Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Feels Good....


So in my previous post I stated that new pics would be coming soon, I forgot to mention that soon is a relative term and the week that I posted that I had some new developments occur in my life. The picture above is of Mt. Tremblant in the province of Quebec in my wonderful country of Canada. The ski hill is in the foreground and in the background you can see a thin river type thing running kind of parallel to the top of the image. What actually you are looking at is the runway located just off the end of a lake in Riviere Rouge, Quebec the larger airport serving this area. There is a grass strip located quite close to the lake in the lower left of the picture but I usually stick to pavement just to reduce stress.


Why is my first post in half a year talking about a ski hill ? Well back in the fall I took a beautiful woman on a date here and haven't taken too many pictures since. I rented a Cessna 172 from the local flying club and as our first date I flew her to CYFJ (Mont Tremblant/Riviere Rouge Airport). She was into photography, loved nature and there is no better area in the fall in my experience than Quebec to get lots of fall scenes and enjoy fall as it's suppose to (New England is also included in that). The strip is about 15 miles from the ski hill so I had to rent a car (cheapest option) and Serge who runs the airport had it waiting for us and was amazing at setting us up and giving suggestions on what to check out on our visit.


We made our way along the winding road towards town and the ski hill with covered bridges crossing the river at many junctures. She was quiet but content as I rambled on incessantly (I do blog as you know !). We finally arrived at the base of the mountain and after eating we took the gondola to the top for some photo opps. It was a beautiful day but the winds were probably 40 knots and the temperature around 5-10 degrees Celsius so the visit to the top didn't last very long. Before I knew it we were driving on the winding country road back to the airport for our evening flight home. I was not stressed, but overly thoughtful of the fact sunset was looming and I had to be airborne and landed before legal dark as the plane had it's turn coordinator out for service which prevented me from night flying.

Since I am a turbine pilot piston engines apparently do not like me and after getting in and starting the plane up it ran like a 2 legged cat from a pack of dogs. At this airport there was no maintenance and once Serge left no way to get anywhere other than walking ! Serge could see that I had some problems and graciously waited for me to take off in case we needed the service of the rental car one more time, but this time for 4 hour drive home.

To tie this story up... I finally started the airplane again after a thorough look under the cowling and she purred like a kitten. We took off and flew around the mountain and snapped some pictures and literally flew off into the sunset.

As far as the date was concerned I thought it went off fairly well with a few minor hiccups here and there but it had gone better then anything I had ever planned in my life.

As with all things... perspective, opinions and truth is in the eye of the beholder. Many guys would say that things turned out horribly for me and that such success is utterly a failure as an outcome for this date.

I never thought while I did the walk around that morning that I would be getting ready to go flying with my future Wife. If I would have made a checklist for the perfect woman for me I would have sold myself short. She is more amazing then anything I could have ever dreamed of. Shortly after we met I knew she was the one for me, just like I knew cruising in the flight levels was the job for me when I was 14. After almost 15 years of flying I am more enthusiastic about my job than ever and know that I will be the same way about her 15, 25, 50 years from now.

We are married now and soon to be moving to a new city to live in. The good news is that my job function is changing slightly and I will be able to do more posting. I feel glad that I will be able to share more experiences with you and show you more of Canada and what it has to offer.

Below is a few pics of a recent trip I took so stay tuned in the next few months for the revival of what I started 2 years ago :) Fly Safe.



This guy was a bit far away so I had to zoom in with the camera to see who it was. I believe it is a 777 for British Airways flying westbound north of Washington DC for points unknown. I haven't flown in the US in a long time and it was good to get back into the high density airspace and experience ATC at it's finest.





I am very fortunate to have such a view from my office window and I am sure many people wish to have the same. I try and never take it for granted as there are so many people without the opportunities I have had and I can not go wasting such an experience just because I can ! This industry is the worst industry to work in but it is by far the best job of any out there. I am flying here with a good friend of mine and there is no better time to be had then hanging out at work with a really good friend enjoy every ounce of every minute.



Delta 767 which was heading westbound to somewhere I have no clue where. The upper level winds were very strong from the west so he was only 5000 feet above us at FL300. That's it for now as far as pictures are concerned but these will be the last of the US shots for while. I will bring you up to speed on what will be happening in the future in the next few months.


Cheers,

The Dutchman

1 comment:

david said...

Wow! I'm sorry to hear that you'll be leaving town, but congratulations!