Ah yes, back in the day ...
Brantford Flying Club, 1979 - 1986. Some great memories!
C150 dual was $37.50 per hour, solo was $22.50, Aztec was around $100 dual and you could rent it solo! Even had a Rockwell Commander 112 for a while, what a fun machine.
The C150 would spin very nicely and predictably, with no nasty tendencies like the Tomachicken (once met a guy who had an early edition Tomahawk go into a violent flat spin that lost over 5000 ft and ended up sending the fire extinguisher out through the back window in the recovery)!
Great instructors back in those days. Denis, who went on to Air Canada shortly after he sent me solo. Brad, the quiet one who sadly ended up getting out of the flying business. Jimmy the comedian, who moved on to flingwingers for a while but in the end also ended up out of flying; and Scotty, who always made learning interesting and fun and has gone on to great things in his career (now flies the 777 for SAL). And the folks I instructed with, Don, Jim B, Jim M, Cor, Gloria and so many more who came and went. Great comrades one and all.
Lots of crazy parties, trips to Oshkosh, Dayton Museum, or the Sunday breakfast flights to places like Kilarney Lodge. Spot landing tests, bombing contests, crazy flying stunts that some of us were lucky to come home from (ahhh, to be young and invincible again!). And the die-hard members who were always around during the weekends and on Wednesdays for lunch, some of whom have since passed on. Walter, Doc Quinlan, Garnet, Father JV, Frank, Ed and so many others. I miss you guys alot.
Pipeline patrols, frost flying, the United Way fly-a-thon, and so much more. Low level nav exercises. Hours and hours in the circuit for rwy 23. Partial panel ADF approaches under the hood (Great, now I can't get the "FD" beacon's morse code out of my head!).
Sometimes I miss those days and those folks, they're the soil and the fertilizer of my craft. I admit that don't miss the instructor's pay cheques, though! Tough way to pay the bills.