The last word

A few last words.

The photo left is our actual GPS tracks eastbound (red) and westbound (yellow), displayed in Google Earth.

I uploaded all the GPS breadcrumb tracks for each leg here www.nymble.ca/fly/gps . They display in Google Earth and can be zoomed in or out right down to even see exactly which taxiway or runway we used. There are a couple of oops - like where I forgot to turn it on until after takeoff (I was little busy and enabling the breadcrumb trace isn't part of the standard checklist!). For some reason, the ThunderBay - Wawa leg wouldn't convert at all, so it's missing. At least all you Google-Flyers stranded in Kenora can make it back home now.

All our photos are uploaded to www.nymble.ca/photos, separated by flight day. I'll get around to putting captions on them soon and delete the duds; it's a little boring if you don't know what you're looking at.

We were gone for 20 days, not including the first 8 days we waited for the rain to go away in Vancouver before starting, although we only managed to fly on 13 days due to unacceptable weather. I only got as far as Quebec City, instead of Nova Scotia, but every day was an adventure; even sitting at airport(s) for hours and hours, waiting for weather to improve, we got to talk with local pilots and airplane enthusiasts.

FPAK, the Cessna C172R airplane we rented, was great and operated without any problems. I guess I'll have to admit the non-French-speaking transponder was somehow pilot error.

Pete has volunteered us to do a pilot information session at Pacific Flying Club sometime in October, to talk about our experience and route and show a few pictures.

And we had such a great time that Pete has already reserved the airplane for next year!

The last stretch

Home, at last!

I couldn't leave Lethbridge until 130pm. That low cloud was persistent at 2500 feet. Everybody at the AirWest hanger and flying school was commiserating on how unusual the weather has been. The NavCanada weather briefer explained that today it was being caused by smoke drifting up from forest fires in Idaho, which created condensation nuclei for cloud formation. He was pretty confident that it would start to dissipate by 1 or 2pm, and that there would be a good VFR opportunity before the thunderstorms started forming in the afternoon.

So, nothing to do but wait, again. About 11am, one of the flying instructors offered to drive me back into town, because the Lethbridge airport is pretty small and has no coffee shop. So I had "second breakfast" at Smitty's and went back to the airport at 1230. Ceiling was now just over 3000 AGL, and improving. So I filed to Penticton, via the designated VFR route over Hwy 3 through Crowsnest Pass, Cranbrook, Creston, Nelson, Castlegar, Grand Forks, Osoyoos and Penticton.

By the time I got to Crowsnest Pass, the ceiling was ~10000 ft. It was the most turbulent and gusty leg of the whole trip, especially towards Cranbrook. There were times when I'd hit an updraft of >1500 ft/min, or get knocked sideways. There was a good headwind of 10-15 knots too, and most of the time my groundspeed was less than 90 kts.

At Cranbrook, I stopped to refuel and get a weather update. I updated my ETE, since my forward progress was a little slower than expected.

Toward Creston, the turbulence lessened. Cruising over the south and west arms of Kootenay Lake toward Nelson was quite pretty. At Castlegar and the bottom end of the Arrow Lake, I decided the winds and ceiling were good enough that I would take a shortcut over the Monashee Mountain Range, direct to Penticton. I radioed FSS with a flight plan update and continued over the north end of Christina Lake and came out over the Okanagan valley just north of Oliver.

I arrived in Penticton at 6pm, refueled and called Pete to update him on my progress and discussed whether to call it a day or press onward for home. We figured it would be about a 1.6 or so flight home, if I could go direct over the mountains. Otherwise it would be slower going the Hope-Princeton VFR route, and I've always thought that if the weather wasn't good enough to fly direct over, it would marginal to fly the VFR route in the valley anyway.

But the weather looked good, so I refiled a flight plan and headed for home, climbing over Summerland and then turning west for Hope. I came out over the Coquihalla/Hope-Princeton highway interchange just east of Hope at 8500 ft and started descending into the Fraser Valley. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky, and pretty much all the way from Hope it was shining into my eyes. I eventually stuffed a map hanging down from the visor to help block out the sun.

I could already hear the ATIS airport reports from Abbotsford and Langley. Nearing Langley, I asked the Langley ATC to assign me a transponder code to enter Boundary Bay's Class C airspace and continued on in for a landing on CZBB runway 30, holding short for other traffic on runway 25.

Taxied in, parked at PFC and unpacked the plane. I phoned for a ride home, and in an amazing coincidence, my wife Yvonne was just driving home from picking up my daughter Nicole at YVR, where Nicole was just returning from spending 7 months overseas in New Zealand and Australia. They diverted to Boundary Bay to pick me up and so it was a great way to finish a great trip.

All told, I traveled about 4750 NM (~8600 km), 1495 NM together with Pete. Solo, I traveled 3255 NM (5860km), quite a bit more than necessary to meet the cross-country requirement for the Commercial Pilot License :). We logged 54.5 flight hours on FPAK, and took on over $2100 in fuel (about $40/hour). Most of that will be applied against the rental cost of the airplane.

Although it was unfortunate that Pete had to return home early and wasn't able to rejoin the trek, I think we both had an absolutely great time and can't wait to fly again. But I learned that you can never fly as far or as fast as you hope, and you have to be prepared to wait out the weather. Although everywhere I went, people were talking about how unseasonable the weather had been this summer. Thanks for reading. And thanks for the comments.

Morning in Lethbridge

Got up early again this morning, since the weather forecasts last night looked pretty promising.
However, I'm out at the Lethbridge airport since 7am, the plane is preflighted and ready to go, but there is some morning fog/low cloud over Pincher Creek, at the base of the climb up to Crowsnest Pass. I'm waiting for it to go away, then the rest of the route looks good.
All the warnings of mountain wave and mechanical turbulence have subsided, but the winds at 9000 ft and above are still strong.

I plan to follow the designated southern VFR route through the Rockies, past Cranbrook, Creston, Nelson, Castlegar. At Castlegar I'll make a decision whether I can go over the top of the Monashees direct to Penticton or continue the twisty, winding route above Hwy 3 through Christina Lake, Grand Forks, Midway and Osoyoos. Hopefully, it will be calm enough to take some pictures enroute.

Lethbridge -- it's almost Pacific time.

So I did get up early (530am) and got a taxi out to the plane by 615am.

The weather was beautiful - the sun was just coming up over the Prairie, not a cloud in the sky, and just a hint of a breeze. I went through my preflight preparations and talked to the Flight Service Specialist about the weather and my flight plan by 7am. He explained about a trowal (Trough of Warm Air Aloft) that was making it's way up in a line from Regina to Lethbridge, said I might expect some light showers, but ceiling should remain at 12000 ft. He warned of the potential for isolated convective thunderstorm activity along my route, but assured me it should be isolated and I would see it, if any, from a long way away and be able to divert around.

I got aloft by 730am, and flew a rather smooth flight at 6500 ft to Regina, refueled, and quickly continued on to Lethbridge, overflying Moose Jaw, Swift Current and Medicine Hat. A little turbulence from surface heating nearing Medicine Hat, but I am now in Lethbridge by noon and refueled again.

It was quite quiet on the radio after Regina, so I tuned in the Sunday Farm report on the ADF (Auto-Direction Finder) radio - the older navigational beacons are broadcast in the low AM band. In fact, you can use AM Radio stations for directional beacons, providing you know exactly where the transmitter tower is. They are sometimes marked on aviation maps for this purpose. We may not have had an 8-track tape but Willie Nelson and Rita McIntyre and Shania Twain are still popular on Prairie radio. At least it's (somewhat) more interesting than listening to the station ID broadcasts in Morse code!

I toyed briefly with the idea of continuing on to Cranbrook, as the weather looks good from here. But the aviation weather forecast just issued a revised AIRMET (special notice) that warns of "patchy moderate lee wave activity from surface to 12000 ft" in an area from just west of Lethbridge to Castlegar and Banff in the north end. Plus there is a PIREP (Pilot Report) from a Cessna 182 over Cranbrook at 11500 ft that says "MDT TO SEV MECH AND LEE WAVE OVER RIDGES ". Mountain waves are another one of those horror stories that groundschool instructors like to beat into you, where the wind whips over the mountains and the mountains act like the rocks in river rapids, stirring up the wind up and down and around and generally not a good place to try and take an airplane. So again, grounded by weather.

I also considered heading up to Calgary to see my brother overnight. But, again, that lee wave activity extends up to Banff across the foothills, and eastward of that is strong thunderstorm potential.

But early morning promises to be great again. Except for the upper level wind forecast. We'll see.

Inching along

(Saturday's post)
Friday night, after I checked back into the hotel, I got a call from my cousin who had just returned to Winnipeg from business in Minneapolis. He insisted on picking me up and going out to his cottage on Lake Winnipeg, near Gimli. So I checked out of the hotel and still had to pay, even though I'd only been there for 3 hours - no housekeeping or day rate, because apparently the housekeeping staff had gone home for the night. Oh well.

Barry drove us out to his cottage, while I checked with Harv's air to make sure they would put the plane in the hanger for the night. Barry's cottage is in an area that is very reminiscent of Point Roberts or Boundary Bay or parts of Birch Bay -- smaller, older cottages on treed lots that have been in families for years. Many are only 3 seasons, but some people are now living year round now. Lake Winnipeg is a huge lake, but it's maximum depth is only 35 feet. So it freezes every year, and during the spring breakup, the wind can push the ice around. It's not uncommon to get ice jammed and being pushed right up onto lawns and decks, causing a fair bit of damage. Anybody who has a dock has to remove it, pilings included, for the winter, or the ice will grind it away.

But in the summer, when I saw it, it's a very very pleasant area.

Anyway, we did have a large thunderstorm overnight, lots of rain and lightning but no hail. I was glad the plane got into the hanger regardless.

The next morning, Barry drove me back to the airport and again I waited for the weather to clear. Only this time it was lots of low cloud at 700 ft trying to be fog. Once the wind came up, it all cleared out and I was off towards Brandon by 1030am.

But it was very windy with the cloud ceiling at 3500 ft. I flew at 2500 ft, partly because of a NOTAM that restricts VFR flight in Winnipeg airspace to less than 3000 ft (too many controllers on vacation), and partly because the winds increased significantly with altitude. The wind was directly against me -- talk about swimming upstream in rapids. There were places where my ground speed was only 65 knots! That's a 30 knot headwind (I had slowed down to what's called "maneuvering speed" for safety). It's was a little bumpy but not as bad as you might think - no sudden screaming changes in altitude or attitude.

The forecast was calling for better winds and higher ceilings later in the day, so when I got to Brandon I hung around the Brandon Flying Club. Another very nice club, and most members have their own planes. Gas was $1.44 -- most clubs have been cheaper than Shell or Esso FBOs. About 4pm, the wind still hadn't let up and the clouds were actually getting lower, and the dispatcher offered to give me a ride to a hotel, so I called it a day. Only flew 1.9 hours -- and a few inches on the map.

So I spent the evening planning and resolved to get up very early and get moving. Maybe Lethbridge...

Pack it in for today

I waited at Harv's Air Service at St. Andrews airport for 4 hours, checking the hourly weather reports and forecasts, looking at the sky and talking to the local pilots. The weather is just not going to let me fly today.

I was hoping to get to Brandon at least, another couple of inches towards home on the map. But the cloud level has never risen about 1500 ft and the revised forecast issued at 1pm says the promised 10,000 ft ceiling isn't going to happen until much later now. Regina is still stuck in low clouds and could expect thunderstorms after 3pm. Moose Jaw is raining and reporting lightning to the north. Winnipeg is expecting thunderstorms all evening through to late morning.

Did I mention the weather sucks? Even the Weather Channel has a "Very Strong Thunderstorms Imminent" warning scrolling across the bottom of the screen for an area 60km to the southwest of Winnipeg. The full text says:

Severe weather bulletin issued by Environment Canada for southern Manitoba.
Severe Thunderstorm warning for: Piney, Woodridge and Sandilands, Reynolds south of Hwy 1, La Broquiere and Marchand.
At 1040am RADAR indicated a very strong thunderstorm near Marchand moving east at 60km/h. Nickel sized hail was reported at Steinbach with this storm. Hail to 2cm and wind gusts to 90 km/h are possible with this storm along with very heavy rain and frequent lightning. This storm is expected to track north of Woodridge and south of the TransCanada over Sandilands provincial forest.
This is a warning that severe thunderstorms are imminent or occurring in these regions. Some of these storms may produce large hail and strong wind gusts. Remember that some severe thunderstorms produce tornadoes. Listen for updated warnings.
Strong thunderstorms have developed over southern Manitoba just northeast of Morris. Some storms may produce large hail and wind gusts of 90km/h or more. Very heavy rain and frequent lightning are likely. They are expected to weaken by late morning.
Please refer to the latest public broadcasts for further details.

Guess which way my flight route would have taken me?


Given the reports of large hail stones yesterday, I am concerned about leaving the plane tied down in the open. I asked the guys at Harv's whether they hanger their planes every night, and they said they do. I asked if they can squeeze another one in, and after talking to Adam, the owner, he said they will try but he can't promise until he sees if a couple of planes on cross-country trips come home early. There is apparently not much free hanger space at this airport. Another aviation school I tried said they don't have room.

So anyway, we rolled the plane across the apron and parked it in front of their hanger, so they can easily move it in at the end of the day. Adam knows Pat, our general manager at Pacific Flying Club, so hopefully he will try a little harder to squeeze FPAK into their hanger.
Nothing else to do but wait it out. That probably makes Monday afternoon the very earliest we can get back to Boundary Bay, assuming no more weather delays (yeah, right.)

Did I mention the weather sucks?

Winnipeg .. waiting and watching

St. Andrews made the Weather Channel news today, because of the storm and hail that I just missed yesterday. Good thing! A little further northwest, they had baseball-sized hail - literally. There were viewer photos on the TV. The Weather Channel is making it their big news of the day. This is a picture of that storm as I'm coming around it from the north and east.

Overnight about 1am here, a huge blowing thunderstorm came through. The wind and the rain were amazing, but not a lot of lightning. Hope I tied the plane down tight!

I'm thinking of trying for Brandon, Manitoba today. The thunderstorm risk is supposed to die down by 11am locally, but Brandon forecasting low ceiling at 1500 ft, periods down to 700 ft until 1pm. Later than that, the afternoon thunderstorm risk builds again. The flight to Brandon should take 1.5 hour in 18 knot headwind.

So, off to the airport, check on the plane and monitor the weather hour-by-hour. I may still be here again tonight. Pete is hoping to meet me in Regina, but we can't predict what day that will be yet.