Smith's Falls, Ontario, Canada is a small community in southeastern Ontario and about an hour southwest of the capital of Canada, Ottawa. About 6 minutes to the east of the town of Smith's Falls is the Smith's Falls Airport known, as Russ Beach Airport (CYSH), established in early 1959. It sports a 4000' x 75' paved & lighted main runway as well as a shorter, grass landing strip (not listed as an official runway). Lining one side of the runway are numerous hangars including a combination older style single engine style type as well as more modern hangars with big, bi-folding doors that can house numerous aircraft. They also offer 24 hour, 100LL self-serve fuel on the field.

Their annual fly-in breakfast, canceled twice during the recent pandemic due to restrictions on gatherings in Ontario, was a great success. The breakfast has otherwise been an annual event since 1963. During good weather years, their breakfast typically sees 100 - 200 aircraft and hundreds of drive-in locals who come from Smith's Falls and surrounding areas to enjoy a delicious breakfast of fried eggs, BBQ'd ham slices, baked beans, toast and a hot or cold beverage. The first of the visiting aircraft began to arrive just before the publicized 8:00am start and continued until about noon.

Also on the field is the Smith's Falls Flying Club building, a newer 2 story facility with an upper snack bar with lots of seating, offices and a balcony for folks to watch aircraft coming and going. The main floor houses a small museum area, offering some history about the airport and a huge section of aviation books that are available for pilots and club members on a sign-out, honour system. It was completed with the hard work and dedication of volunteers and help from the community.

As aircraft began arriving they were directed to specific parking areas by volunteers with orange vests and big orange batons that pilots couldn't miss. Of the 90 volunteers, they parked vehicles while others did the cooking & serving breakfast as well as helping clean up. Pilots and other visitors enjoyed a hearty breakfast with lots of conversation going on. Smiles were wide, especially for folks visiting the airport and taking the opportunity to purchase a short sightseeing flight of the area in one of the flying club's Cessna 172s.

For the day, the flying club/airport made a driver with a golf cart available to me for as long as I was there. My driver, Ron MacEwen, a retired RCAF Navigator, owns and flies a gorgeous J3 as well as a Grumman Cheetah with his wife, Helen. Ron sat in his golf cart and watched aircraft come and go while I snapped away at the constantly arriving aircraft. Other club folks who helped make the day a success was volunteer airport manager, Caude Brett, Kelly Brett, Dave Holland and club president Malcolm Penny, among many, many others.

Some of the resident aircraft owners taxied their aircraft out to the flightline including a gorgeous replica, homebuilt PA-12 on Canadian built Clamar Floats, amphib floats. The aircraft was built several years ago by two brothers in northern Ontario but was badly damaged after having flipped over in a storm. It was purchased and restored by the current Smith's Falls aircraft owner who flies it as often as he can.

Though there were no warbirds that visited the fly-in, there were a good mix of older and newer aircraft from Cessnas, Pipers and Aeroncas and RVs, Sportsman and SportStar aircraft. The winds were relatively light with just a slight, left crosswind, providing incoming pilots with fairly ideal landing and take off conditions for all. Everyone seemed to be well aware of traffic and there were no overshoots and lots of smooth landings.

Among visiting aircraft were two Lake Buccaneer aircraft The Lake Buccaneer is a popular aircraft with cottagers who prefer to fly to their weekend retreat rather than spending hours on the highways and roads with other holiday seekers and, why not! A flight in your own amphibious aircraft from a city like Toronto might take an hour, maybe two, whereas taking your vehicle could mean a 3, 5 or even a 10 hour drive depending on traffic and construction, unfortunately a necessary evil during warmer weather.

There were a few more unusual aircraft such as the Wag-Aero Sportsman 2+2, sporting a Subaru engine and a 4-blade propeller, not something you see too often on small, private aircraft. The Sportsman 2+2 is a reproduction of Piper's PA-14 Family Cruiser. It's as versatile as its namesake with short field capabilities, roominess and extra baggage capacity, has great low speed maneouverability and has great short field capabilities as well as offering excellent float plane performance.

Van's RV's have certainly become a popular homebuilt aircraft and are a fairly common sight in the skies of southern Ontario, as well as many other places. Sporty, speedy and aerobatic, they can get their owners to places pretty quickly for a single engine aircraft. With a cruise speed in the RV-6 just under 200mph, and near 210mph in the RV-7A, you can certainly go places.

There was a good mix of both taildraggers and trikes represented including newer homebuilts such as this Bushcaddy R80 and an older Stinson Super Voyager. The Bushcaddy is a Canadian designed & built, 2 place, side-by-side cockpit that's capable of operating from shorter grass strips, and can be flown on wheels, skis or floats. The larger, 4 place 1940s Super Stinson Voyager, sometimes referred to as the poor man's bushplame, can also operate from wheels, skis and floats. This rugged aeroplane has served many the civilian pilot since first built and has also operated with the US military in a VIP role.

This week we had a look at some of the aircraft that visited the Smith's Falls Fly-in Breakfast at Russ Beach Airport. Next week we'll return to Smith's Falls for a look at more of the attending aircraft and more history about the airport itself.