Bag Lunch to Flagstaff Airport Alberta

 September 8 2021

I put out a call for available flyers to meet at Flagstaff airport Killam Alberta and have a bag lunch together.  Lucky for me I was not alone as four others met up there.  We enjoyed a great time gabbing about everything happening in the past month.  It was great fun to get together with friends again as Covid is keeping many from getting out socializing.  Some responded not able to make it which is normal for these spur of the moment gatherings.  All were retired that showed up and it was not long before we realised a couple of hours had gone by.  Flight out in the Q2 was at 5500 ft with a tail wind giving me a kind push going 140 mph ground speed at times at a temp of 17c at altitude.  On the way out I did a circle over a farmer working his mature field in his combine, giving the opportunity to check the local wind direction from his line of dust.  Return flight was slower into a quartering head wind, but hey I am enjoying the scenery on these nice days.  The wind dropped off to very light half way home and temperature was 23c at 6500 feet.

New ADSB In and Out Installed

 September 1 2021,  

I purchased from Aircraft Spruce the ADSB U-Avionics Sky-ECHO package  with the antenna and the wireless controller box.  I installed into the aft area behind the baggage compartment fully inside of the tail cone of the plane.  I installed in a totally removable method so that should the next owner not want it I could remove it with ease.  The antenna needed a ground plane made up for it and I fabricated my usual octagon shaped aluminum plate type and mounted to a wood standoff glued to the floor.  The antenna of course can see through fiberglass like it was not even there.

Update:  After flying quite a few flights with the ADSB I am thoroughly pleased with the unit and it's operation.  Although in Canada we presently do not have 978mhz weather and notams I recently heard a company down east has about four towers working well in Ontario.  Maybe it will be spreading out across the country soon.

Presently I am able to see lots of other airplanes in the sky around me many of which I could never see in the past.  Because there are few airplanes with ADSB out in Canada yet many which have the new mode S  Transponders with Extended Squitter, I am able to see many on my tablet map.  My estimation is that I on;y see about 30% of all VFR traffic since most are using standard Mode C transponders just squaking 1200 frequency.  I do foresee that this will be a emerging market with more airplanes gettting ADSB soon.