Flin Flon and back

Well I had a great flight this morning to Flin Flon, Manitoba and back. It was a beautiful morning in Saskatoon with crisp blue skies and the tempature hanging around -4. We had only one passenger from Saskatoon to Flin Flon, so we were light when we taxied onto RWY27 and pushed the throttles ahead to 1600lbs of tourque for take off power. So in less then 2000' we had accelerated to 100 knots and were airborne off of 27, we climbed to about 3500' before Terminal cleared us on route. We made a 180 degree turn on course and crossed just about back over the airport. I wish I had had my camera up front with me 'cause it was perfect aerial view of YXE. But I didn't. So on the way back I made sure I brought my camera up front with me. Here are some pics in the airplane.My View Up Front

Here, There and Everywhere.

Well I've been flying for about three months, and minus January b/c it was all training, and you could minus Febuary cause I only flew once. But So far in March I've flown just about every week day. I've accumulated over 80 hours on the King Air A100, which about 62 of them have been in March, that's a busy month! Pilots are limited to so many hours in set periods, they are: 14/day, 60/week, 120/month, 300/every three months, and finally a max of 1200/year. The average for a charter pilot is about 50 - 80 per month and usually around 600 to 800 a year. But it can always be more or less. Such as Febuary for me was a total of 8 hours.
Here's a list of all the place I've flown to since flying for WestWind:

Saskatchewan :
Saskatoon CYXE
Regina CYQR
North Battleford CYQW
Llyodminister CYLL
Meadow Lake CYLJ
Swift Current CYYN
Ile a la Crosse CJF3
Prince Albert CYPA
Lac La Ronge CYVC
Wollesten Lake CZWL
Stoney Rapids CYSF
Points North Landing CYNL
Key Lake CYKJ
McArthur River CKQ8
Collens Bay CYKC

Alberta :
RedDeer CYQF
Conklin CET2
Cold Lake CEN5
Peace River CYPE
Red Earth Creek CEH5

B.C. :
Fort Nelson CYYE

And tommorrow I'm going to

Manitoba :
FlinFlon CYFO

I have to say that I have been really lucky to go to so many places, a lot of times pilots get stuck going between just a few airports for a long time. It has been great.

Here's a Map I Made Up

All over Saskatchewan

Landing my plane in Saskatoon. Credit to Pat for the great pic.

Well it's been an interesting week, a very busy interesting week. I flew Monday to Friday this week and finished it off with a late night on friday. Around 12noon we departed Saskatoon empty and flew to Regina where we picked up four goverment employees and then proceeded to drop them off all in seperate towns. First it was to North Battleford where we shot the NDB approach for RWY12 to about a 1000 feet off the ground and landed in a roaring 20 knot wind. Then it was a quick 20 minute hop to Lloydminister where we also shot the NDB A approach, which is an approach just for a circling manouver to land in another roaring wind. We dropped off one more honourable and then made another 20 minute hop to Meadow Lake where the clouds weren't so low, so we did the visual approach but again landed in some crazy winds. We ended up sitting there for just about 2 hours while our last passenger went to town for a meeting. Well when he finally got back we took another 20minute ride to Ili' a la Crosse where we encountered our worst turbulance and wind of the day all the way to the ground, but after putting the plane safely down nice and firm, we dropped our last passanger off and headed off again. South bound this time, back to Saskatoon. We were flight planned for 17,000' back to 'Toon town but with no passangers and a light fuel load we came roaring up to 17,000' feet still in a 1300' per minute climb, which normally is slowed down to 700' a minute. So we got clearance up to Flight Level 210, where we quickly got to and settled in for a 25 min cruise before the decent to Saskatoon. The cruise back was peaceful, no passangers, no turbulance and a beautiful sunset to watch all the way back. By the time we landed in another stiff head wind it was dark out. We taxied back to the hanger where we cleaned up the plane and than sat to wait about two hours before picking up the Lietenant govenor of Saskatchewan and giving her a ride back to Regina. We landed in Regina about 11pm and said goodbye to our passenger. By the time we taxied back to RWY13 Regina tower had shut down and Regina radio was in operation, we got stuck holding short of RWY13 while Jazz, Peace Air and Messsaba landed. Which was interesting b/c Jazz's CRJ 705 landed on 13 at precisly at the same moment Peace Air's JetStream 31 landed on 08 to hold short of 13. Which last time I checked Regina wasn't certified for LAHSO (Land and Hold Short Of) operations. But I guess maybe rules change when the Radio's up for the night. Anyhow after a good 15 to 20 minute hold we got our IFR clearance and took off of RWY13 back to Saskatoon. The ride went well and only a slight bounce in the landing with the wind at 21 gusting 29 in Toon Town. Bye the time I got home that night it was 0100 Saturday morning, Sure was happy it was Saturday.

Back in the Air!

Well, it's been awhile since I've sat in the sheepskin seat at the front of my plane. I hadn't flown since Feb 2nd, and then got to fly finally on Mar 2nd. A whole month off! I spent it fixing up our basement for the most part, my wife and I are hopefully going to get a renter down there. But finally the captian that I was waiting for to finish up his line-in-dock completed it and opened up the schedule for me to get flying.
My first flight back was a rig trip up to Conklin AB,CET2 , which was quite interesting. I was a little nervous about getting behind the yoke again after such a long time away and not much previous experiance, but for little reason as the flight went great. We departed Saskatoon, YXE, at 1030 local time and headed off into a bright and sunny day, which I was happy for because the flight planning was a lot easier when you don't have to worry about weather not letting you get in. The flight planning was pretty interesting also since CET2 is just north of Cold Lake, which has a bunch of restricted airspace that we couldn't fly through. So I ended up flight planning CYXE D> BOBNO D> N52 68 W111 17 (which was actually an abandon airport named Round Hill) D> CET2. This plan sent us south of Cold Lake to BOBNO, which is a high level airspace fix, then straight north to Round Hill and then back east to CET2. This allowed us to stay out of the airspace, and included changes in altitude from 16000' down to 6000' so we could stay under more protected airspace. It isn't often you do such a large 180degree turn in the air. So I'm sure I'll remember this flight for a long time. The trip went great and it was on the way home at 15000' when that great feeling of "I-love-this-job" came over me and got me excited about all the adventure ahead of me in my career. The photo is from www.flightaware.com, it's my real time track of my flight. I added in the waypoints, altitude and flight direction. If ever you'd like to see where I am go to flightaware.com and type in wew170 .