Ontario, Canada

For car rentals at the Waterloo airport this weekend, Hertz was sold out and National was demanding a credit-card guarantee with a $50 penalty for cancelling with less than 24 hours notice. Avis, however, let me book with no deposit and no problem.

The Fort Severn Airport does not sell 100LL AvGas. The airport manager believed that the local First Nation might sell it by the barrel (1 barrel=37 US gallons), and suggested calling the band council secretary at (807) 478-2572.

100LL is available from the pump at the Churchill Airport, 262 nm to the northwest, and at the Moosonee airport, 378 nm to the southeast.

There are often taxis waiting for fares by the mainland ferry dock, especially if a Porter flight is due in.

I grew up maybe a mile from Sudbury Aviation. As a kid in the early sixties I hung around there a lot. My cousin Ray (Romain) Labine was an instructor at Sudbury Aviation. Unfortunately when Charlie went in he brought 3 other guys with him. He took off in snow showers lost VFR and flew into the ice at Scotia Lake. My first ride ever in a plane was with my uncle Ray Labine in one of those Fleet Canucks that was probably around 1960. I obtained my licence in 1974 at Muskoka airport, I went on to get my multi-IFR and commercial and flew for Shell as the aviation sales manager out of Montreal.

When you were flying out of Whitewater the business was owned by John and Pearl McMahon. Both are now passed away. John of Alzheimer's and Pearl of a stroke. My parents new them well.

I dropped by Sudbury Aviation last week to say hello. I now live in BC and fly a Cessna 182. Sudbury Aviation now uses two DHC-2's (Beaver) and one Cessna-185 for charters and a Cessna 172 for instruction. The business has been owned by Margaret Watson-Hyland for probably the last 25 years.

This is where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police graze the horses for their famous Musical Ride. I guess that the airplanes passing 50-100 feet over the horses constantly get them used to loud noises, so that they don't startle easily.