Experimental Aircraft
Association
Chapter 266
Montreal, Canada




EAA Calendar of Events

Welcome!

This is the website for Chapter 266 of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Montreal, Quebec, an organization devoted to the interests of recreational aviators and aircraft homebuilders.

Our chapter was founded in 1963 and has about 75 members, giving us an excellent base of experience and knowledge.

Take a look through these pages, and feel free to contact us if you have questions. If you live in the Montreal region - or if you're in town visiting - drop by one of our meetings. You don't need to be a pilot and you don't need to be building an airplane; you just need a passion for aviation.

Pictures from our 2010 Annual Picnic, Fly-In and BBQ July 10, 2010

Our May Newsletter is ready for viewing!

Note the new items for sale in our Classifieds section

Chapter 266 History

Group Project Update - June 8, 2010

Some interesting articles found in Pilot's Guide to Avionics published by Aviation Electronics Association that are not yet available from their web site are available here: They are reproduced with permission from the Aircraft Electronics Association, Copyright 2009:
- A buyers guide to and comparison of 406 MHz ELTs, called Who's Listening Now?
- What You Should Know About Buying Pre-Owned Avionics
- An article on the Digital Instrument Panel called Digital Simplicity

From EAA Bits & Pieces: 406 ELT REQUIREMENT LIKELY IN CANADA
Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) President Kevin Psutka said in a Web posting last week (May 11, 2010) that Canada's Transport Minister has reversed a recent decision and will now require all aircraft operating in Canada to be equipped with an ELT that broadcasts on both 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz frequencies. COPA had won an agreement with the minister to not require private aircraft to comply with the 406 requirement but they warned their members at the time that the rule had not been finalized.
Psutka suggests in his post that Canadian defense officials lobbied Canada's Treasury Board, which is one of the final steps for a Canadian law, to implement the 406 requirement. He says since the Board overruled the decision, the Transport Minister has indicated he will not fight the ruling. The ruling includes all aircraft operating in Canada including foreign registered aircraft. COPA did win a few concessions including a transition period of two years for aircraft operated commercially and three years for privately owned aircraft.

FCC BANS 121.5 ELTs http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/FCCBans1215ELTs_202760-1.html
The Federal Communications Commission took the general aviation world by surprise when it said in a recent report it will prohibit the sale or use of 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitters, effective in August. The Aircraft Electronics Association said it just learned of the new rule today, and has begun working with the FAA, FCC and others to allow for timely compliance without grounding thousands of general aviation aircraft. The 121.5 ELTs are allowed under FAA rules. The FCC said its rules have been amended to "prohibit further certification, manufacture, importation, sale or use of 121.5 MHz ELTs." The FCC says that if the 121.5 units are no longer available, aircraft owners and operators will "migrate" to the newer 406.0-406.1 MHz ELTs, which are monitored by satellite, while the 121.5 frequency is not. "Were we to permit continued marketing and use of 121.5 MHz ELTs ... it would engender the risk that aircraft owners and operators would mistakenly rely on those ELTs for the relay of distress alerts," the FCC says. AOPA said today it is opposed to the rule change.
"The FCC is making a regulatory change that would impose an extra cost on GA operators, without properly communicating with the industry or understanding the implications of its action," said AOPA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Rob Hackman. "There is no FAA requirement to replace 121.5 MHz units with 406 MHz technology. When two government agencies don't coordinate, GA can suffer." The AEA said dealers should refrain from selling any new 121.5 MHz ELTs "until further understanding of this new prohibition can be understood and a realistic timeline for transition can be established."

AOPA Article of June 21, 2010 http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2010/100621elt.html

 

News & Events

August 28-29, 2010: Classic Air Rallye Canadian Aviation Museum at Rockcliffe (CYRO) Airport

Sept 6, 2010: Lancaster Airpark Fly-in

Sept 11, 2010: Field Day at Windover Airport on Saturday - Rain Date Sunday, September 12 starting at 10:00 AM

Sept 16 - 19, 2010: Vintage Wings of Canada & EAA Fly-In

Sept 26, 2010: Annual Air Rally at Lachute Airport

Sept 30, 2010: Monthly Chapter Meeting at John Abbott College in Ste Anne de Bellevue

Other Items:

Classified Ads

Tools/Test Equipment

Young Eagles Webcast/Webchat

Importing Aircraft - Guidelines

Lecture Series: Frank Hofmann's lectures are for pilots and/or (potential) aircraft owners

Highlights from our 2010 Annual Picnic - now our Fly-In BBQ Picnic!

We held our annual picnic at St. Lazare Airport this year with good attendance. This year we can call it a Fly-In BBQ Picnic as we had at least one member fly his aircraft to the event; despite the weather with low a ceiling and threat of rain. We also had a BBQ going for those who wanted to cook on the spot!

The group took over Scott Black's hangar space, evicting his Jodel for the day! Thanks Scott...

Roberto Cea-Campo flew his Titan II to the Picnic, offically allowing us to change the name of our event to "Fly-In Picnic"! Michel Moreau is helping to extricate Roberto from his recently completed homebuilt ultralight.

The youngest attendees were the lovely Dudkoff girls.

Highlights from our May Chapter Meeting

Tony Molle talked about his latest construction project, a Lancair 360. He previously started a Midget Mustang, but as his kids started showing interest in flying, he figured her should switch to a 2-seater project. Tony picked up the Lancair extra-fast quick-build project from someone who had started building in Toronto, so he figures he should have it flyable by November this year. Tony has a Grand Rapids EFIS with dual displays, and is contemplating installing a Gemini autopilot. This should be quite the airplane! Thanks for a very interesting evening Tony.

Gord Larsen finished the evening with photos of the Jabiru 250 aircraft he built. He even showed the wings and fuselage, which are prefabricated parts being built in the Jabiru factory including some of the testing methods used on the aircraft. Gord had the extra challenge of building ahead of the writing of the instruction manual, as it was just being written. So, Gord would do the work the way he felt it should be done, then as the pertinent chapter was published, he would go back to confirm that he had done the construction in accordance with the manual! Next, he plans to put the Jabiru 250 on floats. Thanks Gord for an interesting presentation on the "scenes behind the scene" as well as your own build project.

Highlights from our February Chapter Meeting

Frank Hofmann talked about the aircraft certification process and implications for home builders and pilots. As a follow-up to the MD-RA talk by Pierre Fournier, Frank stressed the importance of building to the designer’s specification citing examples of home-built aircraft that have failed because the owner made unapproved changes to the design.

Frank referred to his personal experiences with the ongoing Seawind certification process that has been in the works since the year 2000! In addition to the need for very deep pockets, it is also critical to have a good relationship with the regulator who should be part of the process from design through certification; a process where personality conflicts can dramatically complicate or even scuttle the certification of a new aircraft.

In order to put an aircraft into production after it has been that has been certified as a prototype, a second stage of certification is required; "Production Certification". To pass this step, among other things, the manufacturer has to demonstrate there is a Quality system in place as well as a Configuration Management process that ensures Design and Manufacturing are in sync in terms of ensuring engineering changes initiated in either design or manufacturing are reflected in both, and that testing is redone if necessary.

In the context of amateur-built aircraft that are not fully "certified", flight authority still requires compliance with regulations, CARs 549. Additional to meeting and maintaining the requirements stipulated in 549, to fly legally the following documents need to be on board: certificate of registration, certificate of airworthiness, insurance documents, the aircraft journey log that must include entries like the biennial transponder recertification, a check list, the pilot operating handbook, current maps, pilot licence with valid medical and currency noted, and if traveling to the USA, a letter authorizing a home-built aircraft to fly into the States and the APIS (Advance Passenger Information) number.

Thank you Frank for sharing your in-depth knowledge of this subject and making it relevant to our constituency!


Highlights from our January Chapter Meeting

Pierre Fournier, who is the Minister Delegate - Recreational Aircraft (MD-RA) representative for the Quebec Region, gave a very animated and interesting talk on the process of getting your amateur-built project from purchase to flying in terms of inspection requirements through to the related paperwork. Pierre emphasized that the MD-RA mandate only applies to the inspection of the Amateur-Built category of aircraft and that their purpose in life is to apply the letter of the law as defined by Transport Canada.

MD-RA, a Canada-wide non-profit organization has undertaken to put everything you need to know and do on their web site at http://www.md-ra.com. Pierre said he often takes calls from home builders, but is reluctant to answer questions as to whether some particular construction technique would pass inspection or not, due to concern that any misunderstanding could become a contentious issue later at inspection time. Technical compliance questions about construction techniques should be addressed to Transport Canada for regulation interpretation. Marc Bisson, Pierre's counterpart in Transport Canada for the Quebec Region, should be contacted, preferably by email so there is a paper trail of all understandings and agreements. Marc Bisson's email address at Transport Canada is marc.bisson@tc.gc.ca

Two important messages we took from the presentation were: 1) Inform the Minister (i.e. MD-RA) before you make any commitment to purchase or put any money on the table. This can be done with the "Letter of Intent", which is available on the MD-RA web site, and, 2) that if one person has to be upset at the end of an inspection, it should be the builder, not the inspector! ;-)

For a limited time, you can review Pierre's presentation by clicking on "here".

Again, thank you to Pierre Fournier for a very informative and entertaining evening!



Check out our last Air Rally in Lachute

COPA and EAA members gave children their first flight experience on May 19 at Lachute Airport.

GROUP PROJECT

At our March 27, 2008 Chapter meeting, we discussed a possible "Group Aircraft Project". A short write-up describing a potential group project appeared in our Chapter newsletter. You can see the PowerPoint slides used to present the idea.

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