edenvale classic aircraft foundation
Hangar F, Edenvale Aerodrome, 5195 Hwy 26 E., Stayner ON, L0M 1S0
705-818-2223
ECAF 2009 Gathering of the Classics Review
The Gathering of the Classics at Edenvale Aerodrome seems to now be firmly on the radar for Ontario pilots. This year’s event was organized by Robin Hadfield,Chairman, Matt Watson and Bryan Quickmire – plus a huge amount of help from our regular and new ECAF members.
The Edenvale Aerodrome, an old Harvard training base during WWII, was the perfect setting for this 20th year of the Gathering of the Classic and the celebration of 100 years of Canadian flight. The 2009 event was bathed in glorious summer sunshine and saw over 180 aircraft ranging from vintage bi-planes to the most modern twin engine aircraft, ultra-lights, aerobatic aircraft, helicopters, WWII Harvard’s and the rare B-25 Mitchell Bomber. This event also hosted its largest showing of classic cars (150+). The classic car parking amongst the grass and trees provided a park-like setting, making the venue extremely photogenic and a true hidden gem amongst the classic car show enthusiast.
This event has to be one of the best Fly-Ins held at Edenvale Aerodrome and has quickly become a “must attend” for pilots across the province.
There’s no doubt the major highlight of the event this year was the two CHAA Harvard’s and the great CWHM B-25 Mitchell bomber.
The only glitch in this perfect day was a landing accident on runway 13 by a beautiful Cessna 195. This caused the runway to be closed for over an hour and Unicom advisors diverting traffic to the grass strip. The pilot of the 195 was uninjured, although his aircraft sustained major damage. Our volunteers and Larry Kroupa from the airport staff, were on the scene immediately helping the pilot and his passengers, stabilized the aircraft, contained any fuel spills, and as soon as Transport Canada gave permission were able to move the aircraft onto the ECAF trailer and move the aircraft off the runway.
It was an unfortunate incident, but as the Chairman of this year’s event I was glad to see our volunteers working in such an efficient and quick manner to contain a potentially huge problem.
As usual we had the majority of aircraft arriving between 9:30–11:00 making the circuits congested and kept our Unicom advisors, aircraft ground control and parking volunteers on their toes. At the end of day is was a common site to see 5 aircraft on the button waiting to take-off.
A big “hats off” to our moth pilots and the Edenvale Flying School’s pilots – it was through their skill that they kept flying all day on the grass strip without any incidences with the other aircraft.
Yes, we had a few pilots who just don’t listen to our ground handlers giving directions for taxiing and parking, and there are always one or two NORDO pilots who are unaware of the circuit traffic, but overall the pilots who attend are patient and courteous to each other and are thrilled to come out to our event and show off their airplane to the public.
In our review meeting it was felt that many of the incoming pilots were just not aware of what the ground control signals mean, so to rectify this situation we are going to be posting on our website, plus include in the invitations for next year a photo/graphics showing pilots the various signals.
In the past we’ve had problems with not enough food and long line-ups, so with this in mind we brought in pizza for our volunteers lunch and for public sale…this was done in order to help cut down the wait time for hamburgers sold by the airport staff. Together we fed a lot of people 500 hamburgers, 90 extra large pizzas (approx. 800 people ate pizza), plus the hotdog/sausage vendors sales.
It was estimated 2,000 adults and children came to the Gathering of the Classics and walked amongst the airplanes and show cars.
The use of a cordless microphone was a great way for the show cars to be able to participate more fully in the event and reach more pilots who love to talk about their airplanes.
Erecting the fencing along the road seems to have deterred people from parking on the road and walking across the grass to gain admission. We will continue to do this for future years.
There were several comments from pilots about not being able to contact the airport during the day. This was already addressed by the airport staff for next year, as well as posting NOTAMS.
We worked well with the flying school and office staff at the aerodrome and I look forward to continuing our great relationship with them.
There were several Fly-In pilots who enquired about hangar space at the field, and quite a few of the public who asked about flying lessons with the airport flight school. It is great to be able to generate such excitement for the airport when they have been so generous and supportive to us.
Comments sent to the ECAF:
- Enjoyed Saturday very much. Impressed by the (apparent) smoothness of the organization
- Great job Robin! I had a blast out there on the field.
- Clearly, the Gathering of the Classics was a thundering success – with good crowds, plenty of aircraft, lots of classic cars and super weather. Congratulations to the organizers on a job very well done!
- I was involved with The Gathering in the early years, as well as the last ten. This was one of the best managed and executed ever! Kudos to Robin and all of the team.
- I was associated with The Gathering in the early days with the founding members. This was one of the best managed ever! The kudos you are receiving are well deserved; thank you.
- Had a great time at the show and will be there next year! Great job.
- I was very disappointed at the lack of safety precautions in place.
- I attended your event at Edenvale on Aug 1, 2009. It was a beautiful day and a Classics gathering is a great reason for a fly in.
- I just wanted to say thanks for an extremely pleasant day at Edenvale. The entire B – 25 crew were impressed and grateful to have been there.
Well done Gathering of the Classic volunteers, we look forward to many, many more events like this in the future.
Robin Hadfield
Chairman, Gathering of the Classics 2009
Matt Watson
Gathering of the Classics 2009 Committee
Bryan Quickmire,
Gathering of the Classics 2009 Committee