Off the beaten path

Billy Connolly

2010-12-28T22:45:00.001-05:00

I was recently watched a show featuring Billy called "Journey to the Edge of the World" where Billy travels from the east coast of Canada up the Northwest Passage all the way to Vancouver Island.

For anyone interested in seeing the farther reaches of Canada I highly recommend it and with Billy's sense of humour it makes for good entertainment.

The following few photo's were taken in Tuktoyaktuk and previously posted here, but since watching the show I realized the people who were in my pictures on top of the Pingo were Billy and his cameraman ! When I saw the episode I noticed how beautiful the tundra looked in Tuk and I realized that it didn't look like that the past two years so it must have been earlier. Well after looking at the dates I found for his show and the fact someone in Tuk said someone was in town filming a documentary the same day it all made sense.

So Billy if you ever see this post I wouldn't mind the video footage of us circling overhead :) You were probably cursing me while trying to take your own footage !

Cheers

Solstice Eclipse 2010-12-21

2010-12-21T03:50:00.000-05:00

Solstice Eclipse December 21, 2010 as seen from Yellowknife, NT
(disclaimer:these photo's aren't great and are my first attempt at night photo's)

So having the following day off and recently recovering from a stomach flu which allowed me much sleep yesterday, I figured I'd better stay up and get a picture of this eclipse. The "special" circumstance for this eclipse is that it is a full eclipse (of the moon) during the winter solstice (IE the days are getting longer in Yellowknife after today!!!!!). Since moving to Yellowknife I would like to get some Aurora photos and I guess I just haven't been that motivated. Seeing as the next few years should be the best years to see them this experience taught me a few things.

First: Don't set the camera up an hour before the beginning of the eclipse when it is -20. By the time the eclipse started getting good my settings had to be adjusted due to how fast the shutter could close. Also the dimming of the moon did not help this at all. Auto focus became pretty much non existent also.

Second: This is a common sense thing...but don't bring the camera into the +20 degree house and have the lens fog up as the eclipse is at it's peak ! Hence the following shots are shot with 2 different cameras.

Third: Buy a faster, stronger lens.

So the first and last photo are from the Canon Xsi with a 55-250 cheapy lens. I can't complain it was a gift and I have wasted my money elsewhere when I should have bought a better lens. The others were on the backup camera (thank god due to lens fogging up) Canon SX10IS. Both were on a tripod.

The last photo was of the full eclipse as I chose to film it. I was cold and the camera had gone from a full battery to less than half in about 25 shots. Learned a lot about tripods, shooting in the cold and to be thankful it wasn't -45 or I doubt these pictures would have happened.

There is lots of information on this if you google JPL Eclipse and also on Flickr which I am sure has a lot of cool shots from people in warmer climates with much fancier equipment...and skill.

Merry Christmas, Happy First Day of Winter and all I can say is bring on the sun !! (Sorry to all my more northerly friends who are in darkness till mid January :)

Fall in the North

2010-09-23T15:18:00.000-04:00

These pictures were posted last year I believe but these are some new vantage points courtesy of my Father In-Law...Beautiful fall colours are abound and it's still about +17 when this shot was taken. Now I must say that it has cooled off somewhat but still seasonal and no -40 yet ! This is Cameron Falls about 40 minutes east of Yellowknife on the Ingram Trail.

Parking just after the falls on the way home and climbing up a large rock face...this is the outflow end of the falls at powder point. The canoe route takes you on this path and next year it would be nice to give it a go.

One of the last beautiful days to be out and about before the rain and snow... looking towards the top of the falls.

To keep with the aviation theme here is a First Air C-130 Hercules taking off for Ekati most likely ! They must get sick of that route but a job is a job ! Still haven't been anywhere new worthy of pictures but I always try and think of something to post...

Whitehorse Part Duex

2010-07-15T12:02:00.000-04:00

Whitehorse Part Duex !

Just before sunset we headed up on Grey Mountain for a few pictures. Sadly I had my non SLR camera with me and the low light performance is sub par. But it was such a beautiful evening but cold near the top as I quickly snapped some pictures. This is looking to the northwest towards Whitehorse.

I didn't organize these too well in sequence due to the fact you can only upload 4 pictures at a time in Picasa....we have canceled the IFR and just are about to join a right base for Runway 31L. The airport is just under the cloud on the plateau with the City of Whitehorse down along the Yukon River bank.

The office building of the Whitehorse Tower staff...very friendly service here in Whitehorse. Mid morning and already the TCU's are building around the hills.

For a fairly northern city everything up here is so well done, clean and maintained. Probably due to the fact there are lots of travelers passing through on the Alaska Highway but still I really love the cleanliness of Whitehorse.

Overlooking downtown Whitehorse from the trail that circles the airport. So many trails in this town too which is perfect for someone who currently doesn't have a car ! What started out as just a walk to downtown for lunch turned into 3 hours of touring and a bit of a sun burn. I was pretty sweaty after I climbed up the hill to the airport as I couldn't seem to find the damn return trail. I knew the stairs was farther north but I decided to "save time" and go direct.

Big sink hole which nearly runs right up to the perimeter fence of the airport. Eventually they will have to deal with this.

Miles Canyon from atop the bridge..now much more tame since the hydro dam was put in but back in the day it was apparently one hell of a challenge to get through.

Miles Canyon bridge....apparently if you come here at the right time this place is covered with hundreds of German tourists. In this case it's just me...

Basically read the following picture to describe this one...we drove up beside the summit and took some more pictures but there are bike trails all over this mountain and at the top the walking is easy going (once you get there of course).

Turbine Otter being difficult and I wanted to post the next picture I took after this one where the guy with the rope was leaning back almost 60 degrees trying to hold the plane. That is one reason I kinds stayed away from float flying...I don't have sea legs and I figured I would be in the water more then in the plane. This is just south of Whitehorse on Schwatka Lake, a great place to visit with quite a few float planes.

On the way to the top of some mountain close to town which I can't remember or find (click here for the Google Map location) we noticed something that almost looked like people in trench coats from a far. But with all my 500 mm lens to it's fullest extent we ended up spotting two bald eagles. There were some babies close by and after trying to get some low light photo's this is all that turned out. It just amazes me that this is only 10 minutes from downtown Whitehorse.

Lake Laberge made famous from the Robert Service poem...."The Cremation of Sam McGee". This is atop the mountain just to the northwest of Whitehorse which we drove up a pretty crappy washed out back woods road. But it sure beat walking up the mountain considering I only had one night to see all the sights. This is looking north east towards Lake Laberge which essentially a widening of the Yukon River. Lots of farmland in that area which seems odd being North of 60.
The climate in this area is dry and fairly warm considering it's latitude so spring comes sooner and winter isn't as cold as similar places in Canada at this latitude.

On top of the same mountain from the previous photo, looking south/east towards Whitehorse and grey mountain is to the left under the shadow of the cloud. Whitehorse only has around 21,000 people but the new subdivisions aren't made on cleared land like they are in places like Calgary, Toronto...etc. They seem to cut out neighborhoods in the trees so you don't really see it at all when you are driving by.

Fish lake also about 15 minutes from Whitehorse taken again from the same mountain top. Just a beautiful spot to see from a distance I can only imagine what it's like to be on the shore...

Looking off to the south towards Alaska...it isn't very far away from here but to go direct from here you would need a plane.

Man do I have a huge shadow....actually that would be the monster wind generator on top...looking east towards Grey mountain and Whitehorse.

For those of you considering going to Whitehorse but are worried where you will find your precious Latte's....you're in luck ! There are also many bakeries and cafe's that will suit your fancy with excellent food abound.

Looking down main street....not a high quality photo but to give a general idea. The airport is just at the end of the street up about 100 feet on the bank...

Mammatus clouds....not really but this is two developing Cumulonimbus clouds growing about 20 miles away and this picture is taken from Grey mountain. We seemed to avoid the rain everywhere we went and those close were sitting on top of the first mountain we went to visit and eventually a down pour could be seen when they started to die out.

To keep with the airplane theme here is an Eva Airways 747-400 probably out of Anchorage heading to somewhere in the USA. This was taken on top of Grey Mountain.

The Beringia tourist info parking lot. Basically talking about when the Bering Strait was emptied of water due to more water being locked in glaciers and when wooly mammoths roamed around these parts. Also when most of the first peeps came across to inhabit North America. Lots of cool pictures and maps including many fossils to look at. Also a full size mammoth skeleton too.

This is a family blog but I just couldn't resist.....

What things would have looked like for people back in the day...you can see them just in the bottom right hand of the picture.

Whitehorse is an amazing place to go visit with lots of outdoor activities and a good starting point to venture out into the Yukon. It reminds me of a Vancouver North but with a lot less people and no traffic to deal with...or HST :) Also a good spot to go to start a trip similar to going to Banff but again it is more rugged and less populated and I think you would get more from the experience. Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I will have something to blog about in the near future.

Cheers,

7 Years

2010-07-10T13:36:00.001-04:00

7 years ago this week I started out finally getting paid to do this gig. It was for less money than I made to load them but at least instead of showing up to work to load 4 of them I just was responsible for one. No this airplane wasn't flying in a 3rd world country......it was Northern Manitoba which for the most part could be considered one!. This girl had a directional gyro on the co-pilot's side and a fixed card ADF with a VFR gps. 172's had better avionics but it was a nice airplane to fly, stable and boy could she take a load. I believe we got 4 snow machines in the back for a charter once. It wasn't pretty but a sight to behold none the less. A year after this picture was taken the company went bankrupt (this is an aviation blog after all) and all the Bandeirante's were flown south into a scrap yard.

Looking back at the path I have taken things have gone about 180 degrees from where I initially set course but where I have ended up is even better then my previous supposed destination ! Here's to going with the flow and enjoying the journey every minute (or every other minute when you have to hold in places like Tadoule Lake :)

Photo courtesy of LostAv8r. He doesn't know that he has lent it to me but that's what happens when you are so poor you don't have a computer so you have to download them to your friends.

Happy Canada Day !!!

2010-06-30T22:44:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Canada !!!

The above picture is a collage of photo's from my collection and each Province, and Territory is represented. I have been extremely fortunate to be able to travel to every area of my Country (not like Mr. Cash who has been everywhere man, but close). I have not lived in any other country but from what I have seen, I don't need to go anywhere else because we already have it all (great neighbors ta boot, you crazy Amarakins !)

Happy Birthday Canada !

Whitehorse

2010-06-26T23:50:00.003-04:00

CF-CPY Douglas DC-3 Whitehorse, Yukon

If you watched Ice Pilots NWT which aired last winter on the History Channel then you will already be familiar with this WWII machine. This particular plane as you will read below on a photo of the plaque that sits just underneath of it, served in WW2 in Asia and eventually came to rest after working in the Yukon here at the Whitehorse Airport (ICAO:CYXY). Whitehorse sits on the Yukon River and the Alaska Highway runs through town on it's way to....well you guessed it...Alaska ! It reminds me of a Vancouver/Seattle North as it clean and granolaish with lots of outdoor sports.

Looking at CPY from the south east as she rests on a pedestal and weather vanes into the strong south easterly wind.

I tried to capture a shot that would have been a possible movie angle if you were to see this old girl in flight. I have a great imagination and can imagine this old bird flying all over western Canada getting people where they needed to go. Back then the flights might not have been as cheap but at least you got good old service with a meal ! (Not complaining about today's level of service considering you can go from Vancouver to Ottawa for 200 bucks !)

Really no need to describe the above photo....

Whitehorse has tons of trails that take you anywhere you need to go and today I need to get to downtown from the airport. The path I was on took me right under the approach path for the 13's and as I was walking I could see some big airplane turn final about 15 miles or so and I decided to wait to see what it was. There was a trough of low pressure sitting in the area causing some towering cumulus to form in the afternoon which made for a nice back drop to my plane watching.

Holy lederhosen it's zee cherman's ! 767 on short final for 13R as it goes over the gully towards downtown. I believe they serve Whitehorse direct from Germany 3 times per week in the summer. Apparently Germany is crowded and they like being alone so they come to Canada to get away from each other (after they get off the airplane) and enjoy the scenery. Pretty sweet sight though. If I would have shut off "display picture" I could have got a bunch more rapid fire shots but I was only able to get one more before she was on the ground about 700 feet behind me.

Condor 767 about to touchdown...later in the afternoon I was fortunate enough to go up on the mountain in the bottom frame of this picture. That will be the next post but until then fly safe and enjoy the scenery !

Cameron Falls, NT

2010-03-06T14:45:00.001-05:00

This is some more photo's of our experience at Cameron Falls. It was in the fall and the weather was gorgeous (-5 and Sunny). The next day we received 30 cm's (12 inches) of snow so our timing was impeccable. Here is a stand of Aspen on the way to the falls, quite a bit of symmetry for random events in nature.

Whiskey Jack's swooping in to grab some egg salad sandwich as we sit for lunch after checking out the falls. They are also know as Grey Jay's and are the most friendly birds I have ever encountered. At first they flew by us over and over and eventually landed in the trees beside us. Then I tried a piece of cheese on the ground and eventually it lead to them sitting on our hand and eating ! An awesome experience.

By the time we were done there was about 4 of them competing for the food, we had lots so we were able to share some to get them primed for the upcoming winter weather.

Coming in for a landing...I thought it was hard trying to capture an airplane on short final but this was a little more challenging. Thank God for the rapid fire option on the new SLR ! Sorry for the lack of new aviation material but I thought I would share some of the Northern Experience I have been having lately! Next photo's are of some really amazing birds. They fly all the way from pole to pole each year and soon we should be seeing them again !

Tuk, Yellowknife, Pingo's, The Mackenzie River, and Rapids

2010-02-26T11:27:00.009-05:00

Tuktoyaktuk, NT. Early September and the tundra is turning it's b-e-a-uuuuutiful red. I started this post off with the 4th picture so now I have added a few because it helps to paint the picture a little better. Tuk has about 900 or so people and is located on the Arctic Ocean. In the 70's it had a booming gas operation and today a lot of those structures are mostly dormant waiting the next big surge in gas prices. When you land in Tuk and look at your cell coverage you will be shocked to realize you actually have 1X service and your Blackberry will be fully functional. Slow downloads but what else can you as for in a town of 900 people in the middle of nowhere. It is hard to see in this picture but right south of town in the bay there is an old drilling platform. There is just the foundation today and nothing active is going on but still neat to see.

Not to be confused with a Dingo, these are called Pingo's. There is actually a National Park located here and there are many of these bad boys around but as far as I know these are the two biggest I have seen. They are essentially giant frost heaves of permafrost sticking out of a Kansas like flatness. I have yet to walk to the top but I hopefully will this summer and post new pictures from a different perspective.

This picture isn't enhanced very much, only to get to get rid of glare and darkened up a little. This was taken the first week in September and this colour only lasts for a few days and then it goes straight to brown. I consider myself lucky for being able to get a trip up here at the perfect time to see this and the picture turned out amazing ! I had to borrow someone's camera from Tuk as I had not taken mine and luckily it all worked out. In the bottom of the frame is a small boat and if you look at the full res version you will see two people on top of the Pingo. They were in Tuk filming for a documentary but so far I haven't seen myself on TV yet.

On final to the runway in Wekwetti (ICAO: CFJ2) (former name: Snare River) NT. Runway is the average size for up here around 3000 feet ish and is in great condition. Compared to experiencing the fall in the mid latitudes with all the colours of the leaves changing, up here it is mostly just yellow on the Aspen that you see but also a bright red on the ground. The bright red comes from small plants on the ground which I don't know the name of but they usually have berries associated and the colour is amazing. This is mid September so the leaves are on their way out and the land of the evergreen lives on for the winter.

This is a scene from my back yard...well I can see it from my backyard if I walk about 200 feet out the back door and around some other houses :) This is Frame Lake which is a small lake essentially right in the middle of Yellowknife. It has a walking path which is paved following the South shore where town is, and a marked trail around the North Shore. To walk all the way around it takes about an hour and a quarter. It is a very nice trail to walk as it is fairly hilly and offers many view points of town. The only time it isn't so good to walk on is late spring, (spring is about 3 days here) when the snow is melting and I near impaled myself on the rocks. Before I moved here every person I met who had been or lived here had nothing bad to say about it (except the length and temperatures of Winter). So far this winter has been awesome hitting only -40's a few times each month. Last year not so much. Since Westjet has started coming here the cost of getting here from Edmonton is dirt cheap (didn't say it was sustainable). Yellowknife is about 590 NM north of Edmonton so about 1 hr 20 min jet ride. If you are looking at driving that would add up to about 15 hours non stop driving plus a little wait at the ferry crossing at Fort Providence. That would be the reason aviation is probably so big up here :)

Looking at downtown from the NW side of Frame Lake trail. The recently rehabilitated the waterfront by City Hall and they did a very good job. Lots of place to sit and enjoy the scenery and lots of grass to play around on. Grass is a commodity up here let me tell ya ! The big glass building on the left is the JTFN (Military geek squad for Joint Task Force North). The have the cheapest beer at any mess in town...so I have heard. To the right of the that is the RCMP G Division HQ building and beside that is City Hall. For a town with 20,000 people it sure has a lot of high rise building but land is at a premium here because if you want to build something your gonna spend a lot of cash blasting the rock out of the way first.

45 minutes east of Yellowknife on the Ingram Trail, you will find Cameron Falls. It isn't no Niagara, but as you can see we are the only ones there to enjoy it ! It sounds bad but I love the fact there is hardly anyone up here and also with all these sights there is no gates or walk ways to stay within, you can walk right up and be with nature. The sound the falls make reverberate with your heart and you can really feel the energy as you get closer to it. The walk in from the road is about 15 minutes and it is also a gorgeous trail with rolling hills. My first visit was shared with a bunch of Japanese tourists which is actually a pretty large business around here. In the winter time they fly all the way to Yellowknife to experience the Northern Lights which of the past two years haven't been the greatest. In the next few years we are going to a solar peak so we should see a good show.

This is what I was talking about...being able to stand right beside it and feel the rumbling and getting water spray on your face.

Laying down on the rocks to get this picture, was trying the slow shutter speed but overexposed it a bit but I am new to this whole fancy shmancy stuff. This is just a side stream off the main falls and it quietly runs through the woods and it is very peaceful to walk beside.

Now we leave Yellowknife and are landing in Norman Wells, NT. Norman Wells is an oil town half way up the Mackenzie River and is one of the nicest spots in NWT as far as scenery and the actual town goes (Oil money helps a lot). If you have seen the series Ice Pilot's NWT then you would have seen Norman Wells a few times. This is one of the places the plane had an engine change and they were "stranded" here. Let me tell ya, this about 1 of three places I would want to be stranded in the NT. First they have hotel's and secondly they have a liqour store ! Also they have scheduled airline service that uses jets, there is only about 3 airports up here that have jet service so yeah Norman Wells is a good place to be "stuck in the boonies".

Here is Empress triple four, Canadian North's 737 Classic on it's daily flight up the valley from Edmonton, Yellowknife, Norman Wells and eventually on to Inuvik. Basically it shuttles oil workers into and out of Norman Wells and if I leave on time in the morning we usually don't conflict with each other. Up here there is no radar so ATC basically has to give one airplane at a time the approach clearance while the other holds if the timing is too close. When the weather is bad we have to hold but usually if you can get visual and the airport is calling VFR weather (at least 3 miles and 1000 feet) everyone uses the common courtesy of canceling the IFR. That is another nice thing about flying up here for the most part. Everyone just want's to get er done and flying is the only means for the most part so no weekend warriors out to throw a wrench into the plans. Nothing against weekend warriors as I plan on being one in retirement, it's just that I have had close calls with people saying they are on a downwind for one runway when it's actually the other etc...

This isn't the Beech 99 that ran out of fuel and landed on the Dempster Highway but the other one made it out to fly another day (not sure about the pilot). Here is sorta what happened...a Beech 99 operated by North-Wright Airways, was on a VFR flight from Fort Good Hope to Inuvik (YEV) and about 30 NM south of YEV when the pilot advised Inuvik FSS of a double engine failure. The pilot force-landed on the Dempster Highway with no reported damage to the aircraft. The pilot was the only occupant. TSB has been in contact with the company and the initial report indicates that the engines quit due to fuel exhaustion. North-Wright is based out of Norman Wells and serves the Sahtu (Mackenzie valley area around the Wells and the Delta).

Last but not least is the Mackenzie River. It is the longest river in Canada and the fact it takes about 2 hours in a jet to fly to the full distance demonstrates that. Alexander Mackenzie canoed it in 1789 (they had a lot of time on their hands back then) trying to reach the pacific ocean. Apparently he was disappointed when he didn't get there, because canoeing like 4000 km's is child's play.

There is a lot of history in this area and I will have to gather some more pictures and keep this up. I never thought I would be a billboard for the NWT but this place is gorgeous if you can deal with mosquitoes, black flies, and freezing cold temps in the winter.

Update from the field

2010-02-25T14:51:00.002-05:00

Tindi Caravan departing CYLK Lutsle'Ke

One of those guys....I had every intention of maintaining this blog when I started it but I must say that life happens when you make other plans. Life is going very well and I am enjoying life flying around Canada's Great White North and the variety of geography in the NWT alone excites me to learn about how all the land features got to the condition they are in today. I found a good book called Canada Rocks which describes the formation of the area known as Canada today and what has happened over the billions of years to each region to help us understand what we see. Also CBC produced an excellent series of shows called the Geologic Journey which is available for purchase from the CBC. It has excellent computer animations and it is narrated by David Suzuki, I highly recommend it. For our Friends South of the border, it also covers a bit of the US too :)

Below are a few shots that I took around the north that I wanted to share. I have kinda lost the photo bug and do not even carry a camera with me to work anymore. Hopefully having my outlet back will motivate me to get snapping ! Otherwise hope all is well with you and enjoy. FD

This is the Smoking Hills of Paulatuk, looking North in the early summer. Still lots of ice left but it is amazing what 24 hour sunshine can do. Click here to view it from the ground.

Part of the Hornaday River. It is an extremely fast moving river and it is a mini grand canyon of the north. Lots of caribou are in this area and it runs into the Arctic Ocean after passing through Tuktut Nogait National Park. This is pretty northern and not cheap to get to as far as National Parks are concerned but for those hard core back packers with serious money this would be an excellent place to visit ! Also worth checking out is the Brock River Canyon, it has some very beautiful scenery (check it out here) and is in the park as well. For southerns wanting to access this region you would first have to fly to Edmonton, then onto Yellowknife, Inuvik, and then on Aklak Air from Inuvik to Paulatuk. I believe there are guides you can hire in Paulatuk and once there you are only about 40 miles from the park. I remember seeing a quad trail half way out towards the Hornaday so you can access it over land or by boat from Darnly Bay in Paulatuk. You would want to make sure you had everything you needed for the trip because Paulatuk does not have much more then a Northern Store where prices are sky high and selection is minimal. (Relatively speaking). I will get out more with the camera and bring you more of the North which is so expansive and gorgeous. Till next time (could be next year :), fly safe.

United Breaks Guitars

2009-07-10T12:14:00.002-04:00

I haven't done what I previously stated but I have been busy...Here is a funny song about a musicians experience with United Airlines. If only we could all write songs to peacefully demonstrate against being screwed over :) Fly Safe !

UNITED BROKE MY TAYLOR GUITAR

Update from the field....

2009-01-26T12:54:00.004-05:00

Lot's of new changes have happened since the last time I posted to the blog. After getting married I got another new job and moved 6300 Km's away from home. I guess home is where I am so I can't really move away from it !

Off the beaten path used to represent the type of flying I used to do but these days I am home every night and hit the same hot spot locales almost everyday. All the things about my old job I did not like were cured by my new job but I sure do miss going somewhere new everyday. With the old schedule of 12 on and 3 off I don't think I would have stayed married too long so this is definitely a move in the right direction !

I just upgraded to a new Core I7 computer system with many giga this and giga that, and the bonus of having a 24 inch LCD aids in my picture viewing and editing by 1000 percent compared to the old laptop.

I will try and post some new pictures here shortly as they are taken in areas that are indeed off the beaten path but lately I have been burning tracks in the sky everyday flying to them.

Take care,

FD

Here are just a few pictures to spruce up the place till I get more organized and create some good posts going.

Most amazing sunset I have ever seen ! (Captured on my Wife's old Minolta 35mm as I left my digital in the rental cars trunk..to be never "found" again).

Localized fog...it was just hanging over the airport on one side so I was able to land without a problem. It was -41 Celsius ambient so the little bit of moisture off the river caused water vapour to turn into ice crystals.

Lovely turquoise coloured lake from 24,000 feet.

Turbine Otter resting after a hard days work. This was my first day in our new city and after seeing this view I knew things were going to work out juuuust fine !

It is not Niagara but the fact you can stand right beside the edge made it much more exciting ! The rumble of the water and the essence of it's power almost hit ya right in the heart. Amazing !

PC12-47/E Newest PC12 Variant

2008-03-24T00:41:00.001-04:00

Pilatus the makers of fine aircraft have published photo's of their new PC12/47 E aircraft. Click the link below to see for yourself...

Pilatus PC12/47 E

The Date

2008-03-19T09:22:00.006-04:00

The night before the big event it had cleared out and was sky clear and the forecast for the next day was suppose to be sunny and mild. This picture was actually taken at dusk but with the aid of Picasa it appears as though it's pitch black. Nervousness was pretty pronounced tonight because of meeting someone for the first time tomorrow but I figured if it didn't work out at least I got to go flying.

Here we are battling a 30 knot headwind as we start to cross into the Laurentian range on the north side of the Ottawa River towards Tremblant. This was a beautiful day for flying except that it was probably the most bumpy I have ever flown a 172. Seeing that she had never flown in a small plane before I had a Plan A and Plan B. Plan A was the low level bumpy flight to save time if she was a trooper and didn't get motion sickness...where Plan B was if she didn't feel comfortable in the bumps and to save me from cleaning up puke I was going to climb higher out of the bumps but add 30 minutes to the flight time. Well as I leveled at 2000 feet we were getting the crap kicked out of us and I was always asking if she was ok. At first she stated she was fine and that she loved the view from up here. Then about 15 minutes into the flight she said that the bumps were kinda soothing her and she could fall asleep!! Well I didn't want to tell her after that I was feeling queasy and wanted to take the hit on the ground speed and find smoother air. Knowing she was a good flyer I immediately knew I could check that off the list of things that would be ideal in a girl for me.

Here we are going up the gondola to the top of Mt. Tremblant. It was a quiet ride to the top but both of us were snapping photo's out the little windows at the top of the gondola. In this photo I am looking North West towards the airport we had just arrived on. As soon as I was airborne I had checked the weather and had gotten 3 pilot reports of wind shear and moderate turbulence in this area. I don't fly the 172 all that often and with the winds and turbulence the landing was ok but I landed about halfway down the runway to make it that way.

We are about 3/4 of the way up the hill now and looking South towards the village of St.Jovite. There is another little ski hill as you can see which is called Grey Rocks, beside it is the St.Jovite grass strip I could have landed on. Due to the winds I decided to land somewhere they had firetrucks to come put out the blaze if it didn't go so well :)

The colours were very nice but not as vibrant as the year before when I flew in here for work. It had been warmer this year so some trees were hanging on to life while others were putting on a good show for us.

Here is the hotel's and condos at the base of Tremblant. I am not of high society and have never been to many ski resorts but this one seems to be very nice. I took this after the Tremblant experience was ending and we walked out to find the car.

A look at the main drag in the village, lots of cool shops but as you can imagine the prices are ridiculous. Thank God she only ordered Nacho's on the date :)

Back to the friendly skies where I feel more at ease that the "date" part is over and now I can relax and enjoy the flight home. She had been pretty quiet for most of the time and right after take off she excitedly said " This is so awesome!" in regards to the view and the fact we were going flying again. This is the ski resort of Tremblant. The actually village associated to the area is St.Jovite which is about 3 miles or so away and has all the amenities (IE beer store, grocery store, and hotels).

Tremblant from about 4500 feet I think as we do a pass on my side so I can take some pictures and then do a 180 so she can snap a few pics with her SLR "old school" camera :) The winds had died off and it was smooth as silk up here in the sky so I was having a great time. I could finally trim the airplane out and let it do most of the flying. Having autopilot over the years has made me hate hand flying while in cruise because it is harder to take pictures and stay on course and altitude. As we came to the end of this pass I did a 45-55 degree bank turn to quickly get the hill on her side and she loved the positive G feeling. Lots of people hate anything other then straight or level but so far she could handle anything I did.

As we turn around we are now climbed up to 6500 feet and headed home. All in all I feel pretty good to how things went today. The weather couldn't have been any better (minus the wind) and neither could the company :) The winds now on our back saved us about 15 minutes on the flight home so I was gonna save a little bit of money on this leg :)

The beautiful Laurentian mountains at dusk.

Heading back to the flat country so I figured I better take a few more pictures of the hills. Such a beautiful area to fly or even drive in.

Now what first date isn't complete without flying into the sunset ? I mean it is so cleche but I don't care :) 6500 feet in our trusty steed the sun says goodbye for today. Our ETA is about 10 minutes before legal dark so I am glad we didn't leave early because of my worrying and miss this. Like a good friend of mine always says..."This happen the way they are meant to, otherwise they would have happened differently" and today is no exception.

I bought the camera with the zoom lens so I could get a little closer to things when I am up in the air. Times like these I am glad I did.

Sunrises and sunsets happen super fast so I had to keep shooting when it got so close to the horizon. Here I got a really great shot of the last part of the suns disc descending below the horizon. Kind of a nice aura effect around it I must admit :)

All in all a wonderful day that couldn't have gone any better or have any better turn out. 5 months later to the day the lovely lady sitting in the right is seat is now my wife. Here's to many more sunsets together !

Cheers,

The Dutchman

Feels Good....

2008-03-18T22:43:00.004-04:00

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

New pics coming

2007-10-07T12:51:00.000-04:00

Been quite a blogging deliquent lately but I do have some new pics to post here shortly. I have problems uploading photo's with my wireless connection at home so will have to go elsewhere to do so.

Should be a few new posts in the next week.

Cheers,

FD

The light of the world

2007-09-04T20:13:00.000-04:00

This I guess would be part 2 in the series of early mornings....this is late afternoon on a gorgeous late summer day. The sun has been hidden under a layer of overcast all day long but as the cold upper winds aloft drive them away we are in store for a beautiful sunset. I don't really need descriptions of the following photo's as they speak for themselves. I have a few more to post in the near future but I figured I would save the best for...well, first :)

Not so GREENpeace

2007-08-31T16:39:00.001-04:00

Recently in Port Dover Ontario, Greenpeace protesters using zodiacs deployed from the above seen vessel (Arctic Sunrise) attached themselves to conveyor belts and to the rudder of a large ship delivering coal to the power plant there.

At first you would think...good on them for actually sticking up for a cause and turning the idea of being Green into a verb. Way to go guys.

Now if you look back to the picture of the boat they sailed across from the Atlantic I don't think it runs on solar power, wind generated power nor does the helicopter sitting on its back or the zodiacs it uses. Greenpeace in itself with this one boat probably has a larger carbon footprint then a lot of the people they are attacking. Why do they need a ship and zodiacs to do their dirty work ? Why don't the use the resources of the internet to organize local members to sail a boat out to the coal ship and protest ?

I am all about conservation and treating the environment with respect as we should, but these guys waste more fuel and resources to do aggressive acts to get their point across. By the pure virtue of their anti-coal or anti not green they are not doing any good for the environment just as anti-war rally's do. Because when you are anti anything you are using force and not power to create change. Mother Theresa said she would never go to an anti war, poverty..etc rally, but if you have a pro peace rally she would come. So if the lady is a saint by her actions I think she can be respected for knowing how to facilitate change for the better. Maybe Greenpeace better look to her for some wisdom.

I don't know why this bothers me so much but when you operate on a lower level of thinking to combat the opposite side which is doing the same thing you aren't gonna make any headway. Like Einstein said "You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created."

Brantford Airshow

2007-08-30T12:21:00.001-04:00

Canadian Air Force's Finest. The CF-18. Yeah they have been around for a few years and are probably not the most modern fighter but it still looks cool to me. Sitting here in the evening sun before the main show tomorrow.

Dehavilland Buffalo, a great lifter and also a short take of and landing aircraft.

Patty Wagstaff's Extra 300 in the hangar resting before tomorrows punishment. Amazing how small these airplanes are and the huge engine they have up front.

This is a real man's colour right here. I guess if you go out and pull 8 g's with a plane people can't really go and make fun of you for driving a purplish pink airplane. This is a Russian design called the Sukhoi.

CF-18 again.

There is two big ass jet engines stuck in the middle of that skinny fuselage which is one reason it can probably climb vertically and haul ass in a big way.

Canada's air demonstration team: The Snowbirds. Most country's stopped flying the CT-114 Tutor about 100 years ago but we still use them as our ambassadors via air shows. But to watch those guys fly them the way they do is a testament to their wicked skills.

There is quite a few of them and I couldn't get them all in the frame without not being to identify them as airplanes. Look pretty nice sitting there all together.

Again the CF-18...I know I know but the choices were very limited as most of the airplanes were going to be flying in the next day !

As we arrived they announced the Buffalo was going to be making a low pass over the field. Well thanks to the smokey engines I could see it from about 5 miles away low level. Wicked paint scheme I think, I like the yellow it's a happy colour and maybe that's why they paint a search and rescue plain like that because usually it would be a happy site to see if you were stranded. I can't back that up.

Zoomed in a little, sexy bird.

This thing can drop the hot lunch if it needs to and there is also a video that sort of starts off looking like this but the guy who was flying it was a bit too aggressive and when he pulled up to flare he was too slow and basically dropped the plane vertically into the ground in a level flight attitude. It was on airdisaster.com I believe.

He came in and did a short field landing which was pretty cool and I have it on video which I will try to post here later.

This is Patty Wagstaff of Aerobatic fame pushing her plane back into the hangar. She has been doing this forever and a day and is also on Microsoft Flight Simulator's Aerobatic videos from the FS2K versions I believe. The Extra 300 is still a stock airplane for the Flight Sim series. She does a really good routine and I first saw her at Oshkosh back in 1993 with a red and white one like the one they use in Flight Sim.

Benefits of early mornings...or late evenings

2007-08-23T12:22:00.000-04:00

Being the junior man on the totem pole I recently got stuck with the 2200-0600 shift at work. I haven't brought my camera out for awhile but do to the fact it was sky clear the night before and the possibility of seeing a great sunrise I thought I would bring it with me. I don't get up early enough to see the sunrise most days so I figured this would be my chance.

It was about 6 degrees Celsius which is pretty chilly for this time of the year but it added to the awareness of the moment. Because there was a north easterly wind I could smell which smelt like sewer but when I drove home I could smell the same thing (no it wasn't me either !). I surmised it must be the pulp mill which is on th north side of the river and exactly in line with the winds that morning. Anyway can't really narrate this anymore then what you see is what you get. I love mornings.

They are building a new hotel down the road and here you can see that it is nearing completion. It is either a Marriott or a Hampton Inn but there is no signage yet. I can just imagine the view on top of that crane.

Close up of the previous pic.

Oh Canada...that's right :)

CIA edit's Wikipedia pages

2007-08-15T17:55:00.000-04:00

Not that anything you read or hear in the news has any truth to it anyways the CIA has been also editing the President of Iran's page in Wikipedia amongst other things. Here is the link...

CIA edit of Wikipedia

In regards to the terror threat level and the rest of the crap CNN spews out I leave you with some Ben Franklin....

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

The Crackberry

2007-08-14T21:49:00.000-04:00

Here is a shot from my new Blackberry Curve 8300 which I recently bought. My previous job required that we have one and now I am fortunate to have a job that I can actually afford one. The Blackberry is basically mobile internet included with a cell phone along with PDF, Excel, Word document viewing. The cost of the monthly plan is pretty steep for just a personal user because you pay for talk time and data, with the later costing a fortune if you web surf on it regularly.

I have been debating for awhile to get the new Curve or the Palm Treo which is pretty much similar in ability but also has the ability to edit Word, Excel files. Also, Pilatus creates an Aircraft Flight Manual which includes performance computations for the Treo and not the Blackberry which at first swayed me until I rationalized how much I would actually use it.

The Curve like the Treo offers the full QWERTY keyboard which means it is laid out like a regular keyboard unlike the Blackberry Pearl or regular cellphone that has 3 characters per digit.

The Curve also has a 2.0 MegaPixel camera which is a bit up on the 1.3 MP camera on the Treo. It allows you to convert a picture to a 4"X6" without causing a poor image to be printed (provided you took a good shot to begin with !).

So far my experience has been really positive (minus the freeakin bill!) and the screen is just great.

The picture above was taken at about 130 km/hr as I headed north on the 416 towards Ottawa. It had been brutaly hot the last few days and these were clouds left over from the front passage and made for a truly beautiful sight.

Safe flying !

FD

Serenity Now

2007-08-07T17:23:00.000-04:00

After 14 years since my last visit I recently made it back to Algonquin Park one of the many Provincial Parks in Ontario for a few days of camping. I don't consider driving into a campsite with all your supplies including a cooler and even electricity. This campsite we are at was a 6 hour canoe ride including about 2 kilometers of portaging. Portaging is where you have to get out of the canoe, carry all your crap including the canoe across the land to get to the next lake.

For the entire day on this lake we were the only ones but in the evening a few couples camped across on the other side of the island. The first night was spent on Burnt Island Lake and the second on Otter Slide Lake which is the site we are at now. From Ottawa, Ontario this is about a 3 hr and 30 minute drive and about 280 KM's. There are many outfitting companies on around the park but we went in at Canoe Lake which has The Portage Store where we rented our kevlar ultra light canoe. It was 40 bucks a day to rent but after having carried it about 4 km's by the end of the trip the light weight was well worth the price !!! If you are planning a trip to go interior camping with a little bit more of work involved I would highly recommend Algonquin. The rewards are much much more worth the little effort ! Mind you my 13 year old nephew who I had to slave drive to keep paddling for 6 hours might think differently. This was the first and last trip here for him :)

Looking South West on Otter Slide Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada. Rain clouds abound but we only received about 10 minutes of rain at 2 am the last day. We had a 15 mile per hour tail wind on the way out and oddly enough the winds did a 180 and we had a 15 mile per hour tail wind home !! What are the ahhhhhhhds of that !

Being up early and keen to get a good site we ended up picking the best one on the lake. Wide open, a good breeze and nice smooth rocks for a shore to swim off of. I cut about 3 50 foot dead pine trees which provided an entire day and a surplus of another 2 days of wood for the next people. I bought a 7 dollar hatchet and I definetly got my moneys worth !

Thunderstorms off to the distance in the south east. I can't believe our great fortune in avoiding all the bad weather. If you want to go to Algonquin you best call ahead to reserve the lakes which you would like to stay at. You have to book a minimum 3 days ahead and if not and you decide to just show up you might not have a good choice of lakes to camp at and might have to canoe in pretty far to get a spot.

Since I had promised my nephew I would take him many months ago and due to my procrastination did not book a site. But I was so committed to this outing that I thought nothing but positive thoughts and figured everything would work out just perfect. I have been doing a lot of reading lately and came upon a great book...called Power Vs. Force by Dr. David R Hawkins. It is basically about levels of consciousness and energy and if you are into The Secret this is what you are looking for. He provides evidence to support his ideas not just hocus pokus reinvented positive thinking books to make a killing at the bank. Anyways when we arrived all the lakes were available except one which I didn't even consider anyways, and the tailwind both ways sure helped also !!

I am going to blog a little bit about the books I have been reading as I am sure that no matter who you are you would enjoy what they have to offer. Until then take care and enjoy the summer.

OurAirports

2007-07-24T19:41:00.000-04:00

So it has been over a month between posts and the new job is going great. Considering it was not suppose to be more flying I have been doing about 60-70 hours a month so far which was close to my highest months at my previous job.

I have thought many times of topics to post here but I can't get into just talking about something I have seen or read that moves me the way seeing sunsets and experiencing other parts of the continent does.

But I came across a new site by the owner of the Blog Land and Hold Short (David Megginson) and would like to share the link here. The description of his new site is pasted below word for word...

"OurAirports is a free site where visitors can explore the world's airports, read other people's comments, and leave their own.

The site is dedicated to both passengers and pilots. You can create your own, personal map of the airports you've visited and share that map with other people. You can find the closest airports to your home airport, and find the ones that you haven't visited yet. Find every airport in a country or region. Or go to The Big Map and zoom into to any spot in the world to see where the airports are."

To go to OurAirports click here !!

It is a nice little setup and encourage the passengers and the pilots alike to post their experiences on some of the airports they have been to so that others can learn and share in the experience.

Still working on developing a good post here but I have not abandoned the blog yet !

Cheers,

10,000 hits

2007-06-16T01:06:00.001-04:00

Nothing much of a post here....just that in one year of posting I have hit 10,000 visitors. Currently in Kansas and will have some more pictures to post soon.

Thanks to all those in the past year that have been a regular to my blog !

Quebec City 2

2007-06-05T18:07:00.001-04:00

So here we are in Battlefields Park on this beautiful sunny spring day. Apparently horses run on autopilot as well as most airplanes. Here the tour guide is deeply immersed in talking while the horse walks the same path over and over all day long. When you think of it I am sure glad I do not share the same fate as the horse, but he might think the same when he can take a crap right on the street during daylight and well....I can't :)

I guess when you are not home you always seek out the known....well in this part of the country this is about as close to home as I can get :) To be honest visiting Quebec City is much better then visiting many areas in Montreal. Usually anglophones don't come up this far as frequently as they do in Montreal so the people here seem to be friendlier towards those non french speaking folks. Just an observation of mine...

This is the view from the walkway around the Fort overlooking the St.Lawrence River towards Levis, Quebec. This is the wall the French built to keep out the English...funny how things change ;)

Quebec City

2007-06-05T17:46:00.001-04:00

These are pictures from my last tour of duty for my previous company. I have always wanted to have an extended stay in Quebec City because of all the history and great scenery to absorb here. I haven't been this excited for picture taking on a layover since the time I visited Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia back in October of last year. The weather as you can see fully co-operated considering the day before was raining and +32 Celisus = freekin hot degrees Fahrenheit !

In regards to Williamsburg, Quebec City had it's initial beginning about 70 years prior but the first few attempts fizzled out, thus Jamestown became the first Colony so to speak of the New World. The landscape of this area is beautiful with cliffs and meandering hills but I can imagine the first folks arriving here from Europe when it was nothing but mere wilderness scattered with Native inhabitants. Canada owes it's name to Jacques Cartier who was the first to refer to the New World north of the St.Lawrence as Canada. Amazing how something so great has such small beginnings, and it reminds me of a quote from Rev. Robert H. Schuller....(not to go all God on ya here:) "There are infinite possibilities in small beginnings, if God is in them".

As you can see in the above picture the architecture of this area is very unique and mature which is one reason I love it here. The pubs along this avenue are rustic and most have a patio where you can sit out and enjoy the lovely weather and watch all the people moving about enjoying the atmosphere.

Here is a picture from Battlefields Park looking east towards le Chateau Frontenac which is an upscale hotel built in the 1880-90's which is now an iconic symbol of Quebec City. As you can see from this picture the tiny glimpse of the surrounding area is brilliant and the view from atop the hill amazing. The area upon which I stand is where the French and English duked it out for control of the New World during the period know as the 7 year war. The important part to remember here is that England won and in 1763 the Treaty of Paris was signed which made France hand over New France to Britain! So why does hardly anyone speak English in Quebec City ? Go figure :)

There is a computer game called Civilization III where you start off playing as one small Civilization and the object of the game is to grow as much land area as possible, while being able to defend and grow the area you have without spreading yourself to thin. If you are successful at doing so you usually become a force to be reckoned with as the larger and more refined you become the harder it is for other Civilizations to take you over. As you progress in the game the population of some cities grow quite large, so they become targets to take over. The problem is that when you take over a group of inhabitants and rule them under a different flag you are usually met with great resistance and if you do not station enough military troops in the City they will throw out your army and join up with their home Civilization. So basically in realistic non gaming terms that is called the Province of Quebec :)

Now many of you might have heard of the Parliament buildings in the nations capital of Ottawa. Well, referring back to my previous post...this is the Parliament building in Quebec which is pretty much the "nations capital" for the French Canadians. Again great architecture and it compliments the cities skyline perfectly. I guess when you have two waring factions that are fighting for the same piece of property, whoever loses will still not be able to just let go of the past :) I see a lot of viewers of my blog come from Quebec so I do not intend to insult you with my comments. It is only that this all happened close to 250 years ago and as far as I am concerned we are all Canadians and nobody is more "distinct" then the other.

Another shot of Chateau du Frontenac from atop of Battlefields Park.

This is the Loews Hotel featuring the restaurant at the top which apparently offers great views of the entire Quebec City downtown and beyond. As you can see from this picture I can not let Aviation take a rest. Here I believe an A330 is transiting directly overhead the city en-route somewhere Westbound on this lovely spring day.

There many more pictures to come as I head to Old Quebec to experience life as it was 200 years ago, and also we travel down the St.Lawrence river to experience some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.

Cold War take two...

2007-06-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

I have been reading this guy's blog for about a year and have always found it interesting how he was reporting news that really wasn't out in the mainstream media.

This morning I was reading the Globe and Mail and in the headlines was this:

Exclusive: Putin threatens to target Europe with missiles

Now this guy has been talking up Putin for the last year as being headed in this type of direction.
Pretty interesting reading if you are into this type of stuff. His blog can be found here:

Once upon a time in the West

One year later

2007-05-30T13:23:00.000-04:00

Well it has been a year since my first blog post and the reason I had started this blog was to share experiences and photo's with my family/friends and as time went on I was fortunate enough to meet many others who would stop in to see what I have been up to. In the beginning I had realized I would not be always afforded such amazing opportunities to see so much of North America and had the ability thanks to Blogger to share it with everyone who might never be able to travel as I do.

With that in mind like all good things (blowing my own horn about the blog :) they must come to an end at some point (even The Simpsons :). Yesterday was my last day at work with the company that has allowed me to see so much and created an appetite to see so much more. I will still be blogging in the future but it will not be able to take pictures at work, nor discuss where and what I will be doing. I will resume my picture taking in 25 years after I retire and start fresh on another aviation adventure but until then I will have to mainly talk about the industry, and turn this blog into a more of an information/safety blog.

I would like to thank many of you for stopping in and hope that if you are a fence sitter thinking of flying for a living or getting your private license to allow you to take to the skies, I urge you to GO FOR IT. If it is really what you want to do then make it happen, don't let your circumstances dictate your reality. Attitude determines your altitude :) (aviation on the brain all the time I know:). Thank you again and please do check back from time to time as I will be still keeping the blog going, just with not as many pictures. The following are pictures from my last day at work going from Quebec City to Ottawa. Enjoy, and fly safe.

Here we go one last time...just departed off runway 06 in Quebec City and over flying the downtown core. I was fortunate to spend the last 5 days here and finally got around to seeing the sights. This area has some of the earliest history in Canada and they have done a great job at preserving it to it's original form. I will be posting pictures from around the City shortly but I have still to organize the 500 + pictures I took and select the best ones to demonstrate the beauty and culture of this area. The river you see here is the St. Lawrence River, the island off to the east is Orleans Island. The City of Quebec lies right under the frame of this picture and the town of Levis Quebec is shown in the bottom right hand corner which is across the River from Quebec City.

Here we are at 28,000 feet en-route from DICEN intersection to EBNYR. The co-pilot had never gone above 25,000 feet before and for me I will not be going about 10,000 at my new job so we decided to go up nice and high for both our sakes :) Again the PC12 is truly an amazing airplane with awesome capabilities. For the first time ever we actually got speed restricted in the climb. We took off right after a King Air 200 (a twin engine turbine aircraft) and because we were on the same route of flight and out climbing and grounding faster we had to slow down to keep the en trail spacing. They were headed to Toronto so they must have a had a full load of people and gas...but so did we :) That goes to show you just how amazing and cost effective this airplane is, burning about 40 percent less gas, carrying the same people at the same speed.

The view of the Quebec countryside from 28,000 feet as we head west bound towards Ottawa. The St. Lawrence river is just to the top of this frame and you can see the transition from farm land to woodlands as you get farther from the River.

The Ottawa River winding it's way east towards Montreal and then connecting to the St. Lawrence. The first explorers to Canada (amongst the Natives as well) used this river to navigate in to the heart of Canada after arriving in Montreal in their sailing ships. They used birch bark canoes and paddled and portaged their way in to some pretty rugged territory. Their main reason was greed to sell furs and make lots of money but I guess things would be quite different if they hadn't. This honestly is the best job in the world (besides the view from space) and I have had a blast sharing all my photo's with you. Whatever your dreams may be, please go after them, we only have one chance to do so :)

Thank You-The Flyindutchman

"It was a love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty. It lay beyond the descriptive words of men-where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same time."
-Charles Lindbergh

Gliding

2007-05-27T21:02:00.001-04:00

Home for the weekend and headed out to the local airport for breakfast. To my surprise the Air Cadets were in town gliding. Here is the tow plane just landing and soon to hoisting another glider up for about 5 minutes of pure glory. The best thing that these guys did was to paint these airplane yellow. The following day I went for a local flight in the 172 and they were in the circuit at my departure and destination airport. Trying to join the circuit between them landing and taking off and timing it as to not cut the gliders off was an usual challenge. I am so used to controlled airports where you don't do anything till you are told, and going to self guided flying makes things more challenging yet more rewarding when you can make it work out well for everyone. Because of the rules aircraft with engines have to give way to aircraft without (obviously enough as they can't hold for long and also they only have one shot at landing :) I wanted to be positive I wasn't gonna cause them grief.

When you go to fly in breakfasts you can see some of the worst airmanship in action. Not to be negative but when you get a nice sunny clear weather summer day and a bunch of pilots who fly once every month you can see some pretty crazy things.

A few years ago chaos ensued at the local airport during a fly in because one aircraft out of the 4 that were coming into land was reporting his position exactly where everyone else was so everyone was looking all over for him. Everyone was landing into wind (as normal) and on final I saw a 172 have to pull up and go around. This was followed shortly by a 150 landing the opposite way into the oncoming traffic. He was making all his radio calls saying he was landing runway 22 but actually landed runway 04 into everyone else ! So basically what I am saying is that I don't mind when the weather is bad when I am at work because it keeps those guys on the ground :)

Hooking up the rope to the tow plane. I believe it just went in for gas and was getting ready for another marathon of circuits.

A glider coming in for landing on this beautiful day. The yellow blends in quite nicely with the dandelions. In my youth I have gone in these gliders a few times. I loved gliding as it is as close to being a bird as you can get.

This is the Johnstown-Ogdensburg bridge. If you want to go to the USA from the Ottawa area this is one cross over point to use that is fairly close. When I just got my drivers license, a few of my friends and I were bored and decided to cross over here in the states and drive along the St. Lawrence on the American side and cross back over about 15 miles down the road at the Thousand Islands Bridge. Now that was our honest plan, so as we approached the customs officer on the American side he asked us our citizenship, and then the purpose of our trip. Now in this case, as the saying goes..."The truth shall set you free" does not really apply. I told him we were bored and were going to drive down route 11 and come back via the Thousand Islands Bridge. He then said "You just decided to come over to the US, drive for 15 minutes and go home ?"

"Yes" was my answer and I didn't really have much more to say to convince him that was our plan but he wasn't letting us go through. He then said " Your parents gave you the keys to the car and said, hey why don't you go for a ride to the states?". I was not really liking his tone but in all fairness what I was telling the guy sounding like a load of BS. So he then proceeded to look at all our ID's, followed by a look inside the vehicle. He finally had nothing else to keep us on and just exasperated at the whole scenario said "Go".

So we did just as we said and ended up at the Thousand Islands Bridge. Now because we were coming back into our home country I thought things would be a little easier, apparently not. We basically got asked the same questions, with the same attitude thinking that if they kept hounding me I would break down and tell them the real truth about what we did. But after about 10 minutes of searching and ID checking we carried on. The moral of the story is that the next time we wanted to do the same thing we just named a restaurant in the border town we were going to eat at and then we sailed right through.

Next Generation Pilatus PC12

2007-05-24T10:52:00.001-04:00

Next year Pilatus will be coming out with the new Next Generation PC12. It has all new avionics, new engine, and a redisgned cockpit by BMW. We are going to be going from an office that looks like the one above (picture from Airliners.Net).....to the office of TOMMOROW below!!

Personally I don't like the huge computer screen because it is starting to look more like Microsoft Flight Simulator then actual instruments but I will have to see how I like it after I try it out.

Requesting 30 left for weather.....

2007-05-18T14:43:00.001-04:00

Last week after our stint in Milwaukee we headed back towards home. The day before it reached +31 and the next morning it was +15 and in between there was some pretty heavy rain and a passing thunderstorm. As I was checking the weather for departure and trying to picture in my mind where the line of thunderstorms was going to be by the time we get to the destination I was reading about tornado warnings in Indiana and massive cells building around London, Ontario. All the airport forecasts had been amended to show a forecasted thunderstorm opposed to the previous 30 percent chance of one rolling through.

Our flight initially took us up to 27,000 feet but couldn't take us out of the cloud base. We entered into cloud at 3000 feet and it was still higher then us so that is a lot of moisture in the atmosphere. About an hour into the flight we broke into the clear and there was a break in the clouds for about 80 miles but out front another looming wall of vertical rain lies waiting for us. Since we were fairly close to Indiana at one point while deviating around some towering cumulus we painted a cell on radar from 120 miles away. Now for those of you that aren't familiar with weather radar the returns that we were getting were making this thing look massive. The farther the signal goes and reflects back it loses more energy so therefore painting something that far away usually does not happen (for our wx radar at least) unless it is hugggge. So thank God we weren't over there :)

So after our short stint in the somewhat cloudless sky we had painted a line of cells ahead and having a visual on them as well we decided to pick our route through. What we could see out the window corresponded to the radar so it looked like the best route to go to minimize bumps and avoid the cells. Of course life would have been easier at 27,000 but ATC punted us out of the nice smooth air and sent us down to 17,000 or about the middle of these cells where it is youthful and full of energy. As we entered the mass of cloud it remained relatively smooth but the icing started and with the noise of the rain hitting us and freezing kinda made the passengers quieten their lively conversation. We were quite close to the freezing level so it was half rain and half sleet hitting the leading edges of the wings.

We were further cleared to 12,000 and now the bumps really started to begin. We skirted the outside of a cell on our right and once past it and still in cloud we hit a few developing towering cumulus which sent us instantly in one direction followed by the opposite direction with the same urgency which got a few slight soprano performances from the back :) As usual it is always the darkest just before the dawn and we bounced out of the last clouds into a wide open hole in the sky. The hole was about 15 miles wide and led straight to the airport which we could see in the distance was getting dumped on by the next line of thunderstorms. The position and width of this hole was perfect for us and was like a giant pathway in the sky just for us. There were storms everywhere but right were we were.

In regards to winds and weather at the destination it was an automatic reporting station so the weather it issues changes every minute when a storm is present because of changes in gusts, wind direction, visibilty etc... Toronto Center initially was advising us that the storm was to the east and south of the airport and recommended we take the localizer backcourse for runway 07 and circle for 25. That way we could avoid the weather, break clear of the clouds and just do a circuit to land into the current 25 knot wind. But now being visual and anticipating the airport visual shortly we wanted to find out what the winds were actually doing and not what the AWOS was reporting as changing every second.

I called tower to ask him what he could see out the window and asked him the trend in the wind direction. Looks like runway 32 is looking good as the front had just passed and the wind had veered to the north west. He then replied there wasn't anyone else in the area so we could land on whatever runway we want. It's not everyday that tower will be so generous :) As we got closer we got the field in sight and landed on a water logged runway. It was nice to be back on the ground but the adrenaline flow was a great feeling also :::)

The whole experience with ATC during the last 100 miles was amazing. They were are so accommodating and it almost feels like you are a 3 crew machine instead of two because he is giving you what he sees on radar and passes along changing weather to help in our planning. Just wanna say thanks Toronto and YKF tower for the great job and as always, we appreciate your help.

The belly of the beast :) After leaving Kitchener we had to go up one last time and deal with Mother Nature and her apparent instability, if it were Father Nature there would never be thunderstorms or any weather because he would be too lazy to get his ass off the couch to do anything ;)

As we departed, the SID (Standard Instrument Departure-basically a standard procedure to fly on departure such as fly runway heading and maintain 4000 feet, it is called the Waterloo 2 in Kitchener and it saves ATC from reading back a list of specific instructions that are already printed on a piece of paper for us) gets us to fly runway heading to 4000 feet and also a noise abatement procedure of no turns before 4.0 DME (Distance Measuring Equipment-basically a ground based station we can tune into which in this case was at the Kitchener Airport and it gives us a constant distance out from that station). So as we get airborne I turn on the weather radar to see what lies ahead. I really don't need the weather radar at this point as I am looking at a black hole of cloud and rain about 10 miles ahead and call already feel the bumps from the gusting winds as the cell approaches.

I tell the co pilot to ask center for a turn to about 050 for weather when we first call him up after departure (you talk to tower till you usually get airborne, then you become center's problem :). The weather radar is painting a lot at the moment because we are pretty low and I haven't had a chance to pith the antenna up to look higher up in the clouds and not paint the ground also. But the turn to 050 will take us into a patch of blue sky between these two lines of weather and hopefully assure us a smooth climb out.

As soon as we switch to center he gives us 050 when able vectors for the climb, and we finally turn away from the massive dark cloud looming just ahead. Now we are headed into the sunshine but then we still have to get around the massive cell which is pounding Toronto. As we switched over to Toronto departure an Air Canada flight was checking in and told departure that they were flying 280 for weather and to tell the tower. I thought about that for a minute and I guess if you are going to be flying into an area of heavy precipitation and are not able to ask for a turn you better save your ass first and answer the questions later. Again that relates to the judged by 12 then carried by 6 quote :) I have luckily have not had to make one of those calls but it is one of those feelings that if you don't do anything you will be answering to a lot more people then just ATC.

So we check in with departure and are told to advise when able to turn direct to Cambelford VOR (basically about 25 miles north of Trenton, Ontario). On radar it is not really painting anything more than green but after listening to what they are dealing with underneath all that green I was a little leary to go driving through it. As you can see from any one of these pictures, no matter if the weather radar painted nothing I still wouldn't want to fly through this wall of wrath. So departure asks us a few more times if we are able and finally we can see the edge and say we can do the turn in 30 miles or so. By now we have almost flown out of his sector and we get handed off to Toronto Center by YSO (Simcoe VOR, it is just south of Lake Simcoe and is an arrival entry point into Toronto).

This Toronto Center Controller is the same guy who two days before invited us to come in for breakfast at the NavCanada building in Toronto where the ATC facility is. Apparently they have reasonably priced food (must be subsidized by our NavCan fees ;) and it is pretty good eats as well. He then offered us after we eat to go for a tour of the place also to check it out. This was all over the radio on a slllow traffic day early in the morning on a Sunday :) You get to know people's voices and also you get to know how they work a little. This guy is the guy who is always looking downstream for you and seems to exert a bit more energy to help us as well as the next controller if there are delays or weather.

So instead of asking us if we are able direct to Massena VOR with the weather he states that if we see what he sees we will want to travel another 30 miles north and then go direct but if I see anything different than that's fine and to let him know. Again he is giving us much needed info because we are paralleling the storm and can't paint our intended track because we are heading pretty much 90 degrees to it (weather radar basically paints 180 degrees or 90 per side, maybe less cause I would be at 90 degrees and it is on the wing tip so that would be bad for me:). We could turn towards the cell and get a better picture but just looking out the window is good enough for me to reaffirm his 30 mile suggestion :) So it starts to smooth out as we level at 25,000 feet and we start fine tuning the weather radar to see where the bulk of the precipitation is. After we finally make the turn and run through the backside of this cell and for the most part no icing or turbulence to speak of. I had the fuel and the time to burn so making my way around to make it a smooth ride for the passengers was my priority. The one passenger was sick twice already from the ride in so I was trying to take it easy for his sake pretty much :)

By the time it was all said and done we had gone about 60 miles off track to miss this thing. But thankfully due to the jet stream being along our track and also the reason for this nasty weather we grounded about 320 knots the rest of the journey and it only added a few minutes.

The edge of the beast about 25 miles west of Toronto.

That little nubbin you see at the wingtip is our weather radar. If you remove the little black cap all that lies behind it is a flat plate that sits on an electrically controlled mount so we can tilt it up and down to properly "look" at the weather ahead of us. It is an old technology but on days like today are as necessary to complete a flight as are the wings :) All I have to say is that this airplane is so well equipped and is a pure joy to fly. I am still trying to figure out how I can buy my own :)

Welcome back Summer

2007-05-18T14:14:00.001-04:00

Unrelated to the post really but sort of is. This was a view out my hotel window the other evening and the sun now setting quite a bit farther to the west causes a really nice lighting effect on this metal. It is actually silver but almost looks golden in the light, it is a brand new hotel and has only been open for a few months. Inside the rooms look like an Ikea showroom with all sorts of Ikea style furniture and accessories. Apparently though a slight oversight considering it is called Future Inns was that it has a manual front door while almost every hotel has automatic ones. That would be fine if you didn't have 3 bags to carry in like me though when you check into a hotel :)

The weather radar got some use last month on the way to Florida but that was just for a few scattered CB's. This flight was at 28,000 feet and still riding in cloud so we were unable to visually see what was ahead and were purely dependent on the radio energy being reflected back off these storm clouds. Here we had been painting this cell on radar for about 60 miles, and we were getting ready to swing a bit right to stay in the smooth air when all of a sudden we broke out into the sunshine. On radar this cloud had pretty strong returns so it was red in the center (meaning mother loads of moisture either ice, rain...etc) but had a shallow gradient so it was pretty smooth around it. We have a really nice weather radar but I can just imagine Aviator's in the past dealing with these conditions with ancient radar sets, in principle it works all the same but with ours it has computer processing to give a clearer picture of what your actually seeing.

As you can see here we are coming out of that big mass of clouds behind us that we have rode in all the way for about 200 miles. I love when you encounter days such as these were you can pick your way around build ups visually and not have to constantly be scanning with radar making sure that you don't run into something inadvertently and leave the wings behind (I hate when that happens). There is a big warm front that extends from Winnipeg south east towards Montreal so that is all the warm air overrunning the cooler air below. The winds on the surface are 220 degrees at 30 knots so it's like a heat pump sucking up all the warm air from the American Southwest.

I love the textures with cumulus clouds when I can stare at them from a distance :) You can see them constantly rising in this case but we aren't going to be hanging around to see it grow into adulthood if it ends up doing so.

KMKE- General Mitchell Internation Airport, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On final for runway 25L with an RJ just visible at the bottom of the frame over the water. Just about this point we were told to slow down because we were gaining on him by 60 knots. There was a 30 knot wind shear around 2500 feet above the ground so the RJ was getting into a 30 knot headwind while we were still in pretty benign winds and going 30 knots indicated faster. You can see we are a bit higher then a standard profile and that is because although I can swim, 6 miles might be a bit too much so we stay high in case of the air conditioner shutting off on final. ATC is really good here because we cross right over the middle of Lake Michigan and they give decent at our discretion so you have the option of bringing it in high to maintain glide.

Milwaukee was an old french fur trading post as many towns in this area once were. If anyone has ever said it's Miller Time, well this is where the stuff was originally created. We never had a chance to go to the brewery to check it out but we did sample some of the end products at the Oldest Bar in Milwaukee (The Landmark). They have 48 beers on tap and if you sign up and try all 48 you get a free steel beer stein, and a wicked hangover if you decide to do it all in one night ! It was opened in 1850 and Mr Miller used to deliver his beer there himself by horse. They have a little booklet that serves as a menu and history lesson which is a nice idea, I have a habit of reading when I eat breakfast or any meal if there is reading material and nobody around to scoff at my bad manners :)

If you stay right at the airport in KMKE it is just about a 15 minute walk from the main terminal south of the airport.

Memories of days gone by

2007-05-18T01:28:00.000-04:00

This video was produced by my buddy who was stationed on the front lines with me in the battle of securing the first flying job ;)

So many good friends in this video....enjoy.

PS Sorry if I have posted this before but I don't mind watching it twice :) More pic's on the way, waiting for some downtime to post em.

Canada

2007-05-17T23:56:00.001-04:00

Canadian Parliament Buildings

First of all I want to start off saying that no matter where you are from, you are always proud of your birth country (as if we have a choice and from here on in this is a non neutral point of view :). I haven't been all around the world yet to every country nor will I ever be able to, but from my fortunate experiences flying around most of North America I truly am blessed to call Canada home.

I was going to put "proud" instead of blessed, but to me "proud" conjures up a sort of ignorance or describes being a Canadian as an accomplishment. By calling it a blessing I am describing that I had no choice deciding the outcome of being a Canadian, but considering all the other options to which I am currently aware then I am very happy with the way things turned out as they did !

What I am trying to say is that to me Canada Rock's and even after I have scoured the earth in search of a better place, there will always be as in the words of Dorothy.....

NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

Fly safe and keep your stick on the ice!

Heavy snow in May ?

2007-05-15T12:07:00.000-04:00

When I woke up the other morning to check the weather at the destination I had to rub my eyes pretty hard to make sure what I was seeing was true. As you can see it is calling for a daytime of high of 16 degrees Celsius but in the current conditions box it is showing Heavy Snow.

Now by just looking at the temperature, winds and visibility for it to be snowing heavily everything doesn't jive. It's 3 degrees, winds are light and visibility is 15 km ( about 10 statue miles). When was the last time you could see 15 km's with heavy snow ?

So I went to check the GFA (graphic area forecast) and it was a big high pressure system sitting over the whole area and not a cloud forecast in the sky. I then proceeded to check the METAR (aviation hourly weather report) and found this....

KITCHENER/WATERLOO/ON

METAR CYKF 130900Z AUTO 33003KT 9SM CLR M01/M04 A3029 RMK SLP265=
METAR CYKF 131000Z AUTO 29003KT 9SM CLR M00/M03 A3031 RMK SLP270=
METAR CYKF 131100Z AUTO 36003KT 9SM CLR 01/M03 A3033 RMK SLP280=
SPECI CYKF 131125Z AUTO 36004KT 9SM +SN CLR 03/M03 A3034=

TAF CYKF 130939Z 131022 35005KT P6SM SKC
BECMG 1315 07008KT
BECMG 2022 VRB03KT
RMK FCST BASED ON AUTO OBS. NXT FCST BY 14Z=

As you can see the weather has been steady at 9 miles visibility and no clouds for the past 3 hours to all of a sudden snowing heavily. The forecast below is showing for the same time period better then 6 miles visibility (they don't forecast a higher value then 6) and SKC or Sky Clear.

To save money Environment Canada is slowing getting rid of human observers and replacing them with AWOS (automated weather observing system) units. The AWOS units for the most part do a great job at things such as temperature, dewpoint, wind direction, speed and most important altimeter settings. But because they are limited to interpretation and subject to the occasional glitch like reporting heavy snow :) they need to be compared to what is happening around the area to make sure it is reporting what actually exists. With human observers they can also add helpful comments in the METAR's also. Such as fog rolling in quickly or visibilty lower to the north due to thunderstorm and rain. I don't think there is a Weather Observers day, but we sure do appreciate the great service you provide !

I remember once shooting an NDB approach with about a 30 knot crosswind from the west (reported) but having to crab about 10-15 degrees to the east. The whole time I thought something was wrong with my instruments but when I broke out visual I realized the winds were 180 degrees from the reported winds.

What had happened was the wind vane had got frozen while facing the west and no matter the direction of the wind it was reported as always from the west. Another experience was the AWOS was reporting 1/8 of a mile in fog as I was trying to depart, but the actual prevailing conditions were sky clear with a patch of fog near the shore which happened to be were the AWOS was located and with it's limited ability to look straight up where it is reports it as being the visibility around it.

To make a long story short, when using AWOS stations as a determining factor if you should go or not (especially VFR) make sure you compare all your weather information to make sure the picture it is painting is similar to the area around it.

Basically....I trust in God, and everything else I check :)

Safe flying,

FD

On the road

2007-05-08T20:04:00.000-04:00

No new photo's to post as I kinda went a little nutz with the posting and writing last week. I am back on the road for a few days but no new places, just the same old same old.

I bought Paint Shop Pro and in the future I am going to take a course and buy Adobe CS3 and go back through all my pictures and spruce em up and recycle them and breath new life into my Blog.

Until then....

Fly safe,

FD

The Secret

2007-05-07T18:54:00.000-04:00

I am a person who tends to sift through passing fads, and gimmicks but recently have been persuaded to read The Secret.

I can only describe it as a collection of everything I have ever really thought about the Universe but in an extremely organized and well described fashion. Little parts of every book I have ever read on Life, Energy, Physics, Religion and other topics in search for the answer to the question of
"What does it all mean ?" are laced through out this book.

Half the time it felt like I had already read it but had not been able to achieve the clarity in the ideas it was putting across and simply laying out before me. After I was finished the book it was like a "ta da" experience and that I had finally got it!

I have always known it and it was either cloaked in a type of religion (Buddha/Dharma or Christianity) or Physics (quantum theory, energy, attraction)...or ideas found in books like The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.

Both sides of the equation were both always drilled into my head by my parents but it took this book to be the glue to paste the ideas together. My Mother always said when you are bountiful always give to others in need. I remember when I graduated college she sent me a card and at the bottom she wrote to the effect of....being so proud of me and that I can achieve anything I desire but in doing so do not forget others who are in need.

My Father is a dreamer and would talk of the latest inventions in Popular Science when I was a kid and I would tell him "That's impossible!" he would always reply, "Nothing is impossible it just will take a little longer". He had read The Power of Positive Thinking and was a firm believer. So what if it took me almost 3 decades of living to finally get what he was talking about.

I looked up Latent Learning in my old Psychology text book and found this definition:

"Learning that has occurred but is not currently manifest in behavior."

So like I was saying, I feel like I have always known it and understood it but couldn't apply it. In the book it talks of inter-connectedness and this principle has always fascinated me. Recently when seeking throughout the internet for a quote that was placed on a hand made podium in my Grade 10 English teacher's room, I stumbled upon an interesting factoid. The author of the quote I was looking for had written poetry and novels and in the movie Walk the line (Johnny Cash's biopic) there is a scene where June Carter (Reese Witherspoon) hands Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) the book The Prophet. Not that there is any crazy parallels but it is amazing that when you are looking for one thing you always seem to run into related branches that you would not have realized if you had not been searching for the other in the first place.

But to sum up what I meant earlier, about knowing something the entire time but not being able to unlock it's potential no matter how many books you read on the subject........until now.

"No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge."
Kahlil Gibran

Click here to go to The Secret web site,
and don't just take my word for it find out for yourself.

Montreal-Buttonville (Toronto)

2007-05-02T10:32:00.001-04:00

Sitting in Montreal waiting for the client to show up I figured I would try my hand at some action shots. Some of the pictures you see on airliners.net are simply amazing and many of those guys have mad skills. The first airplane that smiled for the camera was this Air Canada A330 landing on 24L. The A330 is my favourite Airbus product because I like the big twin engine look and it is similar to the 777 which is a personal fav. In the background you can see the Bombardier finishing hangar. That is a Slovenia CRJ(1 or 200).

Jazz RJ about to touchdown 24L. Since they are exiting at the end they landed a bit long so it was hard to plan where to get the touchdown shot. For me to get a better angle I would have got on the taxiway so this was as close as I could get.

Here we are taxiing in Buttonville (CYKZ) after landing on runway 21. I took this picture to demonstrate how freaking narrow this taxiway is. It is pretty much at the limit for us to taxi on. The PC-12 is such an amazing plane that it can go where any 172 can go but then cruise at FL280 and go 1200 miles in a single bound :) If I can ever scrape 5 million together I am gonna buy one.

France French and Quebecois

2007-05-02T10:28:00.001-04:00

I don't know if this is a crater caused by something from outer space but Quebec seems to have it's fair share of scares from our violent past 250 million years ago :) It is about 120 miles east of Montreal I think, pretty cool looking though.

Getting closer to Montreal, this beautiful town along the river here is absolutely gorgeous. This area is flatter then a pancake but is dotted with little hills which make it interesting from the air to look at. At this point we are in a very slow decent trying to keep ahead of the Jazz Dash 8-100 who is keeping about 6 miles in trail, he/she is also in a slow decent and it is a stalemate. Finally when switched over to arrival he gets speed restricted and we win :)

You could see the whole race begin about 150 miles out of Montreal on TCAS. They were coming in from Quebec City and us from Halifax, both headed for the same arrival corridor (OMBRE). The weird part is that he/she was within 5 miles of us 1000 feet below and we got descent our discretion to 8000. But if we left 12 we would have less then 1000 feet seperation and 5 miles so I double checked with center and he said descent at YOUR discretion...I wanted to say thanks for the tone buddy but I am covering my ass if you get a separation issue ! Maybe there is a rule about same direction traffic at the same speed, I dunno I just fly the damn thing ! :)

This picture comes from the "What are the ahhhhhds (odds)" file. What you are looking at is an Airbus 340 belonging to Air France headed east towards Massena, NY VOR (MSS) as were we. That is not a contrail behind it but is the cigarette smoke vented overboard from all the passengers (kidding to all the French readers !!) :)

Our call signs both start with Air and we had the exact same flight number and where right beside each other heading to the same VOR so every time ATC would issue an instruction to us the Air France guy would start to answer ! Usually ATC tells you when there is someone else on the frequency with the same call sign so you listen more carefully.

One time I was with Washington Center and there were 3 sets of the same call signs ! 6 airliners in the same airspace, same time with the same numbers.

Twice in the past month I have completed trips across the eastern part of the continent in good weather conditions to come home on the last leg to a 200 foot ceiling and 1 mile visibility. When we tuned in the ATIS (a pre-recorded weather report with what approaches are in use so ATC doesn't have to report everything to every airplane) and the the ceiling was 200 feet and 1 mile in mist. We both looked at each other and were like right on, we had just spent the past two days commuting 4 hours a day to fly going home was a welcome ending to those 2 days. We had the gas and the time and we would keep trying till we got in :) But it had been a few dreary days of rain and low cloud but on top it was a layered mass of clouds. You would enter cloud thinking you wouldn't see anything till 200 feet and then all of a sudden you would enter into a lair like the one above.

Minus the thunderstorms I love summer type cloud formations for their level of complexity. Winter is so boring for clouds and they are just cumiliform and have no uniqueness to them. There was a slight opening in the one cloud which caused the spot of sunshine on the dark clouds below, wicked stuff, and this is when we stop to think we actually get paid to do this !

Can't say much about this but it was some of the coolest clouds I have had the pleasure of flying through. If you want to see what it looked like below go watch the ILS07 video posted earlier this week.

DC area from 26,000 at night

2007-05-01T14:42:00.000-04:00

Pretty poor quality because of low light but still allows you to see how populated this area is. It was a gorgeous night and you could see at least 100 miles in all directions.

Cruisin over Florida

2007-05-01T14:39:00.000-04:00

Morning person

2007-05-01T11:35:00.000-04:00

When you get into the discussion about what time of the day you prefer I think I just might have to print this picture out and show the person I am talking with here's why :) We are climbing out over Tampa as many people are still sound asleep in their beds and the peacefulness in the air, the radio and the sky is so...good ! Usually departing Florida is vector after vector after level off after level off. ATC is always busy working a ton of aircraft over the narrow state through arrival and departure corridors. It is kind of nice to flight plan to Florida because if you are heading into the east coast you file to Craig (Jacksonville) and then Ormond Beach...etc. If your going to the west side file to Valdosta, Georgia and join up with a STAR for Tampa, Sarasota. Leaving the state from the south you file up through Orlando to Craig, or the west side you go up towards Taylor VOR.

On this mornings flight we got heading 350 (parallels the shore line and keeps you out of the departure and arrivals in Tampa) and then shortly after leveling we got direct Taylor flight planned route. Back to the beginning of the post....needless to say I am a morning person :)

Somewhere over Georgia we cross path's with a fellow Canuck. It is a Skyservice 757 at FL350 heading somewhere in Florida and I think his call sign was SkyTours. About 5 minutes later an Air Transat A310 passed us only at FL300 and was heading into Florida. It is hard to see their colours from far away but zooming in with the camera gains me enough of a colour scheme I can see who it is. This picture here is the best turn out of an air to air I have had yet. I thought it would come out all shaky cause my hand slipped but I actually think it slipped in the same direction to get a fairly clear image at maximum zoom. Still can't wait to get a SLR !

I know, I know...enough with the sunrise/sunset pictures. This one was cool though because I snapped it just as it broke through the thin layer of clouds and about 1 minute later was completely full. Just goes to show timing is everything. I took a video after this shot to document how fast it came up and will maybe post it on youtube. It isn't really amazing but when you have a surface to compare how much the sun has moved it shows how fast the earth is turning.

Speaking of filing flight plans, this is just west of New York City and the morning rush has begun. Florida maybe the easiest place to figure out for filing to and from but New York and Washington DC take the cake for the most screwed up routes ever. From Montreal to Sarasota the route above FL220 would take me to Carmel (east of NYC) and then west and then south...so to avoid this I filed over to Syracuse New York and then directly to Craig in Florida to avoid the area all together. I once had to go to Richmond, VA, I was re-routed 3 times and by the end with only 45 minutes of flying left I had 18 waypoints in the GPS. I can fly from Calgary to Toronto with 2 !

I thought with flying super early with no traffic I would not get restrictions like I did going into Florida. 13,000 feet from 26,000 80 miles away, not another airplane around for miles. SOP's are SOP's I guess.

This shot turned out well (as far as I am concerned anyways). We were somewhere over Pennsylvania/New York area and were right under the flood of westbound traffic. There was a shadow on the ground from a contrail overhead and it was the only one dense enough I guess to create a shadow. About 30 minutes prior to this we got passed by 2 F-16's heading the opposite direction. They must have been near the speed of sound because on the TCAS I have never seen an airplane move across that quickly. They were within 7 miles and only 1000 feet above us I couldn't spot them to save my life, I wanted to get a picture so badly but no joy. So here is a picture of a contrail shadow instead :)

St. Pete

2007-05-01T00:36:00.000-04:00

I think I might have found a solution to my camera's inability to take quality low level shots ( other than giving it to someone who knows how to use it :). I need to use the sun's light to get faster shutter speeds but with the low light I can use a wider aperture so it all works out for a clearer shot with less noise.

Here we are climbing through 15,000 feet with the Florida sun rising in the east as we head home from a late night flight. The title St. Pete could be because what you are looking at is St.Petersburg Florida, or the headset and the head holding it is my co-captain Pete :) He ain't no Saint that's for sure!!! Just kidding of course if Pete's wife is reading this ;)

We flew all night to get here and what a gorgeous night it was. How many times can you fly 1200 nautical miles without a cloud in the sky ? Probably a lot but most of the time you might get clear skies at the departure airport and thunderstorms at the destination so to have a flight go so smoothly from start to finish is a blessing. The best part about sky clear nights is the sunrises you get the next morning, nothing better then having a big ball of fire glisten off your wings as you climb up into the heavens.

A lot more pictures to come. Stay tuned.

FD

The Good, The Bad, and the Plane Weird

2007-04-29T13:18:00.000-04:00

The Good, The Bad and the Plane Weird

I forget last night was the night when a group of us pilot bloggers was going to all make a similar post about our experiences. The topic for this first group post is The Good, The Bad, and the Plane weird. To check out some of the other's experiences follow these links below.

nec Temere nec Timide

Pilot in Training

Sulako

Just to name a few....

The Good:

If you frequent my blog often you can see that I see many good things and have a lot of good times while flying. Pretty much everyday is great if I follow my three hard and fast rules.

1. Don't die (it's obviously number one because the next two don't matter if I break this one :)
2. Don't get violated (the office with a view is a privilege not a right :)
3. Don't have to send a flight report (company procedure for anything out of the norm)

The most recent Good time that I can remember was actually last year around this time. We had just came back from a 4 hour flight and it was sky clear and sunny the whole way. The winds were calm and there was nobody else coming into or leaving the airport as we approached.

So in the interest of aviation safety we decided what type of descent profile we could achieve if needed. So we did the math as best we could and figured we could easily drop 10,000 within 5 miles. We put in a bit of a buffer as to not create a go-around scenario which would violate my third rule :)

We let ATC know our intentions and he asked " Are you sure you can make that ?" Of course I replied in a somewhat confident manner. "Contact the tower now and let him know what you are doing, good luck!" the controller chided so over to tower we went. The tower's first question was "You are 6 miles and 10,000 feet are you gonna make it ?"...of course I said again...now if I didn't make it I am gonna look like a tard for sure.

So as agreed between the FO and myself we pulled the airplane to idle, gear, full flaps and then descended at 100 knots. The descent angle was pretty crazy but it was stable and we were coming down at 6000 feet per minute, we quickly realized that we would end up short of the runway if we didn't add power to shallow the sink rate and around 2 miles back we started to intercept the 3 degree slope (normal) and had to add power and continue in as normal. Needless to say that airplane can drop almost vertically if need be. I have never practiced the high speed emergency decent and really don't want to. There is no need to put the airframe under crazy g-loading just for practice sake if we hit unexpected turbulence on the way down. My roommate is a Aerospace Engineer and he has me freaked out about g-loading and design load limits so I baby that thing as best I can :)

The tower was amazed at how quick we got it down and said that airplane is amazing, yep it sure is I replied....It is certified for 8 degree approaches so they planned on people dropping it into mountain side runways in the Alps where she was designed. Great airplane indeed.

The Bad...

Now I didn't want to sell myself out on this post and air my dirty laundry but when I think of my worst experience (there have been a few) I think of the one that I got into with my old roommate and Captain through no real fault of our own.

We were doing a scheduled flight to a familiar destination and because of the full load of passengers, freight and good VFR conditions "forecasted" along our route we went VFR with VFR gas (to the destination and 30 minutes extra on top of that for fuel).

As we made our way towards the destination we noticed that there was the odd rain shower around and in some places the clouds were a bit lower then forecast. So I checked the weather and no amended forecasts yet and our destination was holding up better then where we were already so things were looking up.

As we made our way farther and farther we kept asking other aircraft how the weather looked ahead because we started to notice low cloud and more rain in the valley. We were too low to get flight service but with the current weather at the airport things would have all checked out anyways and would not have raised any concern.

Photo courtesy of Lostav8r

We then were about 30 miles away from the destination airport and we could actually see the airport environment but there was now low lying fog in the area and it was starting to be raking in through the trees in the higher elevations. But since it looked good up ahead still we had no reason to be reverting to a plan b.

I switched over to the FSS frequency that ran the airport radio and everything seemed normal, weather was good, but on the initial call he told us that 3 float planes were holding outside of the zone. I asked if it was Special VFR and he said nope VFR at the field call 5 miles back. That was one of those times when you think....hmmm what is the deal with them holding outside the zone for ? This was the start of the feeling that grew into a situation.

Photo courtesy of Lostav8r

We were on the downwind for the runway and we could see this fog bank rolling in fast towards the airport, by the time we turned base the airport was consumed in fog and we entered into the top of it without even seeing it coming.

Now we are left at 700 feet above the ground, in cloud with hills to the north and east of us and flight service comes on the radio telling us it's now IFR, special VFR authorization is required, and what was our intentions. To two guys convinced till just 5 seconds ago they were landing we are now sitting there looking at each other going I guess we are going around.

Since we were VFR and to be IFR you need a clearance we decided that we needed to climb to the sector altitude because of the mountains (sector altitude gives you guaranteed terrain clearance). I quickly contacted center as we climbed up and she said unable the IFR due traffic, maintain VFR and I will get back to you. I told her, we were unable VFR and were climbing to 7000 on the 030 radial, this radial took us away from the approach end of the airport and because the FSS never passed us IFR traffic as far as we knew there was nobody on the approach to be concerned with.

After stating what we were doing I thought to myself that I just violated my roommate. Specifically saying we are climbing through cloud without a clearance but we literally had no other options. There is a quote I read on a pilots signature in a forum that said " I would rather be judged by 12, then carried by 6" and this was one of those situations :)

Center quickly got back to us and we got a clearance to 9000 feet or so and to intercept the arc and then follow the DME arc to the NDB and hold inbound on the localizer. Sweet I thought, straight back to the airport for an approach and land this is great news !. We had pulled the power right back to get the least fuel burn (as in my previous sentence about VFR reserve, it is 30 minutes of gas) and by this time we had eaten 5 minutes of it. She gave us an expect further clearance time of 10 minutes or so from that current time. We figured that by the time we flew the arc we would get approach clearance and be on our merry way.

That was until she said we were number 4 for the airport, that would mean at least 40 minutes of holding till we could shoot the approach. The Captain looked at me and said declare the emergency....it wasn't a simple hey dude declare the emergency, it was a DELCARE THE EMERGENCY we need to get down fast, well there was no need to tell me twice and now center was treating us like gold :)

So after declaring the emergency we got vectored to about a 5 mile final, what we hadn't know was there was a Navajo on the ILS when we missed and we came within 2 miles of him but on a diverging course, and that we were now being vectored behind him on the approach.

The Captain and I briefed the approach, we had about 20 minutes of gas left and briefed that under the circumstances we would make it an auto land approach if required (there is no auto land but with auto land there are no mimimums is what I am getting at :) Till this day I have not seen such a perfectly hand flow ILS to minimums in my life. Everything was counting on us landing on the first shot because there wasn't enough gas to go around for a second try.

After touchdown my feet were shaking on the rudder pedals and I have never felt so glad to be on the ground. I mean not the feeling of being on the ground was what was important but the stress of not knowing how this was all gonna play out was over. We looked at each other and then the fuel gauges and we had about 10-15 minutes left in the tanks . We then looked at each other again and the Captain said...the beers are on me tonight....those are the best 6 words that can be said to a poor FO :)

As I exited the plane I could hear the fire trucks and ambulance rushing out from town because we had declared an emergency. Because they are not on the field it took them about 15 minutes to get there, this is why it is important to declare an emergency even if you think you are gonna be ok because it might take them awhile to get to you if you end up not doing ok.

I met them outside and told them everything was fine so they turned around and went back to town. I was trying to run the whole scenario back through my mind to see where we could have stopped this whole thing from developing into what it did...the only thing I think that would have helped us was if I would have talked to the float planes who were holding outside the zone.

They knew of the fog that was out to the east and were taking their turns going in for landing because the could hardly see each other so if I would have asked "what the hell are you guys doing" we might have just landed straight in on the opposite end of the runway before the fog covered the other end.

A little more background into why we had to shoot the approach at the destination is that the weather forecasts were being amended everywhere about the same time and we didn't want to fly to the next airport and have to waste more gas to have to shoot an approach there, took the lesser of the two evils and well I am here to blog about it now.

It still pisses me off that mother nature had us beat and we had nothing we could do about it. That's why I respect her and when I get those gut feelings of "Hey this seems odd" I start to really step back and look at the situation to see if I have an emergency situation arising :) I have learned that when things don't seem right, they usually aren't !

The Plane Weird,

This story is on a much lighter note but is definitely weird.

It was -35, freekin freezing and I had to come in for one afternoon flight on the Caravan. I was doing a scheduled flight up to Tadoule Lake, Manitoba in my least favourite Caravan. This one had been having autopilot problems where it would start to porpoise in cruise so bad you couldn't let the autopilot fly anymore. Also, the week before someone had bent the ground heat cable so that it was sticking sometimes when you tried to close it, the problem is that when it's -35 you want maximum heat on the ground but it has to be shut off for take off and can only be used on the ground (hence the name ground heat). The only way to shut off the ground heat after it got stuck was to shut down the engine to get rid of the back pressure on the cable so it will close.

Before you start a plane when it's this cold you pre-heat it with a Herman Nelson. Basically it is a burner can that burns diesel and a big fan blows around the can blowing it out a 8 foot hose which you throw in the front seat. It warms up the avionics and also the cabin for the passengers.

Photo courtesy of Lostav8r

I pulled the Herman Nelson all the way across to the Caravan I was going to be flying (of course it had to parked what seemed like a mile away) and I then fired up the Herman Nelson only to realize the burner wasn't firing !!! This was to be the first sign of clouds on the horizon before it started to dump on me :)

So I dragged it all the way back and got the backup Herman Nelson. So now I am a bit frustrated because I still have to get the ladder, sweep the wings, flight plan and then help load the damn thing. This was starting to make me a little grizzly and I enlisted the help of the ramp guy. We drag the other Herman over to the airplane only to realize that the pull start cable is missing !!!! Ok fine I am gonna be late on the sched flight and there is no other way to warm up the airplane. So I just figure I will use ground heat and sit for a bit on the ramp and to Cessna's engineers triumph it will heat up in 5 minutes or less.

So I get everything done, load my passengers in the back, and of course the first thing they observe is how cold it is. I apologize and promise that with ground heat I will get them warm in no time at all, I give them their briefing and I hop up front into the freezing cockpit.

Chocks, park brake, prop tie, pogo and pods is the first thing that runs through my mind before every start on the Caravan. If anyone one of those things is forgotten after you start the engine you are going to have to shut down and get out, or in the case of the prop tie get out and look for an ingested or extremely damaged prop tie.

So after that I spark up the PT6-114A and in my mind I can imagine the heat that will be being pumped out as soon as I flick that heat switch. Heat on turbine engines comes from the engine in most cases. It is called bleed air, which is air that is "bled" from the compressor section of the engine where it is compressed and bled off before the compressed air is thrown into the combustion chamber, and is nice and hot. The Caravan is not pressurized but on the PC12 and every other pressurized airplane, the air used to keep the cabin pressure to levels not requiring you to wear oxygen masks is taken off the engine and pumped into the cabin.

Now with the engine fired up, I am doing my after start flow (basically a organized movement from the bottom of the panel up and finishing on the left side putting switches and levers in the proper positions for flight) I turn on the heat and then pull the ground heat valve. Air is wooshing into the cabin so fast and loud I have to wait to make my radio calls because you would be unable to hear me over all the noise in the cabin.

About 5 minutes in, the cabin is nice and toasty (at least upfront :) and I am going to call for taxi. I thank the ground heat valve for making me warm and I reach over to close it. I push with the normal force required and nothing happens, so I give it a little more love and nothing !!! The damn thing is stuck open again ! I am now in the position where I have to shut down the airplane, close the valve and restart. Knowing I can't use the valve again to warm up after I shut down the engine I am a little upset but I gotta get moving so I shut down, the valve easily closes with little effort and I go through the motions of starting up again.

We are now started, checks are complete and in position on the runway. I advance the throttle and more bleed air starts to come into the cabin making it a little warmer as we take off into the nice clear sky.

Just as I am in the turn departing the circuit I hear the bleed air kick off and I start to freeze. Well this aircraft also had a new thermostat put in and it just overheated and kicked off the bleed air. I turned it to half and the air started to flow and then I found the point where I could get maximum heat without it kicking off. It's only a 50 minute flight today I figured let's just get these guys home and then maintenance can have fun when I get home.

After about 30 minutes in cruise the temperature was warm and I checked out the passengers and they were doing fine. One was asleep and the other looking for the caribou that were in the area. The sun was setting and it was beautiful out. The autopilot was working like a champ and all was well.

While I was enjoying the scenery I could feel the airplane start to oscillate a bit similar to what the autopilot was doing before it was "fixed". It started to trim around a bit then restablized and all was well. A little background on one of my passengers...he had been drinking a bit before the flight but was very polite and there seemed to be no problems at all at check in. He also was missing one arm and had the jacket sewn up where the arm pit would be.

Again the autopilot was starting to oscillate and then stabilize oscillate then stabilize, I was cursing the damn thing for not being fixed when I heard some cursing from the back. Well first things first...the autopilot was broken after all :)

I look back to see that my one armed passenger could no longer hold his fluid and had to go to the washroom. On a Caravan there is no washroom so what he was doing the next best thing and that was balancing himself at the back of the airplane, a puke (pee) bag in one hand and his head on the wall trying to keep balanced while he pee'd into the bag ! The cursing came from when each time he would lose his balance the autopilot would re-trim making it even harder for him to balance using his head as he pee'd !!!

So I took off the autopilot and made the guy's life a bit easier by dampening out the oscillation's but as I flew into the sunset I pictured an Air Canada pilots reaction coming into the passenger cabin while a passenger was peeing in a sick bag :) The only other thing I could think of to help the guy was to ask the other passenger to hold the bag for him! I don't think he would seen the humour if I had asked him ;)

Sorry to go on and set the stage for this weird story but by the time this incident happened I was so frustrated with the afternoons events that after seeing this guy having so much trouble just trying to relieve himself in my plane it all just slipped away. I also thanked God for the use of two arms and a big bladder :)

Fly safe out there :)

Pittsburgh, Toronto and Errrog

2007-04-29T12:59:00.000-04:00

This is the continuation of the last post, here we are about to touchdown on Runway 28L. This runway is HUGE and just to our left as we touch down is the Air National Guard and a bunch of KC-135 air to air re fuelers. We touched down about 3/4 of the way down the runway and did not have to use breaks or reverse to slow down, just a little beta (turns the propeller into pretty much a flat spinning disk creating minimal thrust). Beta is god's gift to turbo prop drivers and it helps slow you down after landing and also while taxiing you just through it into beta before you get moving to fast and it will slow you down gradually allowing you to save the brakes.

The "beautiful" downtown core of Toronto which is apparently being bombarded with pollution and noise from Porter...give me a break.

You can't see it in this frame but a Porter Dash 8-400 is climbing out of the Island just to the east of downtown also headed to Ottawa. I am in a Airbus 321 climbing out of Pearson also going to Ottawa. Upon shut down at the gate in Ottawa I was still sitting in my seat when Porter pulled into the gate beside us. Pretty amazing but on the shorter legs such as a Toronto Ottawa the speed difference between an Airbus and a Dash 8 is minimal. Who cares if you can cruise at 430 knots when you only have 200 miles to go :) The Q400 cruises at 350 or so and because turbo props are easily slowed they can haul ass till they get in close to the airport (speed limit of 250 knots below 10,000 and within 10 miles of a controlled airport 200 knots).

Ahhh summer is here...almost :) It is 21 degrees out (it was snowing 4 days before) and this is part of a front that is moving in. The cold front didn't cut through till the afternoon and when it did it rained horizontally and the visibility dropped to almost less then a mile.

This cloud has a slight mammatus cloud look to it. Mammatus clouds take their name from Mammary due to the fact someone thought these clouds look like breasts. Even if it does have a breast like image I don't want to be touching it while flying, they usually are associated with instability so in order to keep the flight as smooth as possibly I drop down early to get under it. Of course we pass under it and there is not one bump, but about 5 minutes on the other side we get hit from outta nowhere with some good jolts. Probably mother nature slapping us around for starring at her breasts I reckon ;)

Again this photo made possible because of ERROG controller in Montreal. Most controllers keep you on the arrival STAR (standard terminal arrival route-IE highway in the sky) to keep things organized and if workload is high he already knows where and what you will be doing.

So as soon as we get handed over to Montreal Terminal we know it's Rog just from his first sentence, we both look at each other and are like right on this guy gets shit done. So first things first he puts us on a vector. Instead of wasting our time flying south east towards the beginning of the STAR he heads us straight for the mid downwind. Because there will be departing traffic climbing up under us he keeps us a bit high. As we started down to 6000 feet this AC jungle jet flew under us at 5000 and he was so close it was hard for a photo opportunity because he has hauling in the other direction. We zoomed out on the TCAS which shows us other aircraft and their altitudes and it also draws our approach procedure. There was nobody on the left side for 24L so we were probably gonna get a tight visual because of the lack of traffic. Rog set us up right on a perfect base and when we switched over to the next controller boom cleared visual 24L. People that do a great job no matter what it is impress me, efficiency is so wicked!

Then you get the guys who will send you all around the STAR or not give you direct because they are too lazy to work it out with the next sector. The good guys will check for you and then tell you why they can't do it. You get to know their voices and most of the time just the tone of the controllers voice tells you that this guy is having a rough day so just get through his airspace and move on.

There is a super upbeat Toronto controller that works 124.92 and when you get switched over from Montreal at around Trenton area he takes you into Toronto's airspace. He is always upbeat, passes along extra info, lets you know whats going on for sequencing and all sorts of good stuff. You always take the good with the bad I guess.

Montreal sunrise

2007-04-29T12:29:00.000-04:00

This is morning number 2 with minimum rest so I am a bit tired and this is also my second day off too :) But what better way to begin the day then taking off and through 3000 feet getting visited by the sun. It was an 0600 departure so we were up around 0400 but morning flights are my favourite. The air is smooth as silk, Rog the controller guy is working ATC for our departure.

We don't really know the controllers name but at the end of each read back to a pilot he always says...eerrrrogggg. It would become annoying if he wasn't awesome at his job but I have come into Montreal when the winds were blowing so hard only one runway was open and when they opened up the 24's he was packing the planes in tight and without delay we got in as scheduled. There is something to be said for someone that does a wicked job and keeps their composure under all that stress and he is one of the best. He has worked Vancouver, Toronto and is now back in Montreal where by the sound of his accent he is now home ;)

Mount Royal as we climb through about 3000 feet. We had to climb like a mofo and turn because a Global Express was waiting to take off and he wasn't gonna get the take off clearance until we were turned and getting out of the way. We had a 40 knot headwind on departure so we were only grounding 100 kts initially so it was quicker for us to turn out of the way then climb straight out to create the needed separation.

It was the coolest layer of cloud on this morning. From the altitude we were at we could at first see right under it and see the whole city but as we climbed I was snapping pictures to see if I could get any of the sights we were seeing. Not as good as I had hoped but there will be other opportunities :)

Starting to lose the City under the layer of cloud but now the sun is starting to come out in full force. Considering the upper level winds this low it was remarkably smooth. They were upwards of 50 knots at 3000 feet.

As you can see from this shot the clouds have a wispy streaked look to the them. The low pressure which I was talking about in a previous post is still present today which is nice because we have a 40 knot tailwind heading westbound for Pittsburgh, PA.

Steel City International, also known as Pittsburgh, PA. We are on approach for 28L (there is 28C and 28R). In previous posts I have talked about fly to a VOR....well that little white thing in the bottom right hand of the frame is the Montour (MMJ) VOR which we used as a reference on the Grace 2 arrival that takes you in from the east. Since it was early we got to proceed basically to the VOR from about 130 miles away and on approach frequency we were his only airplane to be worked so it was nice and peaceful all the way to the ground.

Once on the ground the ground controllers were very friendly and upbeat as they helped us find the customs gate. Most US airports that we fly to have customs meet you at the FBO. But so far as I have experienced, Pittsburgh, Boston, and Milwaukee make you go to the main terminal. They used to meet you at the FBO but somebody in management decided it would be better to taxi for 2 miles after clearing customs to make things more efficient ! We had a great customs officer and the international wing we went into was completely void of people and it seemed out of a movie like Langoliers that everyone had vanished and we were the only ones left :)

Mississippi to NYC

2007-04-28T22:06:00.000-04:00

On a lighter note :)

An old French fur trading post, a little bit bigger then it was then I am sure but here is Eau Claire Wisconsin on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River.

This is just prior to passing by Eau Claire Wisconsin. It looks as though the water was much higher and spread wider at one time. It looks like when it receded to where it is now it left these funky water erosion patterns in the surrounding area. Pretty neat looking !

Again my camera is not that great for night shots but the stars tonight were amazing. We turned all the instrument lights down to their minimum setting and from 27,000 we had an obstructed view of the night sky. Oddly enough we were trekking eastbound into a 45 knot headwind, another low pressure system was located over southern Quebec and is also the same system responsible for the flooding in NYC and the closing of Teterboro, Airport.

Because of Teterboro being closed we needed to go to the next best place to access downtown Manhattan. So off to White Plains, New York for the day. I have never seen an area with so much money, the houses are mostly mansions on lake sides. This must be were all the money from NYC hang their hats, even the customer service people at the FBO wear tuxedo's ! In the lobby their are big pillars which are fish aquariums and there is a grand piano available for playing. It has programmed songs so it plays all day on its own, maybe at happy hour a guy comes in :) The name of the cafe there is the Grande Fromage Cafe...can't get any tackier then that can you ! The brewed Starbucks coffee so I couldn't complain. Another thing was that they had 3 Mac's available for use in the restaurant which was cool. I am a PC person and it caused me more grief then it helped trying to use Fltplan.com without my usual quick key strokes.

This picture is on departure with the winds still howling to 35-40 knots so I was amazed that it came out this well considering the conditions! I love NYC.

Dear Growsmarter....

2007-04-28T21:30:00.000-04:00

Growsmarter commented:
I'm sure you are a talented and deserving individual. You have also chosen to work for an airline that got started with a taxpayers'legal settlement, signed a sweetheart deal to avoid competition, and has avoided revealing its load factors. Worst of all, you are part of a group that spews pollution and noise into the Toronto waterfront 59 times a day.
The next time you land or takeoff think of all of the people whose lives you impact in the name of free booze.

Dear Growsmarter....

If you had a half a clue you would realize that I don't work for Porter(read a little more then what you want to further your own cause).

You people whine and whine about pollution and noise in DOWNTOWN TORONTO !!! You should be lucky not to get shot let alone have to hear the meeger buzz of a Dash 8.
Give me some hard evidence about noise (ever hear a street car go by, cars honking their horns etc... and then here a dash 8 400 take off ??? No comparison and this was when I was on your beloved downtown core having a coffee I noticed this.

The pollution caused by people having to sit in traffic for an hour to get to Pearson opposed to walking or taking the shuttle to the island airport probably saves tons of fuel and pollution. If you have facts to back up your opinion then I would be converted instantly.

The flight time from Toronto Island to Ottawa in a Dash 8-400 is within 5 minutes of an A320 which is spewing almost double the pollution and usually carrying the same amount of people unless it's the rush hour times of the day.

Also funded by tax payers ???? If the mayor would have built the bridge would they be out that money ? No probably not but you people that can afford to live downtown wouldn't want that would you. You "environmentalists" would rather have a diesel chugging ferry running 18 hours a day instead...what really is your concern as pollution and noise seem to be what you are creating.

You are upset about tax payers money when city councilors in Toronto get free golfing and from the Toronto Star article that equals 100,000 a year! They should make them give it to local charities..but these are the politicians you want in power because like you they want to further their own cause which is similar to yours.

Also ever hear of Bombardier ? That place runs on tax payers money so why don't you gripe about them while your at it. The reason the tax payers footed the bill is because people like you supported the current mayor to save your precious downtown and not build a bridge.

Next you are gonna tell me about how the extra road traffic in downtown is because of Porter and that the extra traffic is a threat to the children of Toronto...

I guess if I wanted your opinion I would have went to your blog to get it.

Thanks for coming out

Fellow (clog wearing Dutch) flyers :)

2007-04-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

ILS approach to minimums

2007-04-28T15:39:00.000-04:00

Classic Porter type service brought to the nickel and dime world of airlines

2007-04-27T23:56:00.000-04:00

Going to work on the new Porter Airlines who operates out of Toronto City Center airport (CYTZ). This is my first ride on a Dash 8 Q400 and I must admit that it is the perfect airplane for this type of work. It has a very roomy interior, more so then a CRJ-200 which I personally hate because the window is at about waist level and I have to crouch walking down the aisle.

It is much quieter then previous Dash 8's I have flown on (hence the Q(quiet) active noise canceling speakers throughout the cabin) and the seats were comfortable and I actually had leg room for once. Porter Airlines is going after the business commuter and is trying to bring back the service that airlines used to be known for, before they sold their souls to the devil. Offering 49 dollar fares between Ottawa and Toronto fills seats but it's not really great valued seats so you have to pay for everything except for coffee and juice.

Porter offers free beer and wine, all served in glass or coffee in mugs. It was so odd to be served with a real glass, it had the feelings of J class on Air Canada but this service was provided to anyone holding a ticket and not having to pay 2000 dollars on an hour flight to get a real glass and a comfy seat.

Because Porter caters to the business commuter going for the day to Toronto or Ottawa there was no line up at check in. People just mostly have carry on (except me of course and for good reason, I spent the next 8 days living out of my suitcase:) At the gate I could see that this flight had a good load going out. Not nearly full but when you actually charge a fare that covers your costs you don't need to fill the seats with 50 dollar ticket holders :)

I was reading about this type of mentality on a post on AvCanada not too long ago. It is a principle called "Race to the bottom" it applies more to government but airlines seem to be going down the same road to be competitive. I am no economist or do I have any business sense whatsoever (hell for anyone that knows aviation it's the worst industry to be in but the best job in the world) but it seems that if airlines would come to a truce stating that they will actually charge a fare that will allow them to not go into bankruptcy protection and focus on branding their service in order to attract consumers instead of going to the lowest bidder....Porter it seems is doing that, they offer service to downtown Toronto, quick speedy check in, nice planes, free BOOZE which is best of all :)

I look at things by how they affected me and do not profess to know the how and why business's do what they do. But I think the consumer is also responsible for the race to the bottom. I remember when WestJet started a new route and offered introductory fares in order to get people to try their service. To get that fare you had to book two weeks in advance and there was only so many fares available. The competition for the route they were operating on was an airline that had a well established monopoly and the price for a one way ticket out of town before WestJet came was around 500 dollars. So with WestJet's arrival with a new intro fare of 89 dollars the other airline who had been screwing over the town full of people for the past 30 years had to to lower their fare's to compete.

The problem then lies is that the other airline had more frequency and better times so now with the new fares people chose the old airline and did not give their dollar vote to the reason why they now can fly for half the price. I have been guilty in the past of choosing something that is more efficient schedule wise even if it's the same price but for the most part I want to help out "the other guy" trying to make it. So when it came time for WestJet to review this new destination it got axed because of light loads. People bitch and whine because they pulled out but where were they when WestJet brought them a great service for a descent price ? I am glad they now have to pay crazy rates to leave town as they are mostly to blame for it.

Back in the early days WestJet pulled out of Winnipeg because of lack of loads...only to later come back with resounding success because people actually paid attention and started to use their dollar votes on the great service. In time frequency will get better as will the schedule. When buying something do you normally go for the cheapest product or do you shop for the most value ? I think when it comes to airlines people go for the cheapest without any forward thinking. Maybe it's because this issue effects me financially and it is in my industry that I pay attention to it.

I wish Porter great success in their business and I hope they are around offering their great service for years to come. All we need now is Jazz to start competing with them out of Toronto Island slashing fares to see who can bleed the longest....well I know how much Jazz pays their pilots so they might win !

On to a less political and emotionally charged picture :)....This is the Manicougan Crater in south central Quebec. I have blogged about it in the past I believe but this time I actually got some pictures of it. We are en-route from Montreal to Wabush, NFLD. Quebec hydro has hydro-electric dams up here and raised the water level doing so, it is also called the Manicougan Reservoir. As I was flying over this area I stopped and thought for a moment how our lives seem so structured and the world has a framework about it that we can plan on always being the same. But what the hell was it like when a 5 km wide asteroid hit the earth to make this crater ? I mean we have zero control on stuff like this happening so order and control is just an idea in our minds but chaos could erupt any second really.

This year I have been watching the TV show 24 with Keifer Sutherland. In this years show there has been a nuclear attack on the US by terrorists, then a second bomb goes off and there are still 3 more bombs to be found. The nation is one step from complete chaos. People are panicking, people of middle eastern decent are being beaten because people are just scared and reacting with hatred and violence. The government is almost out of control of the entire situation. It then makes you think that if a scenario like this were to happen everything in your life you had ever planned for or had thought was gonna happen would all change. Crazy stuff really, so I will move on to more happier things to talk about :)

The small center ring around the little airplane is 20 nautical miles, it pretty much is the same size as the crater. When I see landforms such as this I try to figure out how it got to look as it does. I mean there has to be so many processes at work here and my human brain can imagine 100, 500 years ago but 214 million years ? Almost like trying to think of infinite or the outer edge of the universe.

This post is starting to look like an ad for WestJet isn't it ? :) Well here I am after I thought I was on days off flying back to Toronto to do "one" more flight and then back home the next evening to start my days off. A little glimpse into the future....I lost 2 days off but was flying with a good friend and great pilot so it felt like I spent my first two days off hanging out with him then actually working. I really never feel like I work I guess, I just feel like I am on a vacation and that I can't wait to get home just to sleep in my own bed and not have to live out of a suitcase.

Here we are just level at FL340 and just skimming the tops of the clouds. The weather on departure was in meteorological terms "poo poo". It was bumpy all the way up to cruise, there was a low to the south and a warm front over Ottawa so the clouds went to FL300ish. It was windy in Toronto and the FO planted it on pretty good. A beautiful night to fly if you could climb out of the clouds.

This post is dedicated to startup airlines who come out to try something new in the industry...to make money, treat employees as well as stock holders well. So the next time you go to fly on an airline, think before you click on the lowest price because it might end up costing you more then you think :)

Begginings

2007-04-27T23:53:00.001-04:00

9 Years ago this past February I set out for Kelowna, BC. Here pictured is Kelowna from 25,000 feet as we pass about 10 miles to the south. This is March and already it looks like summer in the sunny Okanagan. I lived about half way down the picture when I first moved here and for 2 months that first summer I got to house sit a gorgeous house right on the water. It could be 35 degrees a few streets over but along the water it would be about 5 degrees cooler and with the breeze it was the perfect spot to be. Back then that house would go for over a million and with the way things are today I believe it is worth close to 2!!

The Kelowna "International" Airport...International Airport to me means 747's and flights that took 3/4 of a day to get there...back when it got it's international airport status the only scheduled "international" flights where on Horizon to Seattle. Horizon had higher landing minima then most Canadian carriers so the joke at the airport was that miracles happen every day...4 flights daily to Seattle on Horizon :) I loved the Dash 8-200 though for it's power and newer avionics including the HUD (heads up display) compared to AirBC's newer airframes but old school avionics and Canadian Regionals old clapped out airframes with newer EFIS.

I sat jumpseat many times on a Dash 8 and it was always my goal to fly one. I now fly a single engine, single pilot airplane that performs better then the Dash 8-100 (minus carrying 35 people :) so I am basically set. The typical comment nowadays is.."When are you going on the jet?" (my company flies Citation Excels). I am supper fortunate to have the ability to go and fly one if I wanted to but to me being home more regularly and having more money means more to me then flying another 180 knots faster and 13,000 feet higher. I now see corporate aircraft as machines capable of taking me on the road for 12 days or more at a time and I can see that in time that would wear thin. I used to think the Gulfstream 5 would be a sweet airplane to fly....that thing can fly for 15 hours and today I don't want any part of that type of flying :)

I knew that I had found my niche when I first started flying the PC-12. It allowed me to climb up into the flight levels and cruise at FL280, 260 knots, and fly 1100 miles with plenty of reserves. It also allows me to fly into 2500 foot runways and even grass or gravel, and still take off and go up in the upper atmosphere. Personally my camera has issues focusing on the ground from 25,000 feet so why would I want to fly any higher ? :) It also is cheap to operate so for me to fly it home empty does not cost the company as much as it would to send a jet home empty so I have the opportunity of not sitting somewhere for weeks on end.

Also some people ask when are you going to WestJet or Air Canada...I currently don't have the type of time either carrier is looking for (I have mostly single engine turbine PIC) but I don't want to have to fly to Calgary, Ottawa,Toronto or anywhere else 10 times in a week, or worry about my seniority number when the times get difficult or worry about having to transfer...

Basically what I am getting at is that to each their own and I am happy the PC12 suits all of my needs and look forward to a career filled with experiences gained flying it.

Runway 34/16 (formerly 33/15 in my day). This is where my whole career started...from the ground up literally :) So many great people I know today is because of this airport.

Big White Ski Hill...we were headed straight for it so I decided to get a nice aerial shot and banked the airplane as we flew over top at 25,000 feet. Pretty large hill and I remember the days flying around it in the 172 right at the same altitude ! Same great sight but just bigger in the 172 :) This is one of the advantages of living in the Okanagan (IE Kelowna), there are ski hills and golf courses all within a 45 minute drive and you can use both most of the time in the winter !

On the descent into Calgary via the Opale arrival from the south west. These are the last few mountains in the Rockies before it goes into the foothills and eventually the prairies. They are so defined here opposed to the rounded out mountains of the interior but they all have their own beauty.

Been busy....

2007-04-26T20:51:00.000-04:00

Boca Raton, Florida (Heaven's waiting room :)...23 degrees Celsius and dry (odd). A cold front came through just before we arrived and I flew through some crazy towering cumulus that were filled with the most water content I have ever seen. Sitting out by the hotel pool bar at night was nice but it actually got down around 13 degrees and you needed a coat. This was the co-pilot's first trip ever this far south and he couldn't get over all the palm trees, so here again is another picture for him :)

Another sunset somewhere in my travels....lately I have been getting to see a lot of them but no complaining on my end.

Remember the movie Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray ? Well this is wher Punxsutawney Phil lives :) I have flown by here many times but this was the first time I noticed it on the moving map.

FL270 just over Michigan en-route to Montreal. Lately it has been a little busier and the schedule has been changing every second and you really don't know where or who you are flying until after you have gone to bed for the end of the day. I have quite the collection of pics to upload and I have 5 more days to go so hopefully I can get some posts together soon.

Cheers, FD

The Okanagan

2007-04-13T20:51:00.000-04:00

The Sunny Okanagan. Here we are at FL250 passing just between Summerland and Penticton, BC en-route to Calgary. What you are looking at is Lake Okanagan with Peachland and Westbank off in the distance. Kelowna is to the top and right of the frame. The forest fire that ate up a lot of homes and the KVR trestles started right near the point you see just covered by a few cumulus clouds. Due to subsidence the air that has dumped a ton of moisture on the coastal mountains drops into the valley warming as it descends therefore the valley is usually sunny unless a frontal system is moving through. The land in the center of the picture on the shore line is on MLS, 25 acres for 25 million bucks..INSANE But it sure is a nice place to live though and winters are short lived and mild. Summers are dry and hottttttt.

Looking towards the Lostav8r's former residence as we truck along.

Summerland, BC. My accounting and math teacher from High School lives here now, retired in the Nagan.... Hi Mrs. G !

Vancouver

2007-04-13T20:43:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhh...Vancouvertopia in the spring. Last time I was here in November and they had about 6 inches of snow, one taxiway and one runway open. Now compared to Wabush, NFLD which I recently visited had 16 foot snow banks in the city streets and they seem to manage just fine :) This picture is in front of the Esso Avitat in Vancouver (CYVR) and is looking at the north shore mountains and the big hangar you can see is the Air Canada hangar. This ramp is familiar territory as I worked there two summers ago and was fortunate enough to enjoy this view when I came to work.

Again looking across the ramp now at the air cargo area of the airport. That is a DHL DC-9 sitting by itself probably set to leave sometime in the evening. I know when the Purolator 727's leave (19:00) because I used to live across the river and every night around supper time the apartment blinds would shake to their thunderous take off laden with packages for destinations in Canada. Look at the green grass...sure is good for the soul after just coming out of winter in the east (as in 10 cm's of snow in Montreal last night !!!)

A Central Mountain Air (CMA) Beech 1900D on short final to runway 26L. When people say you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it....they aren't always right :) I tried forever, including 2 road trips to Smithers, BC to meet the Chief Pilot, letters of recommends from CMA pilots and having friends already working there putting in a good word I failed to land a job with them. I had loaded their bags for almost 4 years also and when the persistence campaign of 2000 failed to bear fruit by sheer tenacity I gave up (I sent a resume per day via COMAT (company mail) to the Chief Pilot). But in hind sight I think it was all for the better. I have met so many great people and have had such a tremendous experience so far in the infancy of my career that I would not change a thing. Well.... maybe I would have avoided Aviation College and saved 30,000 bucks, but again the people I am privileged to have as friend's are very much worth it :) The one Captain who had written me a letter of recommend now works for Big Red (Air Canada) and I have twice in the past year run into him at the gate as I am boarding a flight. I seem to have good fortune in meeting people I know all the time wherever I go and it is a constant reminder of how small the world is.

This picture also reminds me of rejection.....(AirBC hangar and CMA airplane)

Before Air Canada Jazz became Air Canada Jazz the western regional connector for Air Canada was AirBC. When I first arrived out west I applied there with no aviation background (gas jockey was my limited experience) and they sent me a PFO letter saying that I did not possess the skills they are looking for so leave them alone. I kept that letter and recently when going through all my old files I found it. Looking back at my tenacity and enthusiasm for my new found journey (life after high school) this letter did very little in dissuading me to eventually get working for an Airline as a baggage handler. To me, working in the airport environment was almost a need...to keep me focused on where I wanted my life to go and to see first hand the life I would be getting into. So to make a long story short I eventually got a ramp job, then apparently my skills were in need to throw bags at Air Canada, Canadian Airlines was taken over by AC and AirBC became part of Jazz.

So here I am climbing up over the south end of Richmond, BC with Vancouver airport just off the wingtip and downtown off to the north. So after all the ups and downs I still am fortunate to get the corner office view I always wanted.

Shattered window at FL390

2007-04-13T14:36:00.000-04:00

Go over to "The Captain's Log" and check out his post on his windshield cracking at FL390 ! Amazing !

Al's First Year

2007-04-13T11:33:00.001-04:00

Here is a video made by a friend of mine who I used to work on the ramp with. It is pictures and video from his first year flying the line. Yeah the hangar floor in the first frame is wood, it was built on a swamp and if they made it from concrete it would crack in a million places.

On the road again...

2007-04-11T13:43:00.000-04:00

I have been on the road now almost 8 days and I have not had Internet for a few of them. I still have a few pictures from a while back to post and will do so this weekend. Here is an interim shot of my favourite bird the Boeing 767 peeling off Runway 33R at Toronto Pearson. Fly safe.

FD

Finally caught up....

2007-04-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

I had not taken many photo's with work being slow but then due to gathering material :) I have not been able to catch up to all my pictures. I still have a few more trips to post but now at least have some time to get it organized a bit. About 2 weeks ago or so we had the first warm spell of 2007 and this was the sky that evening. It has since been snowing but summer is just around the corner and more great evenings like this are to be had.

Fly safe,
FD

Algonquin Radio

2007-03-31T11:09:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the poor picture quality but it was near sunset and we were quite a ways away. The speck you can see here in this picture is out in the middle of nowhere and I had first stumbled upon it on a low level flight in the 172 6 years earlier. Since then each time I have been in this area I have always tried to find it again to figure out where it is. It is the dish for the Algonquin Radio Observatory and it is a a big one at 46 meter dish. It has been here for almost 50 years, looking into deep space listening for information. It reminds me of one of my favourite movies "Contact" based on a book by Carl Sagan. In Contact the dish that they are using in the first of the movie is the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It is massive at 305 meters and there is a picture found here on it's website. I have always been fascinated in space and when money permits I am going to buy the nicest telescope....my pay cheque can afford :)

This doesn't really show much but if you were to draw an X about 20 miles off the little airplanes right wing that is where the telescope is located. The first time I flew over it I thought I had messed up my navigating and ended up in military airspace as CFB Petawawa is just to the east.

The Ottawa River just west of Petawawa, Ontario. This river has a ton of history behind it being a major transportation route for fur traders and native Indians many years ago. Here is a link for some history and video.
To bring you up to speed on the two main people in the stories, Samuel de Champlain and Etienne Brule.
It is amazing the area they covered in a year and I can just imagine the terrain and wilderness they had to deal with let alone meeting new tribes of natives wondering if you are gonna be friends or enemies :)

Mackinac bridge, revisited

2007-03-31T11:03:00.000-04:00

Here is Mackinac Bridge from the opposite side that I previously blogged about it. Nice to see the ice is mostly gone and there is a slight hint of green on the ground. If it wasn't for this bridge or a ferry you would have to drive from northern Michigan all the way south through, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana to get around to the north. So basically this bridge is a key part of the infrastructure in the area.

Here she is again with a wider shot. It was hard to focus on because of all the water around it and the distance (25000 feet equals 5 miles and plus about 5 miles horizontally).

As talked about in the previous post about Military airspace...this is Drummond Island (KDRM) which is on an island right between the Canadian and US border. It is just north of the restricted airspace and if your destination is west of Michigan this is a perfect customs stop. You can see the golf course it sits on pretty good in this picture.

Little Current, Ontario on Manitoulin Island. Still quite a bit of ice left up here as you can see in this picture. My aunt and uncle live on this island and due to its distance from home rarely get to see them. Hence I need a Lancair 4 Turbine to hop in and be there in an hour :)

They live a bit behind where the wing is in this picture but I wasn't quite sure where because settlements on this island aren't very big so it's hard to see the little villages. Beautiful place though and I definitely need to visit ! Killarney Provincial Park is near buy and it holds some of the nicest scenery in Ontario. Lots of lakes, rolling hills, Georgian Bay and access to the Great Lakes just to name a few reasons.

Military Airspace...

2007-03-31T10:56:00.000-04:00

I understand practice makes perfect and know that if you send a person in a 50 million dollar jet you want them to come back for their sake but also the planes. But why do they have to practice so much and eat up a perfect laneway in the sky to pretend to shoot each other and whatever else the do. Don't they have simulators ? Ok rant over...the reason for this post is that I planned on maybe not getting hit with airspace restrictions at Pike MOA (Military Operations Area) which is from 300 feet to FL430 or basically where everyone can fly.

When I switched to Toronto Center and the sector that controls the Canadian airspace to the east I did not got a re-route so I thought for once I have done it ! Then even better I got cleared to maintain 5000 feet at my discretion....but when things are too good to be true they usually are. The restriction later handed over with the 5000 feet was to be level 60 east of Alpena. This would be not a problem if I had two air conditioners on the plane but only having one I have to be able to glide to land if the fan stops spinning. Being 5000 feet over the middle of Lake Huron does not allow me to go anywhere else then Lake Huron when the foo hits the shan. So realizing I was not going to be able to go direct, I simply followed the 5 steps in grieving a valiant but unsuccessful mission to go direct to Alpena.

1. Denial- No this can't happen to me again for a fourth time :)
2. Anger/Resentment- Why do you smite me oh mighty smiterton !
3. Bargaining- If I go a bit north can I get to stay at 12000 feet please ?
4. Depression- Now we have to spend 15 minutes going around the airspace...
5. Acceptance- Well this is what always happens so lets do the only option and go around

I have trumped this airspace before....I cleared customs in Drummond Island which is about 10 miles north of the airspace and then from there heading west you miss all the airspace and can go direct. It is a great little airport in the middle of a golf course on it's own island. The airport golf course owner and airport manager is the customs agent so it's a pretty sweet deal to clear there.

So to make a long story short you can see from the above image the track we had to take to make it safely across to Alpena. I must also say that this time they only restricted from 5000 and up compared to the previous 300 feet and up making us go even farther.

So now, a day after the previous flight AROUND military airspace we file direct MSS Massena VOR from Green Bay. We got cleared as filed so I figured sweet it's not active. So we departed Green Bay, after being handed off from departure control we talked to Minneapolis Center. We were radar identified and cleared on course to Massena. Sweet deal I thought to myself. As we were about half way across Lake Michigan Minni center came across the radio telling me he had an amendment to my clearance and to advise when ready to copy. So following a few choice phrases I said for him to go ahead. He then said cleared present position direct Sault Ste Marie (VOR SSM) and then direct destination !

That's fine only an extra 90 miles added to our flight. The good news if any was that the winds were strong out of the northwest so going to Massena from the Sault would be shorter then before but due to the increased distance we would break even. So I used the fancy technology and figured we shouldn't have to go all the way to the Sault because in about 30 miles we could proceed direct APNEL intersection and bypass the Pike MOA and since we are at FL250 we were already clear of the lower MOA topped at FL180. So after 30 miles and sure that we were clear of that airspace I requested direct APNEL. The controller took a moment and then replied "unable due to active airspace". In a tone like "I know" I inquired to what airspace he was talking about. He said that the usual airspace that is restricted to FL180 was now NOTAM'd to FL430 temporarily. So now the USAF has most of eastern Michigan and Lake Huron to play in from the surface up to 8 miles above the earth. That's one hell of a play pen ! So seeing that we continued to whine he put us on vector as to make us feel better, it took us right towards the Mackinac Bridge and then east right across Manitoulin Island. We ended up going a route that we had not even been on before so it was a great new experience. If we had gotten direct we would have experienced the same airspace and geography we are always used to. So it goes to show that you must be careful what you wish for....more on this in a future post.

Bell 407 in all its glory in Green Bay. This is a hot lookin bird I think...it reminds me of standing on the tundra at Ferguson Lake waiting for the new base helicopter to come in. It was minus a whole lot of cold and in the distance you could hear a beating sound slowly getting louder and louder. Ted the biker type helo pilot was flying her at top speed inches off the deck and flew directly over the camp and the sound of the rotor blades slicing the cold air was one sound that is so unique that I can still vividly remember it. That winter I got to experience some routine maintenance on the previous helo at the camp, an ASTAR. I had helped remove the rotor blades with the AME in the dark with a 30 knot wind at -20 and man I can see why he makes the money he does. You want to hurry and get it done but for the pilot's sake you are gonna do it right and freeze in the process.

Some island out in Lake Michigan. The water has an almost tropical look to it from FL250. The western shore of Michigan has many areas that look like this, it is a very nice area.

Just abeam Mackinac bridge and I saw this odd looking land form. I have no idea how it got like this because the surrounding area was relatively flat and benign. Looks almost like something had hit it at one point.

EAA Museum #5

2007-03-31T10:49:00.000-04:00

Miss Champion, yes it actually flies !! I guess it isn't too odd and is basically a gyrocopter ahead of its time. It is amazing how so many aircraft here at the museum are pretty much airworthy. Also it has winglets so it's very ahead of its time :)

Sikorsky flying boat. It could be one of the first "business" aircraft. SC Johson used this type (same one but a replica) to go into the jungle in South America to find the best wax (carnuba) and a viable source of it. I can just imagine how pioneering that flight would have been seeing that the Amazon is still a harsh environment.

Pitts of some sort, a gorgeous model airplane hanging from the ceiling near the entrance to the museum. It would be awesome to see a model of this size grace the skies. I would love to get into RC planes but the cost is almost worth buying a share in a small plane to fly in full scale :)

Christensen Eagle's at the entrance of the EAA museum. This has to be one of my favourite paint schemes of all time.

EAA Museum #4

2007-03-31T10:34:00.000-04:00

Grumman J2F-6 Duck

North American XP-51 Mustang. First protype developed in 4 months ! Nothing like war to get things moooving.

Replica of Rutan Voyageur
The real aircraft went around the world in 9 days without landing or being refueled ! Pretty amazing stuff and that's after it lost a winglet on take off also !

Two people spent 9 days packed in her like sardines. I can't even imagine it, you would probably get close to insanity from not being able to stand up for 9 days and sitting an inch from the other person. An amazing feat for a non military organization.

Again in the too small for comfort file :) This is the worlds smallest bi-plane. Due to its smallness it is extremely unstable and difficult to fly and was only flew a few times and then donated to the museum. It flew up to 200 mph which blows me away because it doesn't look like the most aerodynamic plane in the world !

EAA Museum #3

2007-03-30T14:10:00.000-04:00

This is the Hangar X portion of the museum. We were told by the 80 year old + guide to not be afraid to go check it out. Honestly it was my favourite part of the museum :) Here is the thermal imagine camera in use to show how much heat (and rage) my co-worker is giving off for the camera :)

This is a mock up of the F-22 Raptor. I am not sure if the cockpit was to scale or it was made to kid parameters but I couldn't fit one leg in the damn thing if I tried. After this F-22 room they have about 6, 40 inch screens set up in an arcade style setting with MS Flight Simulator running ! It was awesome till I got kicked off the damn thing by an 8 year old ! There is a hot air balloon simulator (kinda boring), and a hang gliding simulator (really really neat). You sit in the harness and it has the metal bar the same as if you would be doing it real life. It has wrap around screens as well as other hang gliders in the sim. You have to make it from the top to the bottom and land on the target...a much harder thing to do after initially seeing the sim. They also have a reclined bicycle that drives a fan and it gives you the amount of thrust you are putting out. It gives you values for airplanes and the human powered aircraft. It also has two hand grips to peddle with and I can generate almost enough thrust with one arm going around and around to power the human powered aircraft. Except when you get tired in real life you better be close to an airport ! Well done with the Hanagar X EAA :)

The Eagles Hangar...this is filled with mostly WW2 aircraft and I believe the B25 and the P51 in this photo are airworthy. I was fortunate the first trip here when I was about 14, they had a B-17 available to walk through, it was simply amazing !

P51 Mustang in all its glory. I believe I saw it at AirVenture back in 1993 or 1994 with the founder of EAA (Paul Poberezney) flying it.

Supermarine Spitfire...this actual aircraft was used in combat in WW2 and flew missions to support the D Day landing.

EAA Museum #2

2007-03-30T14:04:00.000-04:00

Looks like a VLJ (Very Light Jet) but this is just a homebuilt with a single engine pusher propeller straight out of the tail. It is a Cirrus VK-30.

Another Rutan design in the EAA museum. This aircraft is similar to the one John Denver crashed and was killed. It is a Puffer Cozy homebuilt and these things look odd but really haul.

Rutan VariViggen homebuilt....weird looking but still cool.

Spaceshipone. A replica that won the X prize for going into space, coming back and doing it again. Pretty amazing stuff...check it out more in detail here.

A preview of the museum from the far corner in the helicopter section. The helicopter in view is the one I want (Rotorway Exec 162F). It's around 65,000 to own and is pretty cheap to operate.

Company orders new aircraft to cut costs...

2007-03-30T13:54:00.000-04:00

EAA Aviation Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (KOSH)

Cheap proven 100 year old technology and it's great on gas ! Too bad it only carries one person less then a 1000 feet :) No the company won't be ordering any of these birds anytime soon but I wouldn't be standing here in the museum today if it wasn't for this airplane (replica seen here of course). The Wright Flyer was designed and built by the Wright Brothers, who owned a bicycle shop in Ohio. It is credited as the first heavier then air machine to sustain controlled flight with a pilot on board. It made it's first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.

My co-worker and I looked once at this guy and figured these guys had to have some serious gumption to be able to strap into (hold on in this case) a newly designed unproven technology and just giver. The EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) is an organization that was started in the 50's by a group of pilot's who were building their own airplanes. They had the same pioneering spirit and love of building things which led them to create the EAA and that is where these pictures are taken. It is the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin home of the worlds largest fly-in (called EAA AirVenture). I have been here for about 3 AirVenture's and it is truly amazing how huge of a gathering it is. Airshow's, static displays, booth's from tons of aviation suppliers, aircraft makers and everything aviation. Also growing up my dad was a member so we used to get the monthly Sport Pilot magazine and each month it featured one homebuilt aircraft. I have been trying to find it with airliners.net and with google but still no joy. It was a Lancair that was white on top and blended to a lilac on the bottom and had some sort of woman/angel person with the wings spread and the whole underside of the wing was well the angels wing, very cool.

Can you imagine hitting a bird flying this thing ? Probably why it still isn't in use, and the fact you are the first person at the scene of the accident for damn sure. When I was younger I would just see the up side of flying something like this. The wind in your face, unlimited view and the bird like feeling from such an open cockpit (can you even call a seat strapped to a plane a cockpit ?). But now as I get older I can still see the up side but then the risk you run to enjoy such an experience. Ah hell it would be worth the risk :)

When I saw this (weight and balance computer for WW2 bomber sea plane) I thought of how ingenious it is and basically was amazed that it existed. The first company I worked for you had to manually had to compute weight and balance which was a mundane, drawn out affair. When I went to my next company they had a "whiz" wheel for weight and balance and you could figure out your center of gravity in a matter of seconds. I thought it was the greatest technology only to see the same thing here but in a more detailed form. Today all I do is type in how many males and females after I select which airplane I am flying and it does the rest. But before there were keystrokes there was dials to turn. In the case of this airplane A LOT of them, but probably just as many steps as when I have to run Excel, load the sheet, type in the numbers...etc.

The race is on here in the museum....a pretty cool display and it makes for a much more interesting showcase of older race planes and puts them in their element opposed to sitting on the ground. This museum is not the largest but it sure packs a lot of amazing airplanes and is well laid out.

Ski hills in Ontario...yes we have ski "hills"

2007-03-30T13:11:00.000-04:00

Second time in a month I have witnessed this same exact view. 11,000 feet direct to FRANX intersection inbound to Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport. The sun, just itching to pop out from behind the few clouds in the area soon after this picture shows itself with great intensity. Amazing that it takes over 8 minutes to see it from when it actually departed the sun, but at 300,000 km/s that is still haulin ass.

Large airports have arrival and departure gates which are basically areas where inbound traffic is sent to a navigation aid and a subsequent set of waypoints to ease the workload for ATC and also establish standard operating procedures. Can you imagine having everybody climbing and descending into each other with no set path's to keep them apart ? So Montreal has it's arrival gates and we normally use the same one all the time. The Franx 5 arrival takes you in from Massena VOR, to Franx, bivro, dudso, which basically puts you on a right downwind for the 24's or it takes you from Franx to the initial fix for the 6's. Well yesterday I received a new arrival which takes you in from Maniwaki NDB to Mirabel VOR and it's amazing to do something new after doing it one way for almost the whole time.

It looks like snow in the fields below but it's actually water. It's been warm lately and there is lot's of water to be had in the area. Off the nose and across the water is the island of Montreal.

Calabogie Peaks Resort. Here is one of the few Ski Hill's in the area. It isn't very big but it's better then nothing. On the Quebec side of the border north of Ottawa there are some bigger hills in the Laurentian mountains. Also north of Montreal there are many ski hill's within an hours drive such as Mont Tremblant and about 3 hills in the Ste Anne De Monts area.

Now to accommodate all those ski bum Torontonians they have turned this whole escarpment into a "big" ski area. It is near Collinwood, Ontario and is a very beautiful area located on Nottawasaga Bay.

This area is a very nice rural area just west of Ottawa by about 45 minutes drive. The ski hill which you see (it is the white small dot in the right hand corner) is Mount Pakenham. The city of Pakenham is visible and lies on the Mississippi River (not the mighty one). Little rolling hills, lots of vegetation and farmers fields make this area a great place to visit. This was the main ski hill we went to on school trips in elementary school. Not much but still had lots of fun racing (30 seconds worth) to the bottom.

The race is on

2007-03-28T23:20:00.001-04:00

Kinda a boring post I know but on the flight home from Aiken there was a ton of traffic and I was trying to get some pictures of the closest ones we saw. I think the aircraft in the lead is a 767 (but of course).

Again a closer shot...for us Canadians to head south the difference in the amount of air traffic is amazing. Because of such traffic density on the east coast and arrival and departure gates you usually get to see a lot of airplane when passing in the usual spots. This is just west of Washington DC.

Big Sky theory....well in my view at the time these were the only planes I could see and they are nice and shtoight together. Amazing...

A trip wouldn't be complete without a big friendly wave to Krista and Jason (+1) in KJGG on the way home !

Right out of a line from The Mask with Jim Carrey.....SHHHHHHHHHHHAMMMMMMOKINNNNN. Sometimes you see some really odd town names. There is a few more pics coming up with a few more that I have seen. A fellow pilot one day was giving a PIREP and to give his position to flight service he looked on the IHAS moving map screen. He couldn't resist to give his position being a mature 30 something male...."position is 15 miles east of Wiener, Kansas". I guess that does it for some. Fly safe.

Southern Comfort don't come in a bottle....

2007-03-28T23:10:00.000-04:00

Aiken, South Carolina (KAIK). Beautiful day in the south with a temperature of around 15 degrees Celsius with a light breeze...love it. This is my favourite time to visit the south because in 3 more months the heat and humidity makes me very happy to leave. Lately I have been fantasizing about having my own plane. By fantasize I mean the odds of me owning my own airplane are just as good as NASA calling me up to fly the shuttle. Speaking of that I did send in a request for an application and it is simply amazing how thick that package is and the fact there is more then 5 spots to list your degrees :) I always wanted to be an Astronaut until I realized well, so does everyone else and all I wanted to get out of it was the view so I settled for 400,000 feet less and still get a marvelous corner office in the sky. Back to airplanes... I wanted an airplane that had some real performance to offer and wasn't 4 million dollars. The plane shown above is not the one I want (nor could I fit in) but it is designed by the same person (Lance Neibauer). The plane I want is a 4 seater Lancair IV-P Turbo Prop. It only comes as a kit airplane but I emailed Lancair and professionally built with the turbine engine and avionics is 650,000 American. That seems pricey but the numbers for this airplane are simply amazing. It can cruise at up to FL250, cruise at 330 Knots, fly for 1100 miles and climb at 4000 feet a minute. It has optional mods for icing certification so it basically can give you an extra mile a minute burning less fuel bringing you and a few friends or family members anywhere on either coast with one fuel stop. I opted for professionally built as I wouldn't want to fly a kite that I built let alone strap my butt to a 330 Knot airplane I put together. Get 6 people to go in on the deal for 150 hours a year each and its only 110,000 dollars ! (so now I just have to come up with the other 109, 980 bucks and I am in!)

I never thought a Cessna 182 would look huge but next to this little rocket it sure does. This model is a Lancair 320 I think but I am not too sure. I don't know the design differences but it looks newerish but I know it is not a IV.

Small but mighty looking. The little landing gear look so cute, it's pretty hefty looking gear compared to the Lancair IV-P Turbine. That's the only thing I don't like about the Lancair IV is the dinky landing gear, so I have decided I need a Piper Cub on Tundra tires for my off strip experiences. I don't know how strong the IV's landing gear is even though it looks very weak. I saw the C208 Caravan's landing gear faring off one day in the hangar and was amazed that I was landing an 8000 pound airplane on a metal tube with tires !

This shot is more for scale. The chalks are as wide as the passenger cabin :) well maybe put end on end. But if it's speed you want then you can't have lazy boy style seating.

When standing beside this airplane the top of the canopy is at waist height. If I owned it I would have to convert it to a comfortable one seater with an extra fuel tank. How cool would it be to commute in something like this !

I am standing behind taking the rear profile of the bird. I just above the vertical stab now so it's highest point is about 5.5 feet or so high.

I had made a post earlier in the year from Aiken. There was a Stearman giving rides and today I leapt ahead a generation and there was a pair of T6 Texan's giving rides for 200 bucks for 30 minutes. If I wasn't waiting for my passengers to show up I would have been all over it. As I walked out of the FBO I looked up to see this Texan spinning down to circuit height joining the downwind and landing to grab his next passenger. It was the coolest thing ever to see and not sure what the legalities of it are in the US but I still don't think the FAA would think it was 100 percent safe.

The next "victim" hopes in for a ride of a lifetime. There was quite a crowd of people waiting to go and also just to see the old airplanes. They also were on hand to watch my embarrassing landing as I let the airplane float forever till it had just had enough and dropped the last foot to meet the runway with a errrrrrrr errrrrrr. It's funny when you have a crappy landing like that cause I spent the whole time on the ground thinking, holy crap that really sucked and all those people saw ! When I first started flying it was all about trying to grease it on and impress the Captain and you would try and save a landing at all cost. This time I wanted to get off at the first taxiway and in the words of one Captain, if you can't make it soft make it short...

Planet Eart

2007-03-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

The other Captain I fly with recently talked about a TV program called Planet Earth, a Discovery Channel 11 part series on well...Earth! He said the filming is absolutely amazing and highly recommended it.

Well it's currently not shipping but it will be available at the end of April and goes for 80 dollars American ($1000 Can). The website is one of the most amazing I have seen as well and I suggest just going to the site to check it out. It took 5 years to film the whole documentary and from the snippets you can watch on-line it looks A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

CLICK HERE----> To go to Planet Earth website

Avril Lavigne and Olympic Stadiums

2007-03-27T08:48:00.001-04:00

It's not a very clear photo but this Air Canada A340 (and the tip of the CN Tower) is in the slooow climb out leaving Toronto Pearson for Narita. The winds were slightly favouring the 15's and with his take off weight he requested it. He departed 15L as we positioned runway 05. He was airborne a few minutes before us and we are already 2000 higher then he is. Mind you he can fly for 12 hours and is carrying 284 people and 15 crew :) If you are curious to find out distances between airports around the world KLS2.COM has a simple Great Circle Map script.

It was a pretty windy day as you can see the waves coming into the shore somewhere in the Trenton area. I love the colour of the water with the snow which won't be hanging around too much longer. After Arizona I realized I love that we have seasons here in Canada. It would suck to just have hot and hotter, as with no bad good wouldn't really mean the same or even exist.
(Photo by FC)

Ever want to know what Avril Lavigne's hometown looks like ? Well this is the town of Napanee, Ontario from 11,000 feet in the descent into Kingston, Ontario. If you have ever traveled the 401 highway between Montreal and Toronto you would have driven past it. Not much there by the highway except a Flying J Truck Stop and a Tim Hortons. Kingston is a very nice, old city which is a perfect size. It has all the shopping and services of a place like Toronto but without all the people to contend with. It's has lots of history and is set right on Lake Ontario and with the Rideau Waterway you are able to go up to Ottawa and via the Ottawa River connect with Montreal and the rest of the world via the St.Lawrence River.

Just intercepted the 24L localizer for Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (CYUL). The funky looking building to the left is the Olympic Stadium which was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics but was plagued with building and money problems and was just paid off last year ! Still looks cool from the air even if it's a white elephant.

A nice close up view of it in the evening light.

Downtown Montreal as we approach CYUL airport from the east.

Home for a rest

2007-03-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

Continuing on from the previous post here is our path that we took back home. Starting in KTMB (Tamiami), Florida, 5 hours 30 minutes and 2200 pounds of fuel later we are home. It was a great day for flying and it was sky clear all the way down and about 90 percent of the way back. A warm front was moving in from the southwest and that is what you see in the pictures below. It was forecasted to be a huge storm when it got to Ontario but it basically fizzled out after a large high pressure over northern Ontario wouldn't move. Our route as seen on the map courtesy of Flightaware.com takes us up central Florida, over Orlando, and Jacksonville. It then turns the corner and we head to Savannah, Georgia and then about 700 miles direct to Watertown, New York. Not very often can you spend 11.5 hours in the air, crossing the eastern US twice and have such great flying conditions.

Not much to say really about the next set of pictures. The sun was setting just after Savannah and was pretty much gone below the horizon as we pulled up along Charlotte, North Carolina. I never realized how spread out Charlotte was and I have a few really crappy pictures of it and will have to get some better shots next time.

It's always nice to see different cloud formations and this one caught my eye as we sailed into the night. The colour's tonight were amazingly warm and reminiscent of summer time, thank God, Allah, whoever that summer is around the corner.

A big bowl of liquid hot M-A-G-M-A......... nope just the sun :)

The end of the clear skies but smooth sailing is still assured as the clouds do not hold much ice or bumps for the rest of our flight. Sunsets are much better with the clouds I think. Nothing beats the west coast sunsets that I used to see in Vancouver (when it wasn't overcast !:). My only summer there it was sunny for 31 days straight ! It was amazing, day time highs of 25 Celsius with a sea breeze kicking in around 10am every day. Just like all good things though the 31 days of sunshine came to a screeching halt and a low fuel emergency for me and my old roomate but I will have to get into that story another day :)

Again I apologize for the night time quality of my pictures. I won't blame the camera as maybe it's just the operator :) This was one of the most amazing night's I have ever flown. We are just south of the US/Canadian border heading towards the big blob of lights in the distance. Tonight as I took this shot the visibility was amazing. Basically looking from the left of the aircraft I could see Syracuse, NY, Rochester, Buffalo, Niagra Falls, Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, off the nose here is Brockville, Prescott, and off to the top of the picture is Ottawa. You could also see Montreal just as clearly as you can see Ottawa. I have never seen such a clear night, and it's a good thing as we are max'd out on our range tonight and need a close alternate. Our alternate tonight and like most good weather days is Gatineau, Quebec. It's about a 6 minute flight across the Ottawa River. When the weather is poo poo it doesn't work usually because of it's close proximity to Ottawa so what you usually get at one place is the same as the other.

The bird, back in the nest rests for the night after a long day of flying. Thing's have slowed down a bit and not too much of anything new on the go. Lately it has been the best combination of old faithful trips, followed by across the continent jaunts. But in the words of Alan Jackson, too much of a good thing....is a good thing. Next post covers stuff On the beaten path...Toronto, Montreal, etc. But I am working on uploading the latest rounds of pictures to Blogger which seems to be the most time consuming process of the whole operation. Fly safe. FD

Old friends and new destinations..

2007-03-25T11:16:00.000-04:00

Since we had flown all the way down from Canada without stopping for gas we needed to purchase some motion lotion before heading home. From Ocean Reef it's about a 10 minute flight to KTMB Tamiami, Miami Executive Airport. This is my first time coming here and it's quite a nice short hop across. The amazing sprawl of Miami reaches so far south and the airport is just on the edge of farmland which you see here in the photo. The Citation Sovereign that landed at Ocean Reef earlier took off after us and then cut in front of use on the approach. He needed some go juice to go back to Teterboro, NJ.

ZIPPY
Here is an old bird that I have ridden on and loaded when I was an AC ramp rat. I thought all the 737-200's that left zip were made into pop cans but apparently this one is still doing duty as a cargo machine. This used to be C-GCPN, who started out with Canadian Pacific as a brand new airplane, which then turned to Canadian Airlines, then Air Canada, ZIP, Air Norterra, and finally Canadian North and now in retirement in Florida works for WP Supply out of Miami. To see where it is right now click here. For all those aspiring marketing people that want to work for airlines....this isn't a good paint scheme nor are the names Zip, Jazz, Ted, Tango.

On departure out of Tamiami we are turned south initially to climb up above the arrival path into KMIA. We then followed the Hedley transition north bound and were restricted to 16,000 for the longest time as jet's were haulin ass climbing out on the same departure gate and they didn't want us in the way. Ocean Reef is on the map as Key Largo the more northerly one. It was 21 degrees so it was a nice preview of what is to come back home.

25,000 feet en-route back to the north country. We are now just past Savannah, Georgia (we have to stick to within 50 miles of shore and direct Savannah works perfect from southern Florida. Our next waypoint is Watertown, New York (ART) VOR. Just a word about the accuracy of the FREE flight planning tools on Fltplan.com. I cross checked the nav log every 100 miles and compared ETE, fuel burn, time remaining and it was bang on the whole way. The boys at Fltplan.com do amazing work and are always improving the features, functions and I would just like to say thanks for the excellent work!

"Rocket Science" Simply Amazing

2007-03-24T10:53:00.000-04:00

On another adventure today, on the way to a new destination again but first, stopping at a familiar spot to clear US Customs and proceed southbound. This is short final runway 05 at Greensboro, North Carolina (KGSO). It is a quiet little airport for American standards but has a huge runway, a very friendly FBO (Landmark) and very punctual Customs Agents. It's nice now after doing this for awhile and clearing at the same spots over and over the custom's agent just looks at the paperwork and passport ask's how cold it is up in Canada and we carry on. There was the Customs agent in Battle Creek who made fun of the size of my head on my Passport photo ! I cleared a few counties over on another flight and he came walking out and I was like oh great....but I had just had a new picture taken for it. So I told him this as he took it from he and he said "What did you have to draw it in yourself to make it not look so big!" The nerve :) This guy was pretty funny though and he was the first Customs agent I have ever spent 30 minutes talking to after we were cleared. US Customs from my experience have been for the most part extremely proffesional and friendly. There is the odd guy who comes out in aviator 70's shades and isn't up for small talk but they are few and far between.

Southbound over the East coast of Florida en-route to Key Largo (Ocean Reef Club Airport). Here is a view of Launch Complex 39 (picture from the ground off Wikipedia) It encloses a total area of 130,000,000 square feet !!! No wonder they put that sucker in Florida, imagine the heating bill if it was up North !

15,000 feet of runway for the space shuttle to come back to earth on. KTTS in Titusville Florida also known as the Shuttle Landing Facility. Pretty huge runway but for a space ship without power and heavy breaking, this makes life a little easier coming home.

It's in the GPS database and according to AirNav.com it has civilian traffic. I am sure you have to arrange your visit ahead of time though.

Launch pad 39A one of the Shuttle launch pads.

The next space shuttle to leave this pad will be Atlantis as STS-117 this May.

Here is a view of a lot more of launch pads for various types of rockets. A detailed list of each site is found here. Also, here is a picture from just above the rocket launch pads.

Yet another launch pad.

Sitting in position waiting to go at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida. As you can see there is golf carts just to the edge of the runway and no fences here. Because it is private and also in close proximity to golfers there is about 3 pages of rules you have to follow when you go here or you can get your permission to come here revoked. The ramp was full so we pulled in where it says on the rule sheet not to park. We were only gonna be about 5 minutes but this octogenarian came out screaming at us telling us to move because of a Citation Sovereign coming in. But the only other option for us to stay clear of the runway was to pull straight in to the parking area and not be able to turn around. Well nothing gets you moving like a jet on short final when you are 50 feet from the edge. We pulled straight into a parking area and shut down and the jet touchdown shortly after. It was 50 feet ish away but that is still too close when they are landing at 120 knots. So after he parked we released the brakes and pushed the airplane back towards the grass so we could start. Basically if I never come back here that would be too soon.

Believe love will find a way

2007-03-23T22:07:00.001-04:00

Just was surfing the Internet and stumbled upon this video memoriam for September 11th 2001.
It's pretty graphic and brings back a lot of memories from that day. I remember feeling disbelief when I watched on TV, then anger then just sadness and a sense of loss. No matter how many times I came back to the feeling of anger it brought me back to the sense of pure loss and heart ache. I finally understood what "Lest we forget" means which you see on Cenotaph's from World War 1 & 2. Never forget the sacrifices of those who gave their lives to save others and also to remember that we are here to love one another and not try to exterminate each other.

I recently was reading the letters to the editor in my National Geographic Magazine in response to the article about front line medical services for the troops in Iraq. The survival rate was amazing but what the government does not want to report is what state those who survive all those mortar blasts and road side bombs actually is. They are usually left with brain injuries and come back to the US with a mountain of rehab in front of them and not many support facilities. The government thank's you for your service but good luck after it's all said and done basically from what the article states.

Anyways, a man wrote in about his father in law who was a WWII veteran who was reading the article shaking his head. He said that every congressman needs to read that article, and he seconded that every schoolchild, father, mother, sister and brother also.

Thank YOU to all who have have fought and continue to fight for the freedom myself and many others enjoy.

LEST WE FORGET

Orders for Boeing 787 growing....

2007-03-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

Click here to learn all about Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner

Yesterday Boeing received orders for another 12, 787 Dreamliner's . Continental Airliners picked up a few and a aircraft leasing company in Kuwait picked up 7 bringing the total orders to 475.

This while Airbus is having issues bringing their lard ass A380 to market causing new management appointments and layoffs. Oh well.... GO BOEING !!!!!

Also in the news...Air Canada will be receiving it's first Boeing 777 and it will entering into service in April. Such a beautiful bird to be painted in such a horrible paint scheme. All I see (hear) when I see the new paint scheme is Celine Dion singing "Meant to fly" and it makes me cringe. A friend of mine who flew her in the past confirmed also that not only do I not like her singing, I feel that if I had the opportunity to meet her I would feel the same way about her.

A cool Blog I found recently announces new Boeing aircraft being delivered and has pictures of them at Boeing Field.