Athabasca In Two Hours
On Friday afternoon I flew up to Athabasca with my wife, my dog and 100 pounds of camping gear/luggage. And with full fuel we still had weight to spare, though the baggage area was completely full and the back seat was half full with my laptop bag, my flying bag and our dog.
Weather at Springbank was reasonable, with 3000 ft ceilings, 30+ mile visibility and winds from the south. Takeoff was uneventful with not even a peep from Scout (our dog) who had crashed out during the runup and we were off, cruising at a reasonable 120 kts thanks to the tailwind. Our filed flight plan took us north parallel with Highway 2 (now renamed Queen Elizabeth II Highway) since Athabasca is basically north of Edmonton. This meant that we would pass over Edmonton International airport and I was hoping to get a glimpse of some activity and perhaps take a few pictures worthy of Airliners.Net. Unfortunately, the though the weather was cooperating, the airlines weren’t; there was hardly any activity at the International and I didn’t see anything worth taking photos of.
About 30 miles back from Athabasca, we encountered lower clouds, turbulent air and rain, which we flew through the remainder of the trip. Although my wife wasn’t keen on the weather, Scout didn’t seem to mind and I don’t mind the rain at all. It was the first flight in the rain for me this season so it was nice to have a “refresher”, so to speak. We cleared the rain just as we entered the circuit and had probably my softest landing ever, which I try extra hard to do since my wife isn’t keen on takeoffs and landings (in any aircraft, including airliners). Total time, gate to gate, 2 hours, 11 minutes. Nice.
On Sunday, I took a couple of friends for a local flight around the Athabasca area and overflew their cabins at North Buck Lake. Again the weather cooperated long enough to get the flight done but we encountered heavy rain on our return and landed a bit long and a bit hard due to gusting crosswinds. But the flight was worth it because the scenery around Athabasca is so beautiful.
On Tuesday afternoon, we reluctently left North Buck Lake and returned to CYWM where we were greeted (as expected) by the friendly folks at Alberta Central Airways. They helped push our Warrior out of the grass parking spot and kindly sold us some fuel. As I was paying, I gave some free (but not all that helpful) advice on recovering some lost data (as I software developer I get those kinds of questions all the time). Then, we packed up the plane and headed for home.
Once again, the winds were in our favour; at one point the GPS was showing a ground speed of 130 kts. Nice! The weather on the return trip was interesting to say the least. All reports on paper showed things as a maginal flying day; low ceilings, gusting winds and thunderstorms or devloping storms throughout our route home. The actual weather, though, wasn’t all that bad. CYWM was overcast with 3000 ft ceilings, no rain and 30+ mile visibility and I knew that I could get as far as Edmonton so off we went. When we hit Edmonton, we flew through rain while over the city and then clear skies between Edmonton and Edmonton International. Then, over the International, driving rain again followed by clear skies until just outside of Red Deer when it was raining again. And then? Reasonably clear skies until just outside the Calgary area when everything was socked in again. I’m totally serious. But, the weather was still above minimums and we landed softly and smoothly on runway 34. And just like the way up to CYWM, in two hours and four minutes we were back home at CYBW again.
And for the record, I didn’t think about anything work related all weekend. Not once.
Wed, 25 May 2005 02:55 Posted in Flying
