out of for "bud worm" spraying and Rideau Lakes was an ideal, centralized location. However, the strip was too short for their operations so the MNRO invested the time and money to remove trees and extend the runway to the current 3200' they now enjoy.
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| The weather cooperated through the morning, even allowing an Tecnam Echo ultralight, left, and a MTO Sport gyro-plance/gyro-copter, right, to make the trip in for breakfast. |
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The folks at the flying club put on an annual fly-in breakfast that, due to the pandemic, hadn't happened in 2+ years. Mike Miles, the president of the flying club, arrived early at the clubhouse to get set up. Aircraft began arriving about 8:30am with nice, morning weather. Unfortunately, few aircraft made the trip due to incoming forecasted weather rather than risking having to face incoming storms later in the day.
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| Even a couple of beautiful vintage cars drove in for the breakfast and parked in front of the two hangars near the clubhouse. |
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For those who made the trip, they enjoyed a breakfast of eggs, BBQ'd ham, toast, homemade baked beans, fresh fruit, orange juice and coffee and a chinwag with other pilots or locals who drove out to enjoy breakfast and aircraft, fixed wing and rotor as well as a few vintage cars. Other than their fuel, the cost for all this was a donation of your choice.
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| Whether you made the trip in a speedy Van's RV-8, left, or a slightly slower Bellanca 7GCBC Citabria, right, it was a nice morning for some flying. |
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The annual breakfast event should, once again, be an annual event and the hope is to attract more visitors, by air or road, as life returns to some type of normalcy after pandemic lockdowns and restrictions. Whether you live in the area, have a cottage, or just decide to go for a cottage country day trip, the Rideau Lakes Airstrip and their breakfast event is a nice way to start the day and a good place to relax for a few hours.
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| This pretty little Canadian Christavia CA-05, left, is based at Rideau Lakes. A more unusual visitor, this MTO Sport gyro-copter, right, made the trip, turning a few heads. |
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If you're interested in finding a fly-in breakfast, lunch, cornroast, etc in your area, head to your local airport and make some inquiries. In Canada you can check with COPA (Canadian Owners & Pilots Association) and in the USA you can check with AOPA (American Owners and Pilots Association) to find out where these types of events are happening near you.
Canadian Owners & Pilots Associations (COPA): copanational.org
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| An ultralight Tecnam Echo, left, just before touching down. First to arrive was also first to depart, the Piper Cub (Super Kamray), right, heads home. |
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| This pretty Van's RV-8, left, made the half hour trip from another airstrip northeast of Rideau Lakes, 1000 Islands Helicopter Tours from Gananoque arrived with their Robinson RV44 Raven 1, right. |
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| The Bellanca Citabria takes to the air, left, heading home. Ultralight Savannah on take off, bound for home, right. |
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| Parked for breakfast, the gyro-copter, left, and the 1000 Islands Helicopter Tours Robinson RV44 Raven 1, right. |
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| Rideau Lakes Flying Club will be hosting two more fly-ins this year. July 16 is their Ultralight Focused Fly-in, though NOT restricted to ultralight aircraft, and on Oct 8, they will host their Pig & Pie Fly-in, offering up Octoberfest sausages and local pies. Visit the Rideau Lakes Flying Club website for more information. |
| By Kevin Moore, Contributing Writer & Photographer |
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