Langley to Penticton

A stark landscape

Anne and I flew to Penticton on the 30th of December.  The weather was uncharacteristically very clear for a few days.  I had tried a few weeks earlier and turned back at Hope.  Today was a beautiful flight.

The tip tanks look nice

We followed the VFR route which follows highway three through Hope, Princeton, and along the Keremeos valley.  The aircraft operated without flaw although the tachometer was still reading too low.  The heater works very well indeed.

Keremeos Valley

The combination of fuel flow meter and exhaust gas temperature gauge was effective in managing the power.  The vernier on the mixture control also allowed control of the fuel flow down to 0.1 of a gallon per hour.  Reference to the power setting curve meant that the aircraft performance could be checked against fuel flow quite closely, and it performed to specification.

The landscape was very clear with high clouds between 16,000 and 20,000 feet.  There was a bit of turbulence at 7,500 feet so we went up to 8,500 and it was very smooth.  The wind was 20 to 30 knots from the north, and so there was quite a bit of mechanical turbulence down in the valley.

Arriving in Penticton

The arrival in Penticton was complicated by a low layer of scattered cloud 2,000 above ground level. We shed altitude from 8,000 to 2,000 feet to the south and drop through a gap to get to circuit height.  The approach to runway 34 has a bit of a hill so you can't just come straight in.  I was quite pleased with the approach - note the precision approach path indicator.  The flare was a little high and thus power had to be added to prevent a four foot drop onto the pavement.

Turning over Penticton

We had a quick bite to eat and a visit with the folks.

The return flight was a bit longer due to the wind shifting to the north east.  The mechanical turbulence had calmed down a bit.  Anne took some nice photographs of the lower mainland as we lost altitude west of Hope.  The sun was directly ahead of us.  In order to prevent approaching Langley directly into the sun we followed the Fraser river to the north and then turned directly south.

We were warned of birds on the final approach into 01.  I briefly considered a low approach to startle them up - but they were not geese.  So I carried on with the landing.

1.3 air time to Penticton, 1.4 air time to Langley.

South of Harrison Lake