Dawson Creek

The last weekend has seen a great deal of flying.  My wife enjoys her sister's musical in Dawson Creek and this year was no exception.  So we flew there in the Comanche.


The first leg was on Friday to Prince George.  The weather was terrible between Prince George and Dawson Creek with an icing level at 7,500 feet.  The minimum IFR altitude between them is 9,400 so that was not going to work.  But the weather between was ok so we flew up the Fraser river past William's Lake.  Prince George had rain, mist, and six miles of visibility but the ceiling was 2,500 feet AGL so it was relatively simple.  We then checked into a local hotel and waited for the weather to pass over us.

The next morning was very low ceilings and mist again in Prince George, but the icing was gone and the tops were expected at 10,000.  So I filed IFR at 13,000 direct to Dawson Creek.  A low minimums takeoff but there are many conventional approaches back into Prince George and if we ran into trouble we could head right back.

I had trouble picking up a clearance.  In the real world, they simply are not issued per the training.  I was cleared "per flight plan, Prince George Five, squawk ####" and that was it.  I attempted to ask a few questions as was informed that I should be familiar with the departure procedure.  Which is fair.  And it does indeed have all the altitudes and frequencies right on there.  In the end I was the only person departing on either side for a few hours and I eventually got my clearance ok.

We were in the clouds moments after takeoff.  Trimmed out for the climb and settled into a routine.  It is very comforting to have a backup AI (a Dynon D2).  I was watching the thermometer very closely but we broke out into clear sunshine at 7,500 before it got below 2 degrees.

I modified the clearance to 11,000 and we were in clear sky conditions just east of the mountains.  Spectacular sight with an occasional mountain top above the billowing sea of white from horizon to horizon.

The next day the weather had closed on Dawson with freezing conditions above 7,500 again.  900 ceiling with about four miles visibility in rain and mist.  Further south there were visual conditions so we flew south east to Whitecourt.  This was a pure IFR flight with an approach to minimums as Whitecourt was reporting a ceiling of 2,900 but it was actually 1,200.  The reported "scattered" clouds were very dense!

The weather brief received from Nav Canada was excellent and very helpful.  Many suggestions and ideas exchanged in an effort to find a safe route.  We settled on a 6,000 foot altitude on an east-ward route to avoid the icing and the traffic controllers approved it.

We were in the clouds moments after takeoff.  The hand-off to Edmonton center was a bit early and I could not make contact until about 5,000 feet.  But after that it was a completely simple and routine flight.

The NDB A approach into Whitecourt was also a simple.  I flew the full approach with the procedure turn and so forth.  We had visual conditions well before the MDA.

After a quick break we flew visual to Vancouver via the Jasper, Valemont, Blue River, Kamloops, Hope route.  That was a 3.7 hour leg.  To get out of Whitecourt I spent about 45 minutes 500 feet above the river to the south-west but while the ceiling was low the visibility was excellent.  It felt absolutely relaxing to pop along above the river after that instrument flight though.  Simple pilot IFR is indeed a very high workload.

We could not have done that trip without the IFR rating.  It is quite useful.