Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Big One




113 DME East of Vancouver VOR
FL270
Ground Speed 268 Kts

The Boeing 747 is looming large over us as we listen to Towers instructions and scoot into place on Runway 26L. Vancouver is busy this morning and ATC is trying to get traffic moving. Some quick thinking by the Tower has put us in front of a 747 that was just moving to position also on the runway. We're to depart via the Richmond 9 departure. Which calls for a climb to 500' before making a sharp 60 degree turn to the left to clear the departure path for following aircraft, which is the heavy right behind us now.

The powers are quickly up and the runway lights start to quicken there pace out my peripheral view. We're soon climbing up into the cool blue. 500 feet comes within 25 seconds after wheels off and I dip my left wing down 30 degrees for a new heading of 201 degrees. Before I even roll out on the heading I hear the 747 get their take off clearance. Funny, there was no wake turbulence caution with it... Through a 1000' feet we switch to Departure.

The next five minutes fly by in the hustle of checks, vectors and radio changes. The plane, loving the sea pressure out here blasts up through 7'000 feet of sky before I tame the ravenous 2500 foot/min climb to 1500 and settle in to the 15 minute climb up to FL270. Before we are to our cruising altitude I spot the huge Boeing racing by us out my side window. It's heading East with us, although I presume JFK will be it next destination as compared to sunny Saskatchewan. It stays in sight till about 50 miles out of Vancouver before it disappears into the far horizon with a little twinkle of sun off it's broad wings. Holding his proud head up into the cool sky, it challenges anyone to try and take it's place as King of the High Blue.

1 Comments:

At 11:03 AM, Blogger Flyin Dutchman said...

Gonna have to change my link to your blog from Flatland pilot if you keep heading out to Vancouver :)

Cheers,

 

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