Comment "Blissville, on CFB Gagetown" on Blissville Airport, Canada

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Blissville, on CFB Gagetown

In 1981, CFB Gagetown was the location of the largest deployment of canadian troops since the Korean war, for an exercise calle Rendez Vous 81. About 10,000 troops took part in the exercise. Blissville was the centre of most helicopter activities for the duration of the exercise. At the height of RV81, 73 helicopters were based at Blissville (Kiowas, Twin Hueys, Chinooks from Canada; and Cobras and Chinooks from the US Army). A transportable approach radar (PAR) was installed to serve temporarily as the only approach aid (pre-GPS times!), with precision limits (200 - 1/2). The airport was temporarily given the ident CH3. I was flying the first aircraft (a CH-135 Twin Huey) to flight plan into CH3 under actual IMC, coming from YOY. Shortly after we changed from Boston Center to Moncton Centre, over the Maine-New Brunswick border, the controlled gave us a clearance to Chatham beacon (ident CH), which we promptly refused... I guess that the message about the temporary ident was not distributed to all controlllers.

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