“Snow plane nuts” from across Saskatchewan came to Davidson Jan. 27 to compare the fruits of their labours and offer free “at your own risk” rides for anyone brave enough to hop into a cockpit.
“It was a pretty good turnout,” said Charles Deaver, a local snow plane enthusiast and organizer of the rally. “Something I didn’t do is advertise it a lot because I didn’t want a lot of people to come out, especially younger kids. I didn’t have things set up right for that. If this happens again, I’ll know how to plan it better.”
Deaver owns two out of the six planes at the rally held at C&M Motors, a larger one he rebuilt four years ago and a smaller one “built right from the bottom up.” He said it takes him about four months to build a snow plane working on it part-time, when he’s not busy playing guitar for his old-time country and dance band, 3 For The Show.
A snow plane doesn’t actually fly, but can zip around a snowy field at close to 65 kilometres an hour. They’re kind of like a hovercraft, except made for Saskatchewan winters instead of Florida swamps.
Watrous’ Jack Isabelle came out to the rally to show off his homemade, other than the propeller and 290-Lycoming aircraft engine, snow plane. He said the whole body of the plane is made out of wood and there were no blueprints to fall back on when he was building it.
“You just look at other things and decide what you’ll put into it,” said Isabelle. “When it runs good, it’s a sweetheart. When it doesn’t, it’s a pain in the ass.”
Isabelle said he has been building snow planes for about 20 years. He said he first saw a picture of one and was intrigued and when one of his buddies built one, he had to have one too.
“Anybody can buy a skidoo, but these you have to build,” he said.
Lorne Winslow, who travelled from Wadena for the rally, brought along his “Snow Dragon” plane. He said the plane is equipped with a 235-horsepower Continental aircraft engine and six-foot propeller, plus a propane furnace inside the cockpit “so it stays nice and warm.
“I had a ride in one when I was six years old and I said I had to have one,” said Winslow. “They are a fun machine.”
To read more please see the Feb. 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Raiders girls win home tournament
The Davidson Raiders junior girls basketball team took their competition to school at the Davidson gym Jan. 25 and 26 winning all three games they played in their home tournament on route to taking the first place honours.
Sandra Baldwin, coach of the Raiders, said Davidson was “pretty strong” at the tournament, first beating the Outlook Blues 43-28 and the Eatonia Spartans 49-19 in pool A action before moving on to the first place game, a 61-35 win over the Eston Mustangs. She said the other teams at the tournament were pretty young, comprised of mostly grades 7 and 8 players, so her team that dresses four Grade 9s proved formidable to their opponents.
“They are good leaders on the court,” Baldwin said of Grade 9 players Tina Stone (guard), Kaitlyn Baldwin (post), Cheyanne Nordmarken (wing) and Sydney Booker (point guard).
Cheyanne was particularly strong on the offensive side against the Mustangs scoring a team high 18 points including a couple long threes. Sydney netted 13 points during the blowout that saw Davidson go up 19-3 in the first quarter and 35-9 by the half.
Tina was all over the court during the final game coming down with numerous rebounds and playing a quick transition game to get the ball back up to her wings, while Kaitlyn was solid on the defensive side wrestling for any balls that an opposing Mustang dared try advance into the key.
“My girls thought Davidson was going to be difficult to begin with and they were a little bit slow getting out of the gate,” said Mustangs coach Marea Olafson. “Finally, it was like ‘oh, we can play with Davidson so let’s play,’ but we started slow.”
The Mustangs dominated the third quarter scoring 18 points to Davidson’s 10, bringing the score to 45-27. The home side came back to form in the final 8 minutes, putting the game away for good and taking first place with the 26-point victory.
Olafson said the tournament as a whole was “great” for their club, as it let their younger players get in some game action and grow more as a team.
“We were able to win a few basketball games,” she said. “The Grade 7s are getting stronger and the Grade 9s are helping them. Our team building is really strong right now.”
Baldwin said her girls played extremely well together as a team even though she mixed her players up position-wise throughout the final game.
“They still went out and passed well to each other,” she said. “They made sure everybody touched the ball and they spread out the points.”
The Raiders coach said the junior girls have enjoyed a solid season so far and they look forward to playoff action come the beginning of March.
“I expect us to be at districts in the final game,” said Baldwin. “That’s our goal.”