Pleased, thrilled and happy to have – finally – hosted the East Canada Section of The Ninety-Nines’ Gold Cup Air Rally.
Atlantic chapter members welcomed six small aircraft and 14 women aviators – pilots of all kinds, instructors and even a balloonist – August 21 to YZX Greenwood, after their all-day flight on the rally challenge from Rockcliffe, Ontario.
“I’m thrilled – the East Canada’s Gold Cup Air Rally has been to every province on the East Coast BUT Nova Scotia,” says Elizabeth Walker, the past president of the Atlantic chapter and the on-the-ground organizer for local arrangements involving Freedom Aviation and 14 Wing Greenwood facilities.
“Only two people have every been here before – and that was for back in 2018 when we had the launch of The Ninety-Nines’ stamp honouring Major Mary Cameron-Kelly (a ground-breaking female Royal Canadian Air Force CP140 Aurora pilot). It’s nice to refer back to that.”
Originally in on the planning and hosting, Cameron-Kelly was off flying the Aurora at the London Airshow and missed the local weekend. Several other Atlantic 99s arrived to help Walker with the greeting and hosting.
“We all arrived within a two-hour or so window,” says Gold Cup winning pilot Rani Tolton. With Valerie Marshall in their Cessna 172, this was their third team effort win in the Gold Cup Air Rally’s 26th year.
“The flight was wonderful.”
That is, Tolton says, including resetting their flight plan because of a fogged-in St. Georges airfield for refueling in Victoriavale, where they had lunch with the local flight school and watched a group of parachutists; to learn, 20 minutes after they’d made their new plan, St. Georges had cleared and all other rally teams could land and refuel as planned. Most flew over Maine, routed north of Fredericton, and then crossed the Bay of Fundy over Isle Haute to land in Greenwood.
As rally participants arrived, Freedom Aviation was “gracious, fabulous,” Walker says, helping with tie-downs and aircraft care as the ladies settled in. 14 Wing Greenwood’s accommodations and Annapolis Café had been arranged for overnight and meals.
On the Saturday, the group – now about 24, with local members having driven to join in, visited the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum for a women-focused scavenger hunt and tour of the displays and airpark. Weekend side trips included walking the dykes in Port Williams and Wolfville – and spying a juvenile eagle over the low Minas Basin tide; taking in the Harbourville weekend market and walking along the shore; and attending church at the heritage St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Auburn, where one of the visitors, an organist herself, got to play the 1863 organ after the service. An evening banquet at the Annapolis Mess, catered by some Berwick Girl Guides, closed formalities. Guest speaker 405 (Long Range Patrol) Squadron Honour Colonel Sophie Saulnier shared an interesting presentation about 14 Wing’s operations, missions and expansion plans. First-time Gold Cup Air Rally participant Sowmya Lokesh (one of four first-timers) was recognized as the East Canada Section’s recipient of funding support to join in.
Weather loomed in the back of everyone’s mind throughout – the reason the Gold Cup Air Rally has never been to Nova Scotia. Hot, humid conditions and threats of rain and thunderstorms were forecast, enough so that, in the days leading up to the weekend, Plan B options to back the banquet up and allow for an early departure Saturday were considered. Instead, visiting aircrews departed Sunday as scheduled, or even delayed Monday and into Tuesday.
