The Roland-Désourdy Airport (formerly known as Eastern Townships Regional Airport or simply Bromont Airport) is located west-southwest of Bromont, Quebec,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Traffic at Roland-Désourdy Airport is represented mainly by small, single-engine aircraft; jets and big aircraft are not common. The airport serves

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

and has no scheduled flights. A commercial aircraft maintenance facility also operates in ZBM. The airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the

Canada Border Services Agency The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA; , ''ASFC'') is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border guard, border control (i.e. protection and surveillance), immigration enforcement, and Customs, customs services in Canada. ...

(CBSA). CBSA officers at this airport can handle commercial and general aviation aircraft, with no more than 15 passengers.

Usage

This airport was built for sport-type aviation; there is a school that operates three classic light single-engine aircraft,

Cessna 150 The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 22-23. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. In 19 ...

, Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee. The Royal Canadian Air Cadets fly time tested, Schweizer SGS 2-33 gliders with tow plane, and

O-1 Bird Dog The Cessna O-1 Bird Dog is a Liaison aircraft, liaison and observation aircraft that first flew on December 14, 1949, and entered service in 1950 as the L-19 in the Korean War. It went to serve in many branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, was no ...

(Cessna L-19), during spring and late summer camps dedicated to introduction flights for kids and during summer to take young student pilots for solo flight and glider pilot licensing. The ACE Glider Club is based at the Roland-Désourdy Airport and glider and soaring flight operations normally span from April to October. Military Glider flight operations (Air Cadets) take place only from the grass

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

Air cadets tow planes take off from the grass runway and land on the asphalt runway. Operation of high performance civil gliders take place on the asphalt runway at ZBM. These high performance gliders use the same pattern and procedures as all other motorized aircraft. From Roland-Désourdy Airport, it is possible to soar the

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...

wave with a good performance sailplane and, when the

meteorological Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture ...

conditions are favourable, it is possible to get airborne and get into a steady lift of more than , over very wide areas. With such conditions, one can fly a glider straight at speeds over without losing altitude, making sure not to exceed maximum rough air speed limits in such conditions. The Roland-Désourdy Airport cold front wave is very predictable; the special meteorological pattern can be spotted before 1200 UTC time, and it repeats itself 63 percent of the time with onsetting cold fronts. During spring 2007, work began on the construction of a new asphalt runway that permits optimum military glider operations (Air Cadets) which is now . Military training Gliders will be able to take off behind tow from the new runway and land on grass; after landing, the gliders will be in position for the next take off. The last decades of the 20th century saw a progressive decline of private pilot flights and a decreasing number of small aircraft. The fleet of this region is aging and very few new aircraft are seen due to increasing costs. The possibility to fly

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

s and

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched Glider (aircraft), glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a :wikt:harness, harness or in ...

s attracts many flight enthusiasts.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roland-Desourdy Airport Certified airports in Montérégie Gliderports in Canada Gliding in Canada