Over the ROCKS!
Flying at low altitudes through mountains is not a trivial task, nor is it for the faint of heart or inexperienced pilot. That is why I had originally intended to take on the Rockies at the END of this trip and fly to the East coast first. However, my plans got jumbled up when my fellow engineering/hippy friends decided we should all hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island in June. So, if I switched everything around and flew West first, I could join them on the hike. So that's what I did. And this way Scott was able to fly with me from Ponoka to the west coast.
So we left Ponoka last Wednesday, May 31st, at about 5pm. Just before our departure I took my high school friend Rodney for a flight over Ponoka. The flight to Innisfail was only 0.6hrs and there we met Nancy and I gave her a short ride in the plane, flying over her nearby buffalo farm. Then Scott and I flew the rest of the way to the Springbank airport (a 0.7hr flight) at the west end of Calgary where we were met by our university chum Ben Danic. I gave Benny D a quick plane ride and then we drove down a small dirt road near the airport to drink a beer and watch the sun set over the Rockies in the distance. Our hunger then prevailed and led us to the only open grocery store in the city where we picked up some grub for a late night dinner and food for the next day. Ben put us up in his apartment and then early the next morning drove us back to the airport just after sunrise.
We had excellent weather in Calgary and over most of the mountains, and by leaving in the early morning we were able to avoid the normal daily turbulence that comes from rising warm air and winds over the mountains creating strong updrafts and downdrafts in the valleys. We took off from Springbank around 7:30am and followed the Trans-Canada highway past Banff and Lake Louise, landing in Golden 1.6hrs later. The scenery was completely breath taking, flying only about 1,000ft over the valley floors, completely surrounded by towering, jagged, snow covered mountain peaks.
After fuelling up at Golden and checking the weather by phone, we took off and headed for Rogers Pass, a tight narrow valley between 10,000ft peaks that has claimed the lives of several pilots. What gets pilots into trouble in this and other similar passes is when weather is marginal, visibility is poor, winds are strong, or the pilot is in a hurry to reach their destination and pushes the boundaries of the plane or his/her skills. Scott and I were very lucky to have extremely calm air through the pass, where the steep and high mountain sides often create strong up and down drafts. We crossed the highest point of the pass with an altitude of about 7,500ft, plenty of clearance from the inhospitable terrain below. After the pass we flew over Revelstoke and then finally landed at Salmon Arm, another 1.6hr flight. Since our flight times were all relatively short, we were able to fly lighter by taking on less than a full fuel load. Weight is such a critical factor in fighting down drafts and climbing out of valleys after takeoff. The tricky part was calculating just the right amount of fuel to carry so that we would be below max gross weight but still have sufficient fuel to make it almost to our next destination and still be able to turn back to our point of departure if the weather turned bad. Fortunately this never happened and we were always able to land safely where we planned with plenty of reserves in the tanks.
Descending into Salmon Arm was incredible, the view of the Shuswap Lakes was amazing, not to mention all the beautiful farm land, rolling green hills and thriving marinas. Our time in Salmon Arm was longer than expected since the coastal moisture that had been dumping rain all over the mountains from Vancouver to Kamloops decided to move east and sit right on top of us for the next day and a half. However, luckily Scott and I were greated by some of the most friendly and caring strangers I've ever met. So typical of the tight knit aviation community all over Canada, the flying club of Salmon Arm opened its doors to two scruffy young aviators with complete trust and generosity. Our experiences there will have to wait to be more fully documented once I have more time, but they will surely not be forgotten.
Flying at low altitudes through mountains is not a trivial task, nor is it for the faint of heart or inexperienced pilot. That is why I had originally intended to take on the Rockies at the END of this trip and fly to the East coast first. However, my plans got jumbled up when my fellow engineering/hippy friends decided we should all hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island in June. So, if I switched everything around and flew West first, I could join them on the hike. So that's what I did. And this way Scott was able to fly with me from Ponoka to the west coast.
So we left Ponoka last Wednesday, May 31st, at about 5pm. Just before our departure I took my high school friend Rodney for a flight over Ponoka. The flight to Innisfail was only 0.6hrs and there we met Nancy and I gave her a short ride in the plane, flying over her nearby buffalo farm. Then Scott and I flew the rest of the way to the Springbank airport (a 0.7hr flight) at the west end of Calgary where we were met by our university chum Ben Danic. I gave Benny D a quick plane ride and then we drove down a small dirt road near the airport to drink a beer and watch the sun set over the Rockies in the distance. Our hunger then prevailed and led us to the only open grocery store in the city where we picked up some grub for a late night dinner and food for the next day. Ben put us up in his apartment and then early the next morning drove us back to the airport just after sunrise.
We had excellent weather in Calgary and over most of the mountains, and by leaving in the early morning we were able to avoid the normal daily turbulence that comes from rising warm air and winds over the mountains creating strong updrafts and downdrafts in the valleys. We took off from Springbank around 7:30am and followed the Trans-Canada highway past Banff and Lake Louise, landing in Golden 1.6hrs later. The scenery was completely breath taking, flying only about 1,000ft over the valley floors, completely surrounded by towering, jagged, snow covered mountain peaks.
After fuelling up at Golden and checking the weather by phone, we took off and headed for Rogers Pass, a tight narrow valley between 10,000ft peaks that has claimed the lives of several pilots. What gets pilots into trouble in this and other similar passes is when weather is marginal, visibility is poor, winds are strong, or the pilot is in a hurry to reach their destination and pushes the boundaries of the plane or his/her skills. Scott and I were very lucky to have extremely calm air through the pass, where the steep and high mountain sides often create strong up and down drafts. We crossed the highest point of the pass with an altitude of about 7,500ft, plenty of clearance from the inhospitable terrain below. After the pass we flew over Revelstoke and then finally landed at Salmon Arm, another 1.6hr flight. Since our flight times were all relatively short, we were able to fly lighter by taking on less than a full fuel load. Weight is such a critical factor in fighting down drafts and climbing out of valleys after takeoff. The tricky part was calculating just the right amount of fuel to carry so that we would be below max gross weight but still have sufficient fuel to make it almost to our next destination and still be able to turn back to our point of departure if the weather turned bad. Fortunately this never happened and we were always able to land safely where we planned with plenty of reserves in the tanks.
Descending into Salmon Arm was incredible, the view of the Shuswap Lakes was amazing, not to mention all the beautiful farm land, rolling green hills and thriving marinas. Our time in Salmon Arm was longer than expected since the coastal moisture that had been dumping rain all over the mountains from Vancouver to Kamloops decided to move east and sit right on top of us for the next day and a half. However, luckily Scott and I were greated by some of the most friendly and caring strangers I've ever met. So typical of the tight knit aviation community all over Canada, the flying club of Salmon Arm opened its doors to two scruffy young aviators with complete trust and generosity. Our experiences there will have to wait to be more fully documented once I have more time, but they will surely not be forgotten.
posted by Ben at
4:09 PM
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