The annual Gold Cup Air Rally (GCAR) flew into Niagara the weekend of September 10-11, and landed at the Central Dorothy Rungeling Airport (NCDRA).
“I was considered the host of the event,” said Cathy Boyko, a participating pilot and one of several ladies who fly out of NCDRA. “There were others who helped with the organization, but I did a lot of local legwork. We had 16 women for the celebratory dinner, most coming from around Ontario. The average age was probably in the 70s, although our youngest pilot this year was 17. We used the cadet hall at the airport for the banquet, and all the ladies stayed at the Best Western hotel in Welland.”
GCAR is a cross-country competition flown by women pilots in VFR (visual flight rules) conditions, meaning clear skies, or at least clouds higher than the flight path. Usually each leg of the GCAR route has a set of questions or other challenges.
Scoring marks are awarded for the correct and completeness of answers on quizzes, fuel estimation, scavenger hunt items, and any other contests the committee includes during the rally.
The event had its genesis in 2000, when members of the Ninety-Nines — an international organization of women pilots that provides networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to recreational and professional female pilots — proposed a women’s air rally to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ninety-Nines in Canada.
Now 64, Boyko started flying when she was 50. She owns a 1945 Ercoupe, with a twin tail configuration, that she hangars at the NCDRA. She tries to get out once a week, weather permitting, and has flown as far as Wisconsin, Maine, and Summerside, PEI.
“My plane holds 30 gallons of fuel, and with just me at the controls, it burns under six gallons an hour, which translates into five or six hours flying time. But with a passenger aboard, it's a whole other ballgame. Then I'm looking at about two hours in the air before I have to think about refueling.”
Cathy figures she has many good airborne years of ahead of her, and hopes to one day “gracefully retire from flying. I’d like to make my exit from piloting kind of like Serena Williams did in tennis, leaving on a positive note.”
