Thursday, October 10, 2024 ; Daniel’s 70th birthday
This morning I had my annual consultation with my gastroenterologist, by telephone this year, arranged by him, to discuss / review the status of my ulcerative colitis / inflammatory bowel disease over the preceeding year, and to discuss and schedule my next colonoscopy (July 2025).
My birthday gift to myself was to fulfill a lifetime dream of having an “introduction to aerobatics” training flight. My original intent was to fly with Steinbach based Luke Penner in his extremely fast Extra 300L aerobatics aircraft. But after watching both him and Dan Reeves perform at the Manitoba Airshow in Portage La Prairie a couple of months ago I decided to fly with Dan Reeves Airshows in his Bellanca Super Decathlon airplane. It is slower, and more “graceful” than Mr. Penner’s very high speed airplane.
So around lunchtime I headed out to St. Andrews Airport where Mr. Reeves and his Bellanca Super Decathlon C-FZGI (call sign “Zulu Golf India” or ZIGGY) are based. My ab initio private pilot’s flight training was at St. Andrews airport about forty years ago. The small airport has grown and changed so much in forty years that it was hard for me to recognize any of it.
Mr. Reeves had assigned one of his aerobatics instructors (Joel) to take me flying today. Joel was a former Canadian Forces CF-18 fighter jet pilot, followed by commercial helicopter pilot in British Columbia, now an aerobatics flight instructor at Mr. Reeves’ flight school, Winnipeg Aviation at St. Andrews Airport just north of Winnipeg.
Joel gave me a pre-flight briefing in the clubhouse on what we would be doing, then took me out to ZIGGY and “strapped me in”. I had never before been (tightly !) strapped into an aircraft using a five point harness, necessary for aerobatics flight. And I certainly had never before worn an aviation communications headset with chin straps to keep it on my head while flying inverted during aerobatics maneuvers !
Joel handled the take-off and landing because I have no experience / training in taking off and landing in a “taildragger” aircraft, with tail wheel at the back end of the airplane. All of my flying experience has been on tricycle gear (with nose wheel) aircraft. But a few seconds after take-off Joel “handed control” of the aircraft to me to fly to the aerobatics training area north of the town of Garson. It was to give me the thrill of flying for the first time in seven years (since my cardiac triple bypass surgery) and for him to assess my flying skills, which we both assessed as still very good !
St. Andrews Air Traffic Control cleared us to “Cloverleaf Departure Route” (over the junction of Highways 59 and 44) and climb to 4000 feet over the aerobatics training area just north of the town of Garson.
Once over the “practice area” Joel began a “normal” flight lesson, demonstrating each maneuver to me, then handing aircraft control to me and “coaching” me through repetitive iterations to “get it right”. We started with “warm-up” maneuvers that I needed neither demonstration nor instruction to perform ; steep turns, stable slow flight, very slow flight leading into aerodynamic stall and recovery, aerodynamic stalls leading into incipient flat spins and recovery (200 feet altitude loss … pretty darn good for an old guy), etc.
First truly aerobatics maneuver was very steep 180° turns (wings banked at ninety degrees, not possible to do in Cessna 172’s). Joel demonstrated, then I did it a few times in each direction. OOOOOFFFFF … G forces ! Then … barrel rolls. OOOOOFFFFF … more G forces !
We continued aerobatics flight training for about forty-five minutes ! Until I began to feel really ill ; nauseous and dizzy. Doing slow barrel rolls and flying inverted (upside down) really did it to me ! I asked Joel for a break so that I could shake off the nausea and dizziness. I flew gently for a few minutes, until above the town of Beausejour. My nausea and dizziness would not subside ! I told Joel that I had had enough of aerobatics, with a few more maneuvers still left go (such as “loops”, not to be confused with “rolls”, and hammerhead stalls with spin turns, a “dead end valley” life saving bizarre maneuver that I have actually done multiple times in a Cessna 172 while taking the “Mountain Performance Flying” course in 2009 in BC’s Okanagan region where we lived for many years).
<sigh> Lots of fun, but sickening !
I flew the airplane from Beausejour to the village of Dugald, where I did some steep turns above and around our Dugald Estates condo building, while Joel took some photos for me using his phone. I was reluctant to disconnect my five point harness to dig my own phone out of my pants pocket for fear that I would puke while trying to do that ! HA HA HA ! I flew back to St. Andrews Airport where Joel took control of the aircraft for landing, demonstrating the Super Decathlon’s amazing rapid descent capability using a very aggressive side slip maneuver, dropping down “sideways” the last few hundred feet of altitude almost vertically to the runway threshold. Oh, joy … just what my tummy wanted. A 500 foot “elevator drop” with wings banked at a steep angle !
We landed, taxied back to Winnipeg Aviation’s hangar, extricated ourselves out of ZIGGY and … <blink blink> … I discovered that I could barely walk. In addition to being nauseous and dizzy, my legs felt like rubber, and were wobbly. My vision was impaired, I had mild tunnel vision, lacking normal peripheral vision, and the world was sort of “black and white”, like sepia toned. <wobble wobble>
I met Dan Reeves while I was paying my bill … <blink blink> … YIKES … then left to return home. I felt “impaired” while driving home to Dugald, as if I was driving drunk. Upon arrival back at home, I explained the whole experience to Joanne while I sipped on a glass of water. I was still feeling ill, so took a late afternoon nap. I felt much better after napping for an hour.
I walked Apollo and Gracie (neighbour’s dog), then Joanne prepared a birthday meal of my favourites ; Caesar salad, then spaghetti with meat sauce (my Mom’s recipe). I deferred having any Black Forest Cherry Torte birthday cake until bedtime. Thank you, my love !
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !
Friday, October 11 ; Dugald to Victoria Beach
Today was sunny and mild.
After lunch we finished our packing and preparations for departure, and left home around 1:30 PM heading for Victoria Beach on Lake Winnipeg, where we had rented a cabin for the weekend, mostly to have peace and quiet and privacy to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary tomorrow.
We headed north on Hwy. 206, through Oakbank, past Birds Hill Park, turned west on Hwy. 44 for a very short distance to Hwy. 59, then continued north on Hwy. 59 to the East Beaches (of Lake Winnipeg) area. We dawdled, exploring each of the East Beaches as we drove past them ; Patricia Beach, Beaconia, Grand Marais, Grand Beach, and finally to Victoria Beach to our rental cabin, arriving around 4 PM.
We made ourselves comfortable in this lovely cabin, equipped with a wood burning stove, a hot tub on the wraparound deck, and a large screened porch / sunroom. Apollo and I napped briefly while Joanne brought our stuff from the car into the cabin, then we all went for a walk through the woods behind the cabin, on trails that I think are winter cross country ski trails.
We don’t know if Apollo has had any “travel adventures”, and we were a bit anxious about how he will behave / perceive being away from home, particularly since we will be away from home, on “travel adventure” for the entire winter. He was great. He thought exploring beach area after beach area was great, then he thought exploring a temporary home in the cabin was great, then he thought hiking in the woods was great, etc. Looks like he’ll be a good traveller, and great adventurer.
While Joanne prepared supper I got online and tuned in CJOB to listen to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers game against the Toronto Argonauts. <sigh> The Bombers lost ! After supper I lit a fire in the woodstove, and while Joanne read the newspaper I worked on processing yesterday’s aerobatics flight photos. They’re GREAT photos in my opinion. Some were taken by me using our i-Phone, and some were taken by my instructor on his phone while I flew the airplane over our condo in Dugald and tried not to puke ! Joel (the instructor) took a photo of me flying. I used my photo software to turn my face color from green to pink. HA HA HA HA HA !
After the Bombers game was over we went outside to soak in the hot tub for awhile before bed. Apollo sat on a chair beside the hot tub and seemed to be wondering what we were doing in that “bathtub” with the strong chlorine smell. We finished the evening with hot chocolate and birthday cake.
Saturday, October 12 ; our 50th wedding anniversary
As I said in an e-mail a couple of days ago to Shirley, our friend since high school, and Joanne’s Maid Of Honour, when she sent us a congratulatory message … “Fifty years ! Long time ! Lots of joy ! Lots of struggles” along the way to this milestone.
Joanne, I loved you then, I love you now, I’ll love you always.
We began our relationship in early 1972, while on a high school trip by bus to visit Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. WHEW … lots of hormones at 17 years of age ! I think we got engaged sometime late in 1973, but … <snicker> … my memory of most of 1973 is a little … <ahem> … hazy ! HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA ! We got married on October 12, 1974, a secular ceremony in the basement recreation room of my sister’s and brother-in-law’s first home, a new home in a new suburb area of St. Vital.
Our wedding reception ceremony that evening was in the Sokol Polish Hall on Marion Street, with live music by Stan Kaskiw & The Polka Drifters ! <shrug>
Our honeymoon was a road trip (the first of many such adventures) to the Canadian Rockies national parks in Alberta ; Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper. We indulged ourselves with a stay at the magnificent Banff Springs Hotel. We couldn’t really afford it at that time. That’s possibly still true today ! HA HA HA !
Today was overcast, cool, rain starting around noon.
This morning we took Apollo for a long leisurely walk, then drove to the nearby community centre to browse their fall craft sale. I bought a Remembrance Day poppy brooch from a jewelery maker. And a box of cookies from a Girl Guide. We drove around exploring the village of Victoria Beach, ending up at the pier where we went for a walk to see how the many fishermen were doing. Lots of perch, a few pickerel / walleye. We drove to the local artisan bakery and bought a loaf of whole wheat bread as it was coming out of the oven.
Back at the cabin, while Joanne prepared lunch I lit a fire in the woodstove. AHHH … very cozy afternoon ! Apollo and I napped after lunch, then at 4 PM … 50 years to the minute after our wedding … Joanne and I sat together on the sofa and reminisced through our wedding photo album, the first time we’ve looked at it since … well … fifty years ago, I guess ! We had not remembered that inside our wedding photo album was a transcript of our wedding ceremony. Looking back, what a profound and prophetic ceremony conducted by our secular marriage commissioner.
Here are the things that I had forgotten about that day ;
how beautiful my mother-in-law was.
how beautiful Joanne was (and still is).
how young and small (10 y.o.) Joanne’s sister was.
how old my father looked (49 y.o.)
how long my sideburns were. Joanne’s comments today were that they were almost a beard. <doing my baritone Elvis impersonation> Thankyou … thankyouverymuch !
how often there was a cigarette dangling from my lips !
At dusk, around 6:30 PM, the rain stopped and we took Apollo for his suppertime walk. BRRR … chilly ! We returned to a warm, cozy cabin because I had kept the woodstove burning all afternoon. Shortly after 7 PM a pack of wolves began howling nearby. Spooky !
After dinner, as Joanne and I cuddled on the sofa with Apollo, and continued to pontificate about fifty years of marriage, she commented that reaching our 50th anniversary was due to staying together and staying alive, both of which were uncertain at times.
Sunday, October 13
Sunny, cool, windy. We slept late this morning. I got up first and made breakfast, as usual.
We took Apollo for a long, leisurely morning walk. We had an early leisurely lunch. After lunch we drove south to Grand Beach to explore. Joanne wanted to find the beach boardwalk and her uncle’s cottage that she remembered from her childhood. I thought that as long as we were doing that I might as well search for my aunt’s cottage that I remembered from my childhood. We found the boardwalk, although it has been rebuilt at some point since Joanne’s memory of it about 65 years ago. Joanne went for a walk exploring along the rebuilt boardwalk, now actually a wide concrete walkway, like malecons in Mexico. It was too cold and windy for me and Apollo. We went for a walk inland along a trail and through a large park. Afterwards we drove through the village of cottages. I think I found my aunt’s street and block, but there has been such extensive remodelling and reconstruction over the last 65 years that I was unable to identify her cottage. The same was true of Joanne’s uncle’s cottage. She wasn’t even able to identify the street and block with any certainty.
We returned to Victoria Beach and our rental cabin about 4:30 PM. I napped briefly, then we took Apollo for another long walk. As afternoon turned to dusk it became quite cold again. I lit another fire in the woodstove, and kept it going until bedtime.
Joanne and I played checkers while we ate dinner. Neither of us had played checkers in over 60 years. It seems as if her checker playing skills have apparently not improved with age. HA HA HA !
Around 10 PM we prepared for a final soak in the cabin’s outdoor hot tub. <sigh> The temperature was at 86°, about the temperature of a swimming pool. When we used the hot tub Friday night I was poking at buttons trying to reset the hot tub’s temperature from its setting of 101°, to the maximum temperature of 104°, more to my liking. Obviously … I failed “hot tub temperature setting” ! It seems that I had adjusted the temperature setting to 104°, then inadvertently turned off the heater. DARN ! No hot tubbing tonight ! HMPH ! At the ripe old age of seventy I have acquired the skills to not only fly an airplane, but to fly it upside down, yet I can’t adjust the temperature of a hot tub !
Monday, October 14 ; Thanksgiving
Sunny and cold !
We packed up this morning and left the rental cabin at 10:40 AM. We decided to take a “scenic route” home, driving a large “loop” from Victoria Beach to Pine Falls (WOO-HOO … cheap rez gas on the Sagkeeng Reserve !) to Lac du Bonnet to Beausejour to Dugald. We arrived home around 1:15 PM.
We had lunch, then Apollo and I napped while Joanne brought our weekend stuff up from the car in the parkade and unpacked.
Joanne prepared a roast leg of lamb for our Thanksgiving dinner.
As always, I’m thankful for Joanne’s survival of cancer (twice) and my survival of cardiac triple bypass surgery.
DSK
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