(This is yesterday's post, delayed because the motel in Kenora (which Pete picked) didn't have any internet connection, to say the least).
We seem to be lucky with the weather - it was damn good decision to wait out those 8 wet rain-delay days in Vancouver. The sky has been clear, with just the occasional fluffy cloud ~1000 feet above us. We occassionally get a big thermal updraft where the VSI hits 500-1000ft per minute until you correct for it. I kind of look forward to them, because our normal climb rate really sucks being fully loaded in the hot weather. Today, I asked the Winnipeg controller to continue a climb from 4000 ft to 5500 ft, and tried to climb after he gave permission. He came back on a couple of minutes later and re-cleared us and asked the type of our airplane; I guess because his radar was showing that we weren't climbing much!
From eastern Manitoba on, the terrain has been getting really nice. Thousands of little lakes and big lakes surrounded by trees, and very little civilization (not that it was all that crowded on the Prairie!). But there are fewer roads and fewer railways to navigate by - we are trusting our skills with the radio navigation a lot more. However, the GPS is just too easy once we got it figured out -- it tells us desired direction, current direction, distance to go, time to go, distance off track, ground speed, and whether to fly left or right to get back on track. But it doesn't play MP3 tunes.
The common radio channel use is a little different than we are used to back home. At home, there is a couple of frequencies called "FISE" - flight information service enroute. There is a flight specialist that will answer specific queries for weather, or take note of position reports, etc. Out here, it's like AM talk radio -- everybody is broadcasting "traffic advisories" of their current position it seems like every few minutes. Worse than Glen Valley on a busy day. It got so bad from one girl who was literally talking every 3 minutes about being "2500 ft enroute to Lake La Bonnie" that someone else came on channel and told her that a traffic advisory every 15 minutes was enough! And this is the same channel that is used for talking to the flight information centers -- there was another fellow that came on and said he was diverting to Kenora because of a shudder in his engine. The flight specialist came on and asked whether he needed emergency assistance standing by at the airport (he didn't), and prompted him for other info essential for possible emergency rescue scenario (current position & altitude, estimated time of arrival, etc). Thankfully everybody shut up while this was going on. But this one channel is used via relay stations over a big big area, so it's common for 2 people to be talking at the same time, yet cannot tell they are stepping on each other - but us in the middle get a big squeal in our headphones when this happens.
Pete just mentioned we've seen very few other airplanes in the air during our trip. One guy passed overhead in the rockies, and a couple of planes in the circuit near airports.
Tomorrow we'll head to Thunder Bay. There looks like 230 NM of nothing but woods and lakes between here and there, so we are planning a slight dogleg to stay close to Hwy 17.
Today's breadcrumbs are here; pretty much a straight line for 4.6 hours, with a stop for gas.
We seem to be lucky with the weather - it was damn good decision to wait out those 8 wet rain-delay days in Vancouver. The sky has been clear, with just the occasional fluffy cloud ~1000 feet above us. We occassionally get a big thermal updraft where the VSI hits 500-1000ft per minute until you correct for it. I kind of look forward to them, because our normal climb rate really sucks being fully loaded in the hot weather. Today, I asked the Winnipeg controller to continue a climb from 4000 ft to 5500 ft, and tried to climb after he gave permission. He came back on a couple of minutes later and re-cleared us and asked the type of our airplane; I guess because his radar was showing that we weren't climbing much!
From eastern Manitoba on, the terrain has been getting really nice. Thousands of little lakes and big lakes surrounded by trees, and very little civilization (not that it was all that crowded on the Prairie!). But there are fewer roads and fewer railways to navigate by - we are trusting our skills with the radio navigation a lot more. However, the GPS is just too easy once we got it figured out -- it tells us desired direction, current direction, distance to go, time to go, distance off track, ground speed, and whether to fly left or right to get back on track. But it doesn't play MP3 tunes.
The common radio channel use is a little different than we are used to back home. At home, there is a couple of frequencies called "FISE" - flight information service enroute. There is a flight specialist that will answer specific queries for weather, or take note of position reports, etc. Out here, it's like AM talk radio -- everybody is broadcasting "traffic advisories" of their current position it seems like every few minutes. Worse than Glen Valley on a busy day. It got so bad from one girl who was literally talking every 3 minutes about being "2500 ft enroute to Lake La Bonnie" that someone else came on channel and told her that a traffic advisory every 15 minutes was enough! And this is the same channel that is used for talking to the flight information centers -- there was another fellow that came on and said he was diverting to Kenora because of a shudder in his engine. The flight specialist came on and asked whether he needed emergency assistance standing by at the airport (he didn't), and prompted him for other info essential for possible emergency rescue scenario (current position & altitude, estimated time of arrival, etc). Thankfully everybody shut up while this was going on. But this one channel is used via relay stations over a big big area, so it's common for 2 people to be talking at the same time, yet cannot tell they are stepping on each other - but us in the middle get a big squeal in our headphones when this happens.
Pete just mentioned we've seen very few other airplanes in the air during our trip. One guy passed overhead in the rockies, and a couple of planes in the circuit near airports.
Tomorrow we'll head to Thunder Bay. There looks like 230 NM of nothing but woods and lakes between here and there, so we are planning a slight dogleg to stay close to Hwy 17.
Today's breadcrumbs are here; pretty much a straight line for 4.6 hours, with a stop for gas.
3 comments:
Hi Guys - Love the photos and commentary. Glad to hear you survived Bates Motel. Remember, it's the little things like that (and Chatty Cathy on the radio) that will make this trip the most memorable though!!! Maybe if Willie tapes aren't clear enough, you can sing to each other... LOL
Nothing quite a like a deviant heading indicator to get you going a little off. If I had known you had an 8 track player I could have given you Bob Denver for variety.
As to the golf courses on the Prairies, they just look like they are in the middle of nowhere, remember the prairies have more more sq. miles per capita than the rest of Canada, we like to spread it out.
Be thankful you were in Regina on Thursday and not today....37 degrees of bright sun and clear skies...
Have a safe trip and enjoy...
Hey Bob,
That's a great a hotel you got in Kenora -- why don't you check out ours:
http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/DCAERHF-Hilton-Washington-Embassy-Row-District-of-Columbia/index.do;jsessionid=0BCE2B95451560EBACD9858DD0A188BD.etc44?ctyhocn=DCAERHF&brand_id=HI&brand_directory=/en/hi/&xch=53790913,SJOT1W0DDLENMCSGBIY2VCQ
Today we saw a few thousand graves and some memorials. At the tomb of the unknown soldier we saw the changing of the guards as they seem to be very concerned that someone is going to come after the unknown dead persons in the tomb. They can't leave it unguarded not even for a second. I asked Yvonne to take a run at the grave because I wanted to see if the guard really would shoot someone if they threatened the dead guy but she wouldn't.
Anyway the day wasn't a total write-off because we had a fantastic dinner. joan spent the day with us in d.c. i had no idea that yvonne looked so good in emerald ear rings. the set she got at tiffany's look just great. she must have been inspired by the Hope diamond yesterday.
naomi
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