British Columbia to Saskatchewan

I took my family to Saskatchewan for the first weekend of July.  It is completely possible to safely and economically use a PA-24-250 for this purpose.  One of the reasons I write these stories is to educate people about how economical and convenient general aviation actually is.  Who knows, perhaps more people will get involved?

CF-NZB has tip tanks which increase the maximum gross weight to 3,000 pounds.  Unlike some tip tanks that weight increase is not required to be fuel in the tanks.  With an empty weight of 1,724 pounds, that leaves 1,276 for humans, baggage, and fuel.  So, given that all four seats were full (myself, wife, son, and youngest daughter) we would be making a fuel stop half way.  So 360 pounds of fuel leaves 916 pounds for the rest of us.  That allowed over 120 pounds of cargo which we didn't come close to.  We would be taking off within 50 pounds of maximum gross weight.  These old aircraft are amazingly capable.

Beautiful property

On the recommendation of another BC pilot I called ahead to the AJ Flying Ranch and obtained permission to stop and refuel just south of Calgary outside of the control area extension.

 We departed very early on the morning of the 29th of June.  High and overcast with almost no wind so it was a quiet and quick flight to the AJ Flying ranch - about two hours air time.  The grounds at the ranch are beautiful - the owner has built a marvelous facility with both 100LL and jet fuel.  The kids chased a few dogs around while I refueled the aircraft and Anne-Marie visited with female pilot in a 172 parked on the ramp.

Alberta is amazingly green.  By this time of year I would have expected nothing but sere brown grass and dust but it is still lush.  Lots of moisture on the ground and it shows in how the clouds were developing.

Springtime in Alberta

Then we were back in the air and on our way to Saskatoon.  It started to get a bit more bumpy but it was as simple as could be until the arrival.  Several aircraft were converging on CYXE at the same time along with a medevac departure.  While all this was going on a pilot gets on the radio with a landing gear issue.  Tower slowed us all down and provided some delaying vectors while he got the priority medevac out and the troubled aircraft did the low tower pass to inspect the gear doors.  The pilot got it sorted out and they landed without incident.

The tower controller was very calm, helpful, and professional.  He also thanked each one of us as the several aircraft landed one after the other for our assistance.  I was impressed.

Lots of space in Saskatoon - had our own ramp

Since I was in Saskatoon early I had scheduled a few business meetings - there is really no substitute for face to face contact.  It also puts a bit of work into the trip.  I then left Anne-Marie and the kids in Saskatoon and flew to the grass strip on the farm.  Scooted out of Saskatoon just in front of some high west winds and towering CU as well.  However it was completely clear at the farm. 

The tree at the south end of the airstrip is still there, still frightening, and still looks too close to the right hand side of the approach path.  The key is to focus on the narrow strip of grass in the middle of the canola.  It is rough, there is a filled in ditch in the middle, a slough covers part of the north end, and there is a small hill in the middle of it.  Comanche landing gear is tough and I came in steep, slow, with power, and full flaps.  Still, overshot the turn off and since I don't have toe brakes there is no way to turn around on the strip.  So there is no choice but to get out and wrestle the aircraft around by hand.

There is a bonus though.  You can smell the canola, the fresh cut hay, the aviation gasoline.  You can hear the bees humming and the engine pinging as it cools.  Wonderful things.

I enjoyed a few days at the farm and I helped out with some work on the fuel pump on the Lake amphibian that remains there (it is for sale - I just ran some advertisements for it).  The weather was as clear and cool as you could ask for.  It was still early in the year and the mosquitoes and black flies were not yet in appearance.  Not at irritating levels.  Of course, I grew up there, so your opinions would probably vary.

On the 1st of July I flew back to Saskatoon for my brother's annual Canada Day barbeque.  The weather was more complex with scattered rain showers.  I dodged a few, and flew under one, and Saskatoon was clear so I didn't need an IFR approach.  Anne-Marie and I got to visit with my brother's new baby girl, and we then took my daughter and her boyfriend out for supper.



The next day we flew up to Little Bear Lake which is about 30 minutes air time north-east of Prince Albert..  Again, complex weather in Saskatchewan.  There was a trough slowly moving eastward dotted with convective cells.  However, just east and north, where we were going, it was a clear and spotless sky.  So I took my wife, my littlest daughter, and her little friend up to the family's cabin there.  My grand-father purchased it long ago and my father kept it because of the airstrip nearby.

The airstrip there is complex.  It is beside a lake on a hillside running north and south (02/20) and it ALWAYS has a crosswind.  There is also tall trees on all sides except the north end, a hump in the middle and large sand dunes to the west.  The ripples on the lake and smoke from campfires strongly suggested a southerly wind.  The low inspection pass (always do this - sometimes campers set up on the strip) showed the wind-sock at the north end indicating a strong east wind.

I decided on a left hand circuit for runway 20.  Indeed there was quite a bit of wind shear on the way down with the cross-wind greatly increasing during the descent.  For the last 50 feet however, as you get below the trees, the wind simply stops.  Again, a slow power-on approach means that once you stall it onto the sand and dump the flaps the aircraft slows very quickly and you can maintain complete control all the way down.

It is bigger than it looks

My sister was at the cabin that day.  The kids played in the lake and we did the hot-dogs and hamburgers.  I put together a puzzle with my four year old niece and had a nice nap.

The weather was moving faster than I expected so I got a weather briefing from the payphone near the highway (they still exist!)  NavCanada was warning me of heavy thunderstorm activity near Saskatoon later in the evening.  So I collected the kids and we left.

I made an error on departure.  I figured I would depart to the north as there were no trees there and the remnants of the tattered windsock indicated a 90 degree ten knot cross-wind.  So if it took a little longer it was not a big deal as I could climb out over the swamp to the north.  It was hot, but I was on half fuel anyway, and had no cargo and two little kids for passengers.  Well under gross.

Dad figured that I was departing down-wind and that the windsock was lying due to the trees and such.  However, as he said, "You are flying the aircraft, it's your call."  Well, I made the wrong call.  We used every bit of that runway.  Although I had enough speed to call it for flying well before the halfway mark, she started to sink again as soon as I tried to climb over the trees.  It was very much a case of put the nose down, grit my teeth, let the speed build, and then pull up sharply at the end.

The takeoff was completely safe and we were well within the envelope.  But I should have taken off the other way, into the prevailing wind above the tree-tops.  I did call my father after we got back and let him know he was right.

We started getting into weather near Prince Albert.  I use an iPad with fore-flight and a cell phone providing wifi.  The radar overlay showed several cells with considerable rain between us and Saskatoon.  So I landed at PA and refueled.  If I am going to be dodging weather, or may need to make an IFR approach, I prefer to start that process with full fuel tanks, thanks.

This was expensive although the FSS did warn me.  Call out charges apply on Saturday (significant!).  Also, I had to show the young gentleman they sent out to pump my gas how to operate his own tanks and pumps!  I did not charge for this instruction.

By the time we got back up the predicted weather was not materializing.  The rain showers were light.  We even flew through a few.  The kids in the back were impressed.  This was flying at its finest.  Light puffy clouds, green rolling country peppered with rivers and lakes, low sunlight from the west streaming down in luminous curtains.  Water from the rain showers flowing back over the wind-shield in glittering beads.  A bit of light turbulence reminding you to pay attention every now and then.

It looks bad

Sunday the 3rd of July was the trip home and it was going to be a challenge.  The weather was predicting severe thunderstorms all through the day from north of Edmonton down to Calgary.  So it was going to be the Lethbridge route.  The mornings weather briefing suggested that we divert south first and then move west to avoid a thick low layer of clouds extending from the ground to 5,000 or so feet.

We had decided to leave my youngest in Saskatoon so we only had the three of us.  I promptly filled the tip tanks.  Why not exchange a child for full tanks of gas?  This just makes good sense.

We departed Saskatoon and promptly climbed to 4,500 feet and headed south-west.  The satellite overlay was not much use as I could not tell which areas were low-lying fog and which were cloud.  After an hour or so we were getting pushed down closer and closer to the ground, and flying around ever thickening fog areas, although there were patches of blue sky over us.  Instead of going around the fog, I figured we had flown straight toward it.

It got worse

However, some of those patches of sunlight were big.  I found the next one and climbed out on top at about 4,000 feet, climbed on up to 6,500 and turned directly to Medicine Hat, and then Lethbridge, in order to avoid the restricted area to the north.  We flew over a billowing ocean of white cloud for about an hour before the cloud ended just east of Medicine Hat.  We had great clear weather, high headwinds (of course), and you could see an almost apocalyptic buildup of cloud off to the north.

All during this flight NavCanada was making announcements on 126.7 about the line of thunderstorms between Edmonton and Calgary.  These had tops over 36,000, high enough to bother airliners.  The fore-flight radar overlay showed angry red blotches filled with blue lightning bolts.

The winds in Lethbridge, as usual, were 30 knots gusting 35 knots, straight down runway 23.  I made a rough landing.  Due to the high headwinds I set up too far back, descended at too steep an angle, had to add power, and thus came in too shallow, flared too high, and a wind gust dumped me on the runway. 

In the clear

Climbing out of the aircraft was rather like standing in a hairdryer.  My wife does not like Lethbridge.  I was forecasting incipient pouting. The vending machine had no snacks!

The weather briefing threatened thunderstorms if I didn't get a move on.  The satellite overlay showed scattered cloud between me and Penticton.  Lots of rain from Penticton to Hope.  Large cloud system to the north and a cold front that was about to sweep out of the north-west and block off access.

So the plan was to get to Penticton early, and then let the weather roll over us, and finish the flight later if we had too, or press on home if we could.

Given the wind and the weather it was going to be a rough flight.  Moderate turbulence predicted.  The cloud bases were between 10,000 and 11,000 scattered with large areas of broken ceilings.  I decided to climb as high as I could while remaining below the bases and head direct for Penticton.  Lots of power in a Comanche 250 and it is a very sturdy aircraft.

We indeed took a pounding.  Sudden thousand foot altitude increases or decreases.  Knocked on our ear a few times.  My wife was getting pouty.  I took every opportunity to get weather briefings along the route (Cranbrook, Castlegar) and these were encouraging, so we kept on.  The turbulence did diminish a bit after Castlegar.  We were getting into the heat of the day as we were arriving in Penticton, shortly after twelve noon local time. 

The weather in Penticton was good.  Clear with few clouds above 10,000.  I felt I could see all the way to the coast mountains.  I was thinking of amending the flight plan in the air (wife was seriously pouting at this point - she wanted lunch!) and pressing on to Langley via the Princeton-Hope VFR route.  However, during my weather briefing in the air, Pacific Radio did not like that idea.  Another pilot just an hour before had attempted that and turned back due to low ceilings, high winds, turbulence, and rain.  Basically, a thunderstorm at the Hope Slide area.

Too many bad indicators.  We kept the flight plan as it was and landed.  Everyone got lunch, we took in a movie, a brief visit with another brother of mine (yes - we have family everywhere) and the weather had very much calmed down.  It was actually a nice flight into Langley with high ceilings all along the VFR route, except at Hope itself.  There was that bog fire going on that Sunday and Hope was covered by a big brown mat.  We could see through it and the sky was clear once we were on the north side of the lower mainland.

I made a pirep of the condition of the VFR route as we passed Hope.  Please file more pirep's - nothing is as useful as immediate experience from a pilot in the conditions!  Easy to do as well.  Just call the nearest FISE and let them know what you've experienced.  They'll walk you through it.

It was a great relief to get home.  Had a great time visiting family and we enjoyed the trip immensely.  But I was tired - I slept for 12 hours straight that night.