Plans for the Manitoba Aviation Tour Celebration in Brandon are complete! Here's what's happening:
Friday, October 15: The Tiger Moth Ball, the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum annual Dinner and Dance at the Museum canteen kicks off the weekend at the Museum Canteen! The evening starts at 6:00 with a Sing-A-Long, at 7:00 a Roast Beef Buffet by Shady Lane Tea Room will be served and at 8:30 dance with Scotty McIntosh's Big Band. Tickets are $50 with a tax receipt issued. Tour participants will receive a ticket order form in the mail, others can call the Museum at 727-2444.
Brandon Flying Club will provide services to Tourers flying in for the Final Celebration. They have also reserved their van for our use on Friday and Saturday.
Days Inn offers their corporate rate of $98.10 for COPA members (or CAA or AAA members) which includes breakfast, a salt water pool, .... Check it out at www.days-inn-brandon.com or call 1-888-213-2192 for reservations.
Saturday, October 16: The Final Celebration is also being held at the Museum Canteen. Here's the agenda:
11:00: Register and drop off your Passport if you didn't mail it in
12:00: Pizza lunch and program
1:00: Prize presentations
2:00: Museum Tour
To be eligible for prizes the Tour Passports must be available. Anyone returning a Passport, whether the Tour was completed or not, will be eligible for a prize. You can bring your Passport to the Final Celebration but the best way is to mail your Passport to:
Manitoba Aviation Tour
Box 504
Shoal Lake, MB
R0J 1Z0
We are very fortunate to be able to support the BCATP Museum with our Final Celebration! See you there!
It was a great weekend! On Friday night we had 15 seats reserved for Tour participants at the BCATP Museum Dinner and Dance held in the Museum Canteen. As you can see its a great venue, the meal was great, the dessert auction was fun and raised lots of money for the Museum, the band really was a Big Band, ... it was great! And look how good we looked all dressed up in front of the COPA and CASARA banners.
On Saturday morning we got on with our Final Celebration. Rodney Whetter, Ken and Colette Pierce, and Bruce McEwing used slides to share their Yukon adventures with the Century Flight Club. Dennis Schoonbaert showed pictures of the North Tour visits to Flin Flon, Thompson, and Churchill. Pizza and drinks took care of hunger and thirst; the left overs from the dessert auction the previous night satisfied our sugar cravings. Then it was on to the prizes!
Four Tour participants submitted Passports proving completion - a minimum of 14 visits, one visit in each of Manitoba's 8 tourism regions, and visits to each of the 5 COPA Flights. These four were given first choice of the prizes. Hands down Ken and Colette Pierce were the winners with over 50 visits and over 12,000 miles spent 'seeing Manitoba from the air'. They picked first followed by Dani Pokornik, Jill Oakes (she and Rick persevered in their Land Africa against a very strong west wind and arrived just in time to pick their prize) and Dennis Schoonbaert. Passports were received from just enough other participants to match the total number of prizes we had available - Derek Jenkins, Bruce McEwing, Brad Wells, Ken Carritt, Bruce Christopher, Bill Gibson, and Ross Robinson (I hope no one has been missed.)
Donated prizes included:
- a SPOT 2 and a years activation including tracking
- a large framed print from Leech Printing
- 3 flight bags from Vangaurd Credit Union
- a $100 certificate from Adventure at Altitude for ultralight flight
We also presented certificates on behalf of Sponsors which we will reimburse when redeemed:
- $250 to be used toward a 2 night stay at Bakers Narrows Lodge
- $100 at Harv's Air
- $100 at Mountain City Aviation in Morden
- $100 at Shoal Lake Aviation
- $100 at Home Hardware and Castle Building Supply on behalf of community of Neepawa
- $100 at Skyway Aviation on behalf of the Souris Glenwood Airport Commission
- $100 at the Brandon Flying Club to acknowledge their support
Following the program several people toured the Museum; Derek Jenkins and Ken Pierce made a donation to the Museum which was acknowledged with a half hour flight in the Museum's Harvard with pilot Harvey. What a great way to end a great weekend!
