Canadian Aviator Magazine

The federal government has asked the courts to order the sale of a lone Diamond DA40 belonging to the Cape Breton Flight Institute after it failed to attract the Chinese flight students that were to be the foundation of the business.

Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. loaned the company $109,000 and the airplane is worth at least twice that. The school is a subsidiary of Flying Phoenix Aviation Group, and chairman Bill Gardiner said what's needed is patience rather than panic.

China has the unique problem of being unable to train civilian pilots because all of its airspace is controlled by the military and flight training in the Western context is not possible. The country has outsourced much of its civilian flight training for decades but the economic downturn and some problems with training costs and quality prompted authorities to suspend some foreign contracts, including, apparently, the one with the Nova Scotia organization.

There are signs that the restrictions will ease but the federal government was apparently unable to wait and called the flight school's loan. The only real asset it has is the airplane and it looks like that's on the block.

"We really didn’t want to sell it," Bill Gardiner, the group’s chairman told the Halifax Chronicle Journal. "It’s a shame and it’s just totally unnecessary."

Gardiner said the business could eventually be worth $100 million to the Cape Breton economy.

The pilot of a Grumman Ag Cat was uninjured after the aircraft clipped a tree and crashed near Elliot Lake in northern Ontario Monday.

Pilot John Wilkins was trying to find the Elliot Lake Airport in low cloud when he clipped a tree about 4 km. from the runway.

After the crash, he was able to radio an overflying Air Canada flight, which started the chain of events for the rescue. He was out of the bush, via OPP helicopter, about four hours after the crash.

Family members watched as a homebuilt (type unknown) aircraft struggled to land at a private airstrip near Lumby, B.C. on Aug. 5, crashed and burned.

Peter Huwer, 53 and his brother Joe, 45, died in the crash. They were hosting an annual fly-in on the strip near their property in a valley between Lumby and Mabel Lake. 

Witnesses said the aircraft was making its third attempt to land in high winds when the accident occurred. The Transportation Safety Board will not be investigating.

The accident site is about 40 km northeast of Vernon, B.C.

After a weather cancellation Saturday, the Canadian International Air Show went ahead as scheduled Sunday and Monday.

High winds created choppy conditions on Lake Ontario and those manning the rescue boats on station in case of an accident determined the water state would make response too difficult and dangerous.

The show is held over the lake in front of the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. It stages from Billy Mitchell Airport (Toronto City Centre).