Continuing our journey westbound and fighting an ever increasing wind and turbulence we climbed up to FL260. From Winnipeg we were cleared straight across the whole prairies to an intersection called DARKE for the Alomo arrival into Calgary (brings you in from the east north east). As we were about to descend WestJet started his decent from FL400 a bit earlier and was going to pass us overhead. It's always neat to see other aircraft fairly close in flight, and to see how much he makes us look like we are standing still... We are headed to the mothership to exchange planes and continue our journey the next morning.
Off in the distance is Nose Hill. Its a great spot for an easy hike and it covers a large area considering its right in the city. We are landing on runway 25 which makes for a short taxi to the barn. On the other hand if you land 34 and use it all up its about a 2.25 mile taxi back. Calgary sits at 3550 feet above sea level and there was lots of space available so runway 34/16 is 12,675 feet long.
For most people, waking up to this would be a nuisance but I don't think things could get much better. Here is Canadian Regional...oops I mean Jazz's Dash 8-300 departing off 16 right out my window. This actual airplane came in with an engine failure when I was working in Kelowna and sat on the ramp for a few days while mechanics removed and installed the new one. In Kelowna I saw 3 Dash 8's come in with an engine feathered. Seeing as they are highly reliable turbine engines maybe I should sweat more on take off and landing with my highly reliable single engine out front :)
Airborne off Springbank we got cleared direct to Scottsdale...coming from the east the land of preffered IFR routes and flying your flight planned route to the bitter end I am almost shocked to hear it. It's amazing how much less traffic is out this way. I believe we are about ten thousand feet here in the climb. A company aircraft departed Calgary International and we paralleled them for a bit but they quickly climbed to FL400 and left us in the dust. We could see their contrail begin and then trail off on the horizon, pretty cool but the camera couldn't focus that far away so no pictures. Next up is warmer climes, cactus and the Grand Canyon.
1 comment:
3 engine failures ? Wow, you're bad luck! In my 3.5 yrs in YLW, we didnt have any. I did see a WJ 732 chew up an engine though.
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