Photo froma video shonwn at Monday's Grande Prairie City Council meeting.

By Curtis Galbraith

Community

Local organizer says July airplane races could be one of the biggest spectator events to come to Grande Prairie

Jan 12, 2022 | 6:00 AM

A Grande Prairie man who is among the organizers for a planned airplane race in July says it would be one of the biggest spectator events to come to Grande Prairie.

Phil Troyer is on the board of the Canadian International Air Race Society.

He says a lot of things need to be done before it can take place.

“It’s very labour-intensive this project, partly because it’s never been done here before.”

“Transport Canada, while they support it, it has to be approved by Transport Canada here in Canada. They’re eager to work with us. We have to train all the emergency services, plus hosting the event.”

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Troyer says they also need to line up sponsorships. He calls getting the planes here ” a huge logistical project.”

Troyer adds a conversation with a pilot led to the possibility of an airplane race weekend coming to Grande Prairie in July. He says he met a pilot from the US who then introduced him to a pilot from Edmonton. That pilot then connected him with race organizers from the Whitecourt/Villeneuve area.

“I think they’ve been working on it for a couple of years as well. It takes a long time to get the groundwork in place and I think we came upon it at just the right time.”

“They were looking for an adequate venue for it. Grande Prairie meets that bill.”

Troyer says it is challenging to find a location for a big event like this as it attracts big crowds, and the course covers a big area. He adds it would almost be impossible to hold an event like this at someplace like the Edmonton International Airport because it has so many scheduled flights.

He adds Nevada is the only other place in North America where races like this are held.

“There were some in Ohio earlier in the 1900s. There has been a couple of different locations throughout the world but that is part of the drawing card. Right now, aside from Reno, there is no other location in North America where these guys can race.”

Troyer says the owners make their own planes or have somebody build them for them and then have their own modifications for the engines.

The engines are the same as the ones found in a Cessna 172, similar to the training planes Troyer has at his flying school.

The race is planned for the weekend of July 8.