Randy Engler

Randy is the Red Deer Flying Club's latest pilot having just finished all his training and passing all his tests. Randy decided Saturday was a great day for his first adventure and below is his story.

I got up early and left Red Deer at about 7:00 AM, and flew to Wetaskiwin to pick up my buddy Mike. Mike is lives in Leduc and is an AME who works for Westjet at Edmonton International, maintaining their Boeing 737's. He drove to Wetaskiwin to meet me.

We flew from Wetaskiwin to the Wolf Lake Airstrip, it is a beautiful grass strip, right on the edge of Wolf Lake which is just south of Edson. The flight from Wetaskiwin was 97 nm and took just over an hour.

When we arrived at Wolf Lake, I did several inspection passes, and decided that the strip looked good so we came in for a landing. The strip is 2500' long and at an elevation of 3500'. I hadn't done much work on grass strips, so I had done a few landings on the grass at Innisfail and Rimbey to get some practice. The landing went well. The strip was in great shape, the grass was short and the strip was dry and relatively smooth. The only problem is there is no wind sock, but the winds were calm while we were there.
After we landed, we did some exploring along the lake shore. There is a nice old rustic cabin right on the edge of the lake and the airstrip. We also met a nice older fellow who lives in his camper at the airstrip from March to October, so we had a nice visit with him. He looks after the nearby Alberta Forest Service campground, cutting and hauling firewood, and collecting fees from the campers, etc. He said over the course of the summer he will cut, split and haul five logging truck loads of wood. He also does some maintenance on the airstrip.

After exploring and visiting and taking some pictures, we took off and flew back to Wetaskiwin, where I dropped off Mike and then flew back to Red Deer. By this time it was early afternoon and the flight was quite bumpy, but it went well.

All in all, it was a great day, and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to many more flying adventures in the future.

Randy Engler