Newsletter Archive/Archives du bulletin
webstertrophy.ca Newsletter #001 - 2016Good Day Everyone.
Webster 2015 Ends: What a competition !!! The Pacific Flying Club as Webster host was fantastic from start to finish. We must commend Pat Kennedy and her entire staff for a job well above and beyond. The facilities were great, the aircraft in excellent shape and even the weather cooperated with beautiful skies and temperatures. In the entire week we only had two 1 hour delays due to high winds one morning as one and deteriorating visibility in the practice area for the other. Every year there is always one glitch or more with the accommodations and/or the banquet but not this year, which was a tremendous relief to Amy who could actually enjoy herself during Webster Week. The highest of accolades to the River Rock Resort and their entire staff for a job extremely well done. Another accolade needs to go to Air Canada Cargo who ensured that the two trophies and Bob Bradford framed prints arrived safe and sound along with the associated returns to Ottawa. We must thank Air Canada – YVR, Jazz and Aero-Formatech for their respective sim night, tour and fire-fighting course for all went off beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed by the finalists.
The 2015 Webster winner is Zhaoyang David Shi, Atlantic Region, Monction Flight College, The runner-up is Jack Bradshaw, Central Ontario Region, Brampton Flight Centre and the winner of the Nav Canada Trophy is Gabriel Kim, Eastern Ontario Region, Seneca College.
Photos of Webster Week are available through the drop box link available on the Webster website on the Recent News Articles page.
Webster 2016 Begins: At about this time people often say to us that they hope we have time to relax but not quite yet. Just because Webster Week is over, there is still a great deal of activity remaining as we receive and send out the photos taken by our photographer Andrea Shury, pick out individual pictures of the finalists and create short bios for the Regional Finalists page on the website, select and caption additional pictures for the Awards Ceremony Photos page as well. Thank you and acknowledgement letters needed to be sent out as did news article to all the aviation trade publications; Webster Facebook and website announcements of the winner, runner-up, Nav Can Trophy winner and other items of acknowledgement and importance. By the time all of this is done and some of it still isn't, it is time to launch the initial 2016 activities such as setting up the first 2016 Webster posters for issuance to all the Flight Training Units (FTU) across the country; prepare for the Air Transport Association of Canada AGM in November in Montreal and have a Webster Team planning meeting, which just took place. Shortly however things will slow down until the New Year and then progressively escalate once again as Spring approaches.
New Date For Webster Week: At the recent planning meeting it became apparent that next year it will be difficult for a some of our judges to attend in the normal third week of August slot. After an involved discussion it was determined that the national competition will be moved into the latter part of September. Our host FTU for 2016, Brampton Flight Centre is unable to accommodate us up to the middle of the month due to preparation for their annual Open House. As of the time of this update the final decision of which week in late September it will be has not been confirmed. September is not necessarily a bad thing as September weather is somewhat cooler than August and not as susceptible to thunderstorm activity. It was also noted that many years ago the competition was always held in September but for some unknown reason got transferred into August about 15 or more years ago. Deadlines for applications and flight tests will remain the same.
Regional Qualification Change Expected By New Year: For years now we have relied on the submission of current (within 12 months of deadline) Transport Canada flight test reports or Webster flight test reports to determine the selected nine finalists. This afforded us the opportunity to determine flight skills but not knowledge skills at the regional level. Written exams are in place for the finalists once they compete at the national level. With the tremendous involvement and cooperation of Nav Canada we have been developing a written exam on pilot/controller communications, airspace and airport operations which has been updated and given to the nine finalists each year. Now it is being placed onto a Nav Canada website and once fully developed and tested it will be a requirement for all regional applicants to write on-line as part of their entry into the competition. The marks from both the flight test reports (flight skills) and the Nav Canada exam (knowledge skills) will be merged to determine the regional winners. Hopefully it is set to go by the new year.