Changes to Villeneuve
On Friday we flew from Calgary/Springbank (CYBW) to Edmonton/Villeneuve (CZVL) in a Piper Warrior rented from the Calgary Flying Club. Our dog came along and was again sound asleep before I had even finished taxiing to runway 25 (it really is a dog’s life for him when he flies).
The takeoff from Springbank offered a chance to do something you don’t get all that often; a low level fly over the airport. By the time we had taxied to runway 25 and completed the run up, the active runway had switched to 16. Rather than taxi back to the other side of the airport, I opted for a crosswind takeoff. The controller asked for a left turn on climbout to keep me out of runway 16’s traffic, which I was happy to comply with. As I told one friend, because of how the tower is positioned, a left turn on climb out is somewhat like using the airport as a race track and the tower as a pylon. Sadly enough, instead of race speed it was a climb at the Warrior’s Vy of 79 kts (though I admit airspeed dropped to about 70 kts for a couple of moments as I admired how close to the tower I was allowed to go).
The remainder of the flight at 8,500 feet was uneventful as we flew direct to Villeneuve. As expected, just over Gull Lake Edmonton Centre descended me to 5,500 to keep me out of the way of the scheduled flights (those IFR guys are so demanding; can’t wait till I’m one too *g*). At that point I don’t actually mind the lower altitude as much as there is some nice countryside. Just short of Highway 16 (which I didn’t know the name of at the time), Edmonton Centre has us contact Villeneuve Tower and I then struggled (long day perhaps) to describe where we were, knowing that Villeneuve Tower is stuck in a time warp and is without radar. Or at least I thought, until the controller kindly told me that she had me radar identified at which point we chatted about the new radar. I had hoped to go for a tour but ran out of time; will have to try for that next time.
In preparation for my IFR training, I spent most of the flight trying to work on my scan and keep my altitude and heading within flight test parameters. Once within Villeneuve Class C space, I was cleared for the right base on an extended final for runway 08. My approach was rock solid, though in the end my landing was 95% given that I landed 100-200 feet further down the runway that I was aiming.
The best thing about Edmonton/Villeneuve aside from the fact that it now has radar, is that the airport doesn’t have a landing fee and offers free parking with tie downs. And better still, the free parking is right beside the Cardinal Aviation Centre building, who offer reasonably priced fuel (only 3 cents per litre higher than my discounted CFC member rate) and other services. And there’s no fee for an after hours callout. How great is that? And top it off with friendly service and you can’t go wrong. I would, in fact, go out of my way to get fuel at Cardinal rather than Edmonton Intl or Edmonton City Centre.
Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:45 Posted in Flying
