C-GVOL
In 2005 I found a Citabria 7GCBC for sale. It had been sitting on the tarmac at Calgary Springbank Airport for a couple of years. The family that owned it had lost interest in flying due to a couple of family trajedies. The airplane had only been owned by one family since 1978 when it was manufactured. It is equipped with a Lycoming O-320-A2D and has the 160 hp pistons. The aircraft has roughly 1800 hours on it and the engine had new cylinders installed in 1991.After a trip to Calgary for the inspection and completion of the deal I flew home to wait for a good forecast. This came three weeks later around June 20th so I booked a one way ticket on Westjet and flew to Calgary to bring my bird home. After a few initial snags and a checkout flight with one of the local instructors (I had Citab time, but very little experience at controlled airports and no local knowledge of the Calgary area) I decided it was time to come home.

Finally, around 4:30pm I managed to depart Calgary and flew around the south side of Calgary and on to Swift Current taking a long detour around the north end of the Suffield military practice area. I arrived in Swift Current and called the number for fuel and found out the fuel guy was away in Moose Jaw and couldn’t come fill me up. Fortunately a nice fellow arrived shortly after to do some circuits and he fixed me up with fuel. I`ve found out in my few years of flying that there are lots of nice people in GA. At this point I decided there was enough daylight to fly to Moose Jaw and stay with some friends of the family. I can tell you they were very surprised but pleased to see me and after getting fed, I crashed for nearly 12 hours. It had been an emotionally draining day.

The next day I was able to make it home after a brief stop in Brandon for fuel. I couldn’t have picked a better time to arrive because there was a crowd of folks at Lyncrest enjoying a barbecue send off for the folks flying to the COPA convention in Wetaskawin.

At this point I can tell you that the Citabria flies beautifully and after a season of bumpy landings think that I have finally mastered them. I have enjoyed a few seasons of buzzing around Manitoba and have taken GVOL into some interesting unimproved strips. Last summer I flew into a strip just south of Wasagaming only to find that they hadn’t had an airplane land there in over 2 years and they had turned it to pasture. The landing was a little bit rough, but the owners were really happy to see an airplane again. They don’t fly themselves but have maintained this strip just because they love airplanes and love to see the occasional one pay a visit. If you are ever going to Clear Lake and want to fly, do pay them a visit.

These days GVOL resides at Lyncrest in hangar W7 which she shares with a nice Luscombe Sylvaire 7F and a Minicab. She likes to take my girls, Lilly and Sarah, for rides and very occasionally my wife Pat as well. I love flying GVOL and hope to fly her for many more years to come.

Andy Hallonquist