Remembering the Goal

One of the quotes you're likely to hear when doing your training for your pilot's License is

"It's better to be on the ground, wishing you were in the air, then in air, wishing you were on the ground."

Basically they're saying if there is a chance you're going to run into really piss poor weather, you should probably just stay on the ground. Most commercial airplanes can fly in almost any sort of weather. Modern airliners are equipped with radar to steer them away from storms, devices to help them rid the airplane of ice, and all sorts of instruments and amazing toys to help the crew navigate without reference to the ground. However, many smaller airplanes like the popular Cessna 172 are much more limited in regards to the weather they can fly in. Even if the aircraft is capable, the pilot requires training and a Transport Canada ride to fly on instruments alone.

Many pilots are very mission oriented. Whenever we leave an airport, we have a place where we are to arrive and do everything we can to get there. However, when flying around in smaller airplanes, navigating by reference to the ground, mother nature can really have a way of making a fool of the best laid plans. Each time I've run into weather it's a different scenario and just how far I went was based on a number of things including how well I know the area, what kind of weather I expected @ the destination, and what lies in between. There have been a number of times where I've had to turn around and head back to the airport of departure due to poor weather. One of my very first trips as a commercial pilot was to Oxford House, where I took some Manitoba Hydro personnel to do some repairs. On the return trip back to Thompson we ran into some very low cloud that forced me to turn around back to Oxford House. The Hydro guys were able catch a sched flight back to Thompson in an aircraft capable of the weather. I ended up spending the night at Oxford House General Store and not making it back to Thompson the next day.

There have also been times when I've had to divert to other airports off the route. Pikwitonei was my favorite airport for this as it is only 26 miles from Thompson and when the weather picked up it was a quick trip.

In aviation, such diversion are inevitable. As a pilot I hate telling passengers I can't get them to their destination today, but I would much rather that then scare the crap out of them or put a smoking hole in the ground. The ultimate diversion though would be land the aircraft off airport. I can only think of one time when I felt the weather was deteriorating @ such a rate that I was looking for fields and straight stretches of road on the ground to land the plane (I wasn't actually flying, somebody else was). Lucky for me an airport was nearby and the person flying elected to land there. As the pilot, it must be a hard decision to make when you're faced with putting it down on a highway somewhere. However, although forecasters do a pretty good job with letting us know what to expect when we're flying, sometimes mother nature can catch you off guard and you're forced to make difficult decisions. On Monday, just outside of Hope, BC, near Manning Park, a pilot training for her commercial license did the right thing when she decided to land the 172 she was flying, with two passengers, down on BC Highway #3. Ultimately, our goal as pilots is to get everyone on the ground safely (if we're having a good day, the plane still might be flyable as well :)) I commend the pilot involved with this incident, and I hope she does well with her career.

Port Hardy

Many airlines, large and small, find it operationally necessary to have their flight crews spend the night at locations away from their homebase. This is why, when you see flight crews walking through the airports, they tend to have some luggage in tow. Almost all of them offer per diems (money for expenses) to crew that are required to overnight. Most have hotels that offer them special rates where they book individual rooms for each crew member, others will repay their crew the expense of the hotel. At some locations the company may have a crew residence. This is almost like a hotel for the crew, except it's run and maintained by the airline, and the only people staying there are airline personal (and there's no restaurant or lounge near the lobby). Skyward had crew rez's (as we call em) in Rankin Inlet, Cross Lake, Norway House and Island Lake. The length of stay at the crew rez would range anywhere from a couple of days to two weeks. I only had the pleasure of staying in the crew rez in Rankin for one night. The company I work for now has only one crew rez in Port Hardy. Instead of staying for possibly weeks at a time, they usually only require you to stay for one night, maybe two. There are other locations where they may have you spend the night, however, with no crew rez, the crews stay @ hotels.

So yesterday we left Vancouver on the eve of another gorgeous day, and headed off for Port Hardy where we were to spend the night. We flew over the water almost all the way up the Georgia Strait, past a big cruise ship, over Alert Bay, and past Port McNeil. We were hoping to see some whales on the way up as they stop to run their bellies along the bottom of an inlet around 3/4 of the way up Vancouver Island, but as luck would have it, they weren't there.

The Port Hardy airport has a history like many of BC airports. It was constructed during the late 30's or early 40's to help protect North America from the threat of Japanese Attacks. It shares the triangle runway set-up familiar to many airports in Canada with a military history. These days, though the Canadian Armed Forces still stop in on the folks in Port Hardy on a regular basis, the military has no control over the airfield. One large difference between Port Hardy and may other Canadian airports is that Transport Canada still operates the airport. Transport Canada used to run many of Canada's airports. However, in the 1992, the Federal Ministry started the transfer of control of many of the airports it operated to local airport authorities, Regional Districts, and municipalities. In 1994, The Government established the National Airports System

The National Airports System

The National Airports System includes the airports that Transport Canada considers "essential to Canada's domestic prosperity and international competitiveness." They are all the airports that, in 1994, handled at least 200,000 passengers and those that are in the national, provincial, and territorial capitals. In 2003, these 26 airports handled 92 percent of Canada's air passengers.

with this they also established a framework by which many of the airport authorities operate today. Transport Canada still owns the airports and is providing the not-for-profit organizations running the airports a 60 year lease (hence the "airport improvement fees" we're all accustomed to). At the end of the lease, if an agreement cannot be reached between the airport authority and Transport Canada, the government will retain operation of the airport and reap the benefits of all the upgrades at no charge. In BC, the only airports still operated by the Federal Government are Port Hardy, Sandspit and Penticton. Some financial support is still given for smaller, regional airports, under the Airports Capital Assistance Program.

Wow, that's probably more info regarding TC's involvment in Canada's airports then anyone wanted to know. I woke up early this morning to watch a beautiful sunrise over the Coast Mountains, then departed back to Vancouver, flying over top and along side some of the peaks of Vancouver Island. After a brief break at the busy Vancouver International Airport I was off again for Campbell River and Comox. In Campbell River I watched a women, forty years old, in a quest for her private pilots license, doing some circuits solo, while her instructor looked on from the ramp. After our stop we launched for Comox where we shared the circuit with a P-3 Orion as its crews did some training. My final leg of the day saw me pass over Texada Island, past Point Grey in Vancouver, and not so smoothly but not roughly onto runway 12.


I hate shooting through the window. Northbound up the Georgia Straight 


Evening in Port Hardy. Hardy FSS in the background 


Grumman Goose 


The Bandit @ Sunrise 


Sunrise in Port Hardy 


Gorgeous 


Hanger With three Grumman Goose  

What a Gorgeous Day

Today was a gorgeous day in Southern Coastal BC. I happily accepted the task of flying from Vancouver, past Gibsons, Sechelt, Texada Island and Powell River, to Campbell River, Thence on to Comox.

Built in the 1940's to help defend North America against the threat of Japanese attacks, the airport in Comox is still run by the Department of Defence. It is home the 19 wing of the Canadian Air Force, responsible for Maritime patrol and Search and Rescue, and also sees it's fair share of visitors from other wings of the Canadian Air Force, as well as the world. Today we shared the air with a P-3 Orion and some CF-18's. On the ground were some F-16's (American I'm assuming), as well as regular civilian aircraft that share the airport.

After leaving Comox we headed back to Vancouver, had a nice lunch and did it all over again in reverse. With the sunshine and the unrestricted views, it's the most gorgeous day of flying I've had so far, and there's still two more days to come.



Gibson, BC and Keats Island 


Sechelt 


Gillies Bay on Texada Island 


Texada Island with the Coast Mountains in the background 

The first week

In Comox, waiting to go to Port Hardy 

So, I've finished my first rotation at work. I flew 10.1 hours during three of the last four days. The first trip saw us taking a sched flight up to Comox where my captain and I picked up the plane and waited for some golfers to finish a tournament before taking them up to Port Hardy. We ended up Leaving Comox around 9pm so it was nice and dark by the time we got to Hardy. After Hardy we went back to Vancouver. It was pretty neat to see the city all lit up @ night. I then had one day on-call where I didn't fly @ all. Saturday was my 1st full day of flights. We left 1st thing in the morning to Powell River, came back, did the 12 minute hop over the Gulf Islands to Victoria then back to Vancouver. In the Afternoon we went IFR to Tofino with some tourists looking to go fishing. Finally, we ended the day with one more trip to Victoria. Today I got to go to Williams Lake. Normally the Sched flight would go in a Beech 1900 or the King Air 200 so it's a rare treat for the Bandit to get to go to Williams Lake. It would've been nice if the weather was clear as we could've just gone up the valleys. However, the rainy weather in BC today meant we had to go IFR and we spent most of our time in cloud or on top of it.

Ready to Go

Yesterday I completed my training and passed my ride on the Bandit. It wasn't a long day but I sure felt tired at the end of it. My training took place around Naniamo, consisted of an approach and some upper airwork. My ride took me back to Naniamo for a circling non-precision approach, after which we headed south towards Victoria, did some upper airwork, off to the Victoria VOR for a hold and then to the airport for an ILS approach. At that point my ride ended and I became the pilot not flying for my training captain and we went and did his ride. So, it wasn't a long day, but it was pretty busy. I'm glad to have the training behind me now and I'm looking forward to getting into the groove with daily flying.

In The Air Again

The Bandit in Comox 

After three months and fifteen days of looking up @ the sky, I finally got to be part of it again. Yesterday I started my training @ Pacific Coastal on the Bandeirante. It was a short but nice little trip. We took off out of Vancouver, made a right turn over Richmond, climbed up to 4000' and headed over to Nanaimo. Once there we simulated some emergencies, did a hold, and an approach. After that we headed back to Vancouver. It was a quick hour in the air, but it was fun. Probably the largest difference was the radio. In Northern Manitoba, the airspace I flew around in was mostly uncontrolled. In Vancouver, you have to talk to three different people (four if you count company dispatch) just to get off the ground. ATC is also fairly busy so you want to be on your toes so you hear them call you the first time and they don't have to repeat anything.

Before I go online Thursday I require another hour of training and a ride so it should be a fairly busy week. It's good to be back flying...

Back on the Left Coast

Just a quick update. I do intend to write more here once I have more flying type stuff to talk about. After a 3 day journey across Western Canada, I have arrived back in the Lower Mainland. I start training on saturday and should have tonnes to say after that.