What a day! Until yesterday evening, the flight across Canada seemed almost impossible, a dream that could not be reality. However, after today's adventures and exhausting journey, I am convinced that this trip is not only a reality, but that it is also going to be a great success, regardless of the many unforeseen difficulties still lying ahead of us.
Today (Friday) dawned sunny and fairly warm in Vancouver. The weather was a good omen in my mind, for earlier in the week it was forcast to be cloudy with even a possible chance of showers! I knew that clear skies were vital for making the flight over the Rocky Moutains manageable; the alternative is to fly within the canyons and valleys, doubling the length of the trip and creating a navigational nightmare! Luckily enough, the weather was on our side, allowing us to plan for a direct flight to Calgary via Cranbrook.
I got up at 5am, and immediately fell to packing my last items. I was tardy in arranging some of my things for the trip, and in the hasty process of collecting my stuff this morning left some things behind. Oh well... it seems that I always forget something, regardless of how much I plan ahead! We left for the airport after 7am, thankfully making good time to make up for our delays.
The Century Flight is composed of over 130 registered aircraft making the flight to Cape Breton Island to celebrate a century of flight in Canada. However, many of the planes are joining the group en route. There were about 90 aircraft actually departing BC at the start of the trip, and these aircraft are divided into three flying groups: fastest, average and slowest. The groups are staged to start at one hour intervals each day of the trip, with the fastest group flying first. You'd think that the slowest group would go first, but due to refueling considerations, it has been decided that the fastest should go ahead to reach the refueling stops first. If all the aircraft were to try to refuel at the same airport at the same time, it would take over 5 hours!
We're in the second or "average" speed group. Our start time is officially 8am, and we made perfect time in leaving Vancouver this morning at exactly 8:02. My Mom waved us off as we taxied to the runway, and a CityTV truck with mounted cameras was present to film the takeoffs. The sun was already high in the horizon as we tookoff, and the view looking down across the bay towards Vancouver island this early in the morning was spectacular. However, our trip was not taking us towards the Pacific, but east towards the Coastal Mountains, the Rockies and eventually Calgary!
Living in Canada's cities, it is hard to appreciate just how vast our country really is. Even flying across the country in an airliner misses the millions of acres of untouched land that covers North America. In a small plane, however, flying only a few thousand feet above land, nothing escapes your attention, whether it is a small unexplored lake, a hidden valley or a the crevices of a mountain peak. This morning we flew east along the fraser valley across Hope, gaining enough altitude to fly directly over the Coastal Mountains.
Air navigation in a small plane can sometimes be tricky. We have a GPS, but as luck would have it, it failed to work for the first leg of our trip. It was therefore essential to keep track of recognizable landmarks along the route. It actually wasn't that hard to do in B.C., due to the high number of large mountain peaks, lakes and valleys that are marked on aviation maps, but it could pose a problem ahead in crossing the prairies, the canadian shield and the martimes.
Our first leg of the trip was to Cranbrook. Along the way, we flew over the tiny community of Princeton, the Okanogan valley, Castlegar and Nelson. There were several other small communities nestled in hidden valleys that I never imaged to exist, but were nonetheless diligently marked on the maps. I have never really been to the Okanogan, and it was interesting to see the desert-like landscape. We were flying a southern route, crossing directly over Penticton. Two minutes after passing over that Okanogan city, we beheld Big White Ski resort just to the north of us... or so it said on the map. In summer, Big White looks like anything but a ski resort, without a trace of snow on its slopes and displaying a sandy desert appearance. Whistler's highest slopes are at least covered with snow year-round, but Big White looked like something out of Nevada!
Once out of the Okanagon, the mountains once again closed in and attained heights of over 9,000 feet. There were dozens of small valleys and lakes, however, ensconed between the peaks. There are not even any logging roads to access many of these remote locations. We flew north of Castlegar about 30 minutes past Penticton, and passed the tiny town of Nelson just a few minutes beyond that. Nelson is situated on a lake, and we could see that the small airport was located right along the water in the town. Air transportation is obviously a vital part of survival for these small communities... from the air it looks like a quaint and easy lifestyle to live in these remote locations, but I'm skeptical about mentally surviving the experience; I would probably go crazy trying to keep myself occupied! The Okanogan by comparison is an urbanized city!
Once past Nelson, the mountains become truly remarkable. It's not quite the Rocky Mountains, but the peaks are still quite formidable. Amongst these peaks there lies Cranbrook, which is situated in a large desert-like valley dotted by irrigated farms. It's a shock to suddenly come out of the moutains and enter this mountain oasis that is extremely popular for retirement. In fact, it looks in many respects identical to Palm Springs, with the Santa Rosa mountains providing a backdrop to the retirement valley. The town itself is towards the southern end of the valley, while we landed for a fuel stop at the airport further north.
Another similarity between Cranbrook and Palm Springs is the air: hot and very dry. The airport is quaint, with a few hangers and a nice new terminal for Air Canada. The ground crew was expecting other airplanes from our group, but as it turned out we were the only to actually stop by Cranbrook today for fuel. We also succeeded in fixing our GPS, and then strolled the hangers. While marching through the grass, I was amazed at the thousands of grasshoppers on the ground; for every step I took, dozens of grasshoppers would take flight in a melee to escape. They would hit your legs and covered the ground in every direction! It brings to mind the stories of the grasshopper infestations that once caused such havoc for farmers in the prairies.
There was also one elderly gentlemen at the airport who was aware of our group, and gave us tips for flying the great lakes and Ontario. We may very well take him upon on his recommendations on the flight home: by flying south of the great lakes, there are fewer thunder storms and accessible fields in case of an emergency landing. The Canadian Shield, on the other hand, is supposed have deplorable weather and, in case of an emergency, virtually no safe landing areas.
Just as we were preparing to take off again from Cranbrook, a pair of F-18s came into the valley and literally started tearing up the airport with low flybys and formation flying. We were privileged to be among 20 people present to witness this incredible informal airshow. We were standing on the taxiway while the fighters would come down 30 feet above the runway before lighting up the afterburners and rocketing up into the clear skies. It was an amazing airshow, at the end of which the F-18s landed at the airport to refuel and stay overnight. They parked less than 100 feet from the Beaver, and I shot some wonderful photos of the two fighters with the Beaver in the background! We also met the pilots, who incidentally shared the same name. One of the pilots nicknamed "Slammy" told us that he and his partner were staying overnight in Cranbrook with friends before proceeding to Fort St. John to perform an airshow tomorrow.
At 12:30 we regretfully departed Cranbrook to face the Rocky Mountains on our final leg to Calgary. Cranbrook is in a sense already in the Rockies, for they lie immediately to the north and east of the valley. The peaks are dizzingly high, with rock faces that fall to small valleys and crevices thousands of feet below. We had to circle in order to gain enough altitude to get over the peaks which in some places exceed 10,000 feet. One aspect of the rockies that surprised me was the lack of snow; the highest peaks in the coastal mountains were almost always snow-covered. The Rockies, on the other hand, were completely bare and a brownish hue. The turbulence was also extremely bad: at one point, we were ascending at 1,000 feet a minute due to a massive updraft. Hidden among the Rockies is this little airstrip in a place called Elk Valley. I found it surprising to see this desolate little airstrip located beneath the shadows of the towering peaks. My only regret about traveling across the Rockies was the brevity of the trip; it took us less than 15 minutes to cross the mountains before we began to descend towards the gently rolling hills and plains of the Albertan prairies.
In our last 20 minutes of flying towards Springbank airport in Calgary, we were extremely thankful to have a working GPS. The land surrounding Calgary is not a true prairie plain, but the gently rolling hills are just as bad for visual navigation as the wheat fields of Saskatchewan. Using the GPS we were able to land at Springbank airport without issue, just to the west of Calgary. It was an extremely easy final leg of the trip, with the exception of the extreme turbulence that we experienced over the Rockies. Dozens of volunteers were on the ground to guide the Beaver onto the grass parking, where around 50 other airplanes from our group were already secured.
After tying down the plane, we rented a Ford Escape for a day. For only $30 it is a bargain, and it will hopefully allow us to go to Drumheller tomorrow to visit the Dinosaur museum. Our Best Western hotel is about 20 minutes away from Springbank airport, across from McMahon stadium, home of the Calgary Stampeders. As I speak, thousands of fans are cheering their team onto a decisive victory against the Argos. The hotel is older but modestly renovated, and perfect for our needs. I find the layout rather interesting: all the rooms on 5 floors are located on the outside of the building, with a huge rectangular cathedral-style "courtyard" in the center, which contains the restaurant, lounge and pool on the ground floor.
There was a "hoedown" dinner followed by an airshow for the pilots tonight back at the airport. We thought of going to the Stampeders game instead, but we unfortunately already had picked up our tickets for tonight's dinner. The hoedown was held in a hanger, with several hundred people in attendance. Most of them weren't, in fact, from our Century Flight group, but participants in the national COPA pilot's convention. As a vegetarian, I found the food very limited, although the dessert was slightly redeeming. Oh, and there was live music... country of course, but what else would you expect in Calgary? It turned out the the designation of "hoedown" was slightly misleeding, as exactly two couples actually danced tonight. Most of the pilots are men, and many of them are retired. Still, I didn't complain: if there had been serious dancing, Jake was threatening to find me a partner!
The hoedown dinner was followed tonight by an airshow. It was spectacularly unspectacular, with a biplane performing small aerobatic manoevres high over the field, above the Calgary Internation traffic pattern. We also learned to our great chagrin that the parking area had been closed until 10:30 due to the airshow. As a result, we were unable to refuel the plane today, and will have to return tomorrow. As it was, we departed early from the disappointing ending of the night's festivities on an otherwise fantastic day.
On a final note to end the night, as we were driving back our hotel we passed Olympic Park, home to the 1988 Calgary Olympics. I was absolutely amazed by the location: the ski jumps and ski hills are located on a large hill in the middle of Calgary! Honestly, I can't believe that the Olympics were ever held on such an unprepossessing and small location. I thought that the skiing would have been held at Banf, which is a 1.5 hour drive west of Calgary. Whistler looks larger than Mount Everest in comparison!
It's now 11:30 here in Calgary, or 10:30 in B.C. It's been an unbelievable day, and I'm looking forward to playing tourist tomorrow. Right now, however, I am exhausted and better get to sleep. I'll be posting more blog entries each day on our adventures! Be warned, however: they may not be quite as extensive as tonight's post! :)
Good night from Calgary!
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