Monday, July 24, 2006

Back in the 100

Large mountains of white tumbled cloud fill my window as we fly through the sky at 230 knots. The sky is alive with wind swept plains of strato-cumulus clouds which rush up to meet the towering alto-cumulus. There are the dark feared towers of the rain loaded thunder storms that stretch upwards of 43,000 feet today, casting a shadow on us as we zip close by it at 17,000 feet. I'm in the King Air 100 today, it's been awhile since I've flown it and I can really notice the less power and stability of it in the climb. The 100 has about 2 feet less wing on each side of the plane which you really notice in flight as the plane is not a stable as the long winged 200, also you notice it when landing the planes, the King Air 200 really likes to float down the runway with the extra lift created by the wing. But all in all, I'm happy to go flying any day in any one of the two, they're both great airplanes.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Speed Record

The King Air 200's T-tail

We've been flying at 17,000 feet due to CYR222 (Military restricted Airspace) that is sitting just above our heads at 18,000 feet. With almost a full load of passengers and a bit of freight our gross weight is 10940 lbs, not really near our max t/o (take off) weight of 12500 lbs due to the min required fuel on board. It's a 45 minute hop from Beauval to Saskatoon and the last for us for the day. Currently the time is 1805 local and we're 75 miles North of Saskatoon, and as I look down at the GPS it's showing me a ground speed of 301.8 knots, that's a personal best for me, exciting. With a TAS (true airspeed) of 259 knots that's a good 42 knot tail wind. I believe there is a Jet Stream (a very strong tunnel like set of winds) above us about 6,000 to 15,000 Ft, probably producing winds up to 100+ knots.

Monday, July 17, 2006

The Barren Lands

The Barren Lands

With our powers to idle we touched down on runway 34 with a puff of dust off our wheels, that was quickly blown away in the light breeze. We taxied off the runway onto the gravel apron and pulled the fuel to idle cutoff, the engines came to a whining stop. I opened the door and the gentle smell of the Canadian North filled my senses, the real far north Canadian North this time, I stepped to the ground and looked around for the first time at Baker Lake, Nunavut. Flat as the eye could see with gentle hills broken up by moss covered rock, the barren lands! One of my favorite books as a youngster was Lost In The Barrens by Farley Mowatt(spelling?), and it talked of two young men getting lost in the northern barrens, and since that book I had always dreamed of seeing them. Alas another one of my dreams fulfilled.

The journey was a 800 nautical mile trip from Saskatoon this morning, it took us about 3hours and 40 minutes to get up here, my longest non-stop flight yet. The thought crossed my mind of do I still want to get into the big jets at the airlines and do 8 - 12 hour flights around the world, cause this sure seemed like a long trip to me. But then I think, well in a big plane I would be able to maybe stand up and stretch my legs and also have a bathroom on board to use. I hadn't drank anything all morning to prepare for this long leg, and it worked good for me thank goodness.

Anyways, it was great to fly up to Nunavut and I look forward to the many other great places I'd like to go one day with my job.
Baker Lake Nunavut is the geological center of Canada
Short Final for Runway 34 with another King Air on the Roll for Departure

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Sand Dunes


The altimiter needle is racing counter clockwise as we decend down through 15,000 feet. Our destination is still 40 miles ahead of us, as we come up on the Athabaska Sand Dunes, huge sandy areas spread out on either side of us, showing a different side to the dark green North. The sand dunes cover an area greater than 800 square miles and sit on the south side of lake Athabaska, a rare sight. We're a little high to see the intrict detail of the wind swept scape but it's still neat to see something I've always dreamt about seeing. A click of the camera and then it's back to work, we're gonna be crossing over the runway and then, according to the wind chose a downwind for the runway. Torgue is back at 800lbs a side, approach flap selected, airspeed 150 knots ready to turn downwind...

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Doing the Ride

Ahh, a sigh of relief as the plane bumps onto the runway and the one dead engine comes back to life finally, just in time for the taxi back to the ramp. No, I'm not in a critical, life threatening situation, I'm being tested on my competence to fly a King Air 200 and on how I handle emergency situations. I just finished my ride and past it, always a great feeling.

We went through the standard three stalls, one clean, one dirty(gear down, full flap) and one in a 20degree bank turn. Then proceeded with two steep turns in a 45 degree bank. A missed approach at altitude with an engine failure followed. But then, a break in the exam as we tested the oxygen automatic deployment system that maintenance had asked us too. This included climbing up to 13'000 feet unpressurized until the passenger oxygen masks deployed in the cabin, which is suppose to happen when cabin altitude reaches 12'500 feet. The systems worked fine and to get back down to 6000' we did an emergency decent, really pretty appropriate for the test we just accomplished. So with the powers at idle, props full fine, flaps at approach and gear down, we pointed our nose at the ground and maintained 181 knots. It's a pretty amazing view when you are being held in your seat by your harness and seeing all ground and not much sky, fun I say. Anyways, we got down to 6000' within a minute and a half and proceed to the NDB off runway 15 for a hold which led to an NDB approach to runway 15 for circling to runway 27. We overshot 27 for vectors for the Localizer backcourse back to 27. And that's where I got the magnetic chip detector light and had to shut the number 1 engine down for the approach and landing.

Now I'm done the ride and am feeling a little more relaxed with life. I've got two right seat PPCs (Pilot proficiency Checks) for the King Air A100 and 200, although they are very similar planes they still require a different PPC. The only real big difference is that while the 100 has only 680 horse power aside the 200 has 850 horse a side, and that makes a big difference, increases the Vno to 269 knots from 208knots. It's going to be fun flying around more than one airplane.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Ragen' Fires

The northern boreal forest that streached out in a green carpet 20,000 feet below us was alight with forest fires and half blanketed in smoke. A large hot army spread out in a thin line about 15 miles wide and slowly marching forward, swallowing everything in it's path and spitting out ash. The smoke is spreading up to 400 miles from it's orgin, bringing poor visiblity to southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The birddogs, a fleet of Beech Barons and Twin Commanders, are leading the water bombers, big yellow CL215s, in an attack on the fiery army. Diving in and out of the smoke they drop tonnes of water and chemical on the attackers, then circling back to splash down in a puddle to reload. It's an on going battle that must be won, or towns and even peoples lives could be lost.