The Squamidian Report – Dec. 26 / 09
Issue #396
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
You may recall that last September I talked a bit about flying and how my neighbor had just gotten his license. Between busy lives and weeks of November rain I was just never able to get up flying with him. That changed last week. We had an unexpected nice Saturday morning and he managed to book a plane out at our little Squamish International Airport. The booking was for 1:30 in the afternoon and by then a high gray overcast had moved in but the ten thousand feet or so of air below the cloud deck was calm and stable and we managed to have a rather enjoyable flight before the weather shut things down.
Squamish Airport is a small, uncontrolled field run by the municipality. Uncontrolled means that there is no control tower to issue instructions and coordinate the movement of air and ground traffic. The pilots must rely on what is called a ‘Unicom’ system. All planes must listen to the frequency assigned by Nav Canada to each such field. They must transmit their intentions and location information at logical times such as when taking off, landing, entering or leaving the area and changing directions within the area. So as long as everyone is on their toes and plays by the rules it works out fine. It would not work out if a field became too busy but that’s not a problem for the Squamish field although there is a lot of Whistler bound traffic overhead at times. They too must play by the rules and follow procedures. The airports designation is CWSK and it has one runway giving it two directions: 14 & 32. The runway is 2400 ft long and sits at 171 ft elevation. There are no scheduled flights in or out but there is a lot of helicopter and light plane charter work.
We arrived at Glacier Air’s office and signed out an old (all Cessna’s are old) 172. Funny how old training kicks in, when I approached the plane I immediately began doing the walk-around inspection. My pilot neighbor Scott did his own inspection because that’s what he is supposed to do. He seemed a bit shaky doing the pre-flight work and run-up but he has only had his license for a few weeks and most of that time was lost due to weather. However, once we started our takeoff roll he relaxed and all was well. At an uncontrolled field the pilot decides which runway to use, based on wind direction. What little wind there was came from the North so that meant runway 32 would be the active. At an uncontrolled field you must climb out into a left hand pattern unless otherwise spelled out in the Nav Canada field info. We climbed out and into the left hand down wind which put us quite close to the mountainsides along the west side of the valley. That’s sure cool when you can fly along at 1000 ft and look at trees going by out your window. I’d been looking forward to that.
At mid down-wind we turned left again (east) and climbed over the field to leave the circuit. This pointed us toward the Mamquam Icefield area and gave me a great view of the town, the Chief, and Howe Sound. We continued to climb as our intension was to pass in behind Garibaldi and that meant we needed 8000 ft. Interestingly, we had to top out at 8000 ft because to pass into 8500 ft would put us in Vancouver controlled airspace. I had great views of the Indian Arm Pass, and the incredibly rugged Garibaldi Park back country. If you got lost out in there you would never be found.
I couldn’t get any good shots of the twin Garibaldi peaks for two reasons. That high overcast meant there was no contrast when viewing snow-covered areas, and the old plastic windows of the plane dulled and distorted the pictures I took. We swung behind (north) of Garibaldi and passed close to Opal Cone, a flat topped volcanic core. This put us right over Garibaldi Lake, and near the Table Top. We pulled a tight turn to the west as we passed close to The Tusk and headed across the valley to Cloudburst. From there we hugged the eastern slopes of the Tantalus Range and looked down on Lake Lovely Water as we went by Alfa. From here we crossed a ridge saddle and dropped down toward Woodfiber and out over Howe Sound. From there it was just a matter of flying up the Squamish River (not supposed to fly over the town itself) and joining the circuit the way we left it. That meant coming up on the east side of the field, crossing mid field and turning down wind putting those same trees right out my right side window again.
Crosswind and final are a bit different, as we are not supposed to fly over Brackendale either. So turning onto the crosswind leg is not a 90 deg left turn but a 135 deg left turn. Therefore turning onto ‘final’ is a 45 instead of a 90. We straightened out into a short ‘final’ and with full flaps to help keep the landing as short as possible (remember that tiny 2400 ft runway) we set down quite nicely. For most to the flight we had been keeping an eye on a low cloudbank that was drifting down the Checkamus Valley from the north. It had gotten closer to the airport but did not prove to be a threat. You can see it in one of the pictures I took. We had been up for an hour, the air was surprisingly smooth and stable and the flight had been totally enjoyable. I studied the instruments and panel, and felt the controls during the flight. I’m pretty sure that at any time during the flight I would have been able to take over and fly the plane back to the airport. I’m not so sure I could have landed it. That’s a skill that gets rusty very fast and it has been 25 years since I landed a plane. I could have probably put it down onto the runway but the landing would have been very hard on the plane. However, that’s just stuff going through my mind because Scott did just fine and it was his job as pilot, not mine as passenger to do the flying. But its fun to think about it.
Took some pics, they aren’t great because of the overcast and the plastic windows but they can be seen at:
http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/Flying/flight1.htm
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Well now, Christmas is over for another year. Hopefully the spirit will stick around for a while. We had a pretty relaxed time of it. Sue prepared enough food to feed an army so it looks like leftovers for the next month or so. That’s OK. There are about 363 shopping days before next Christmas so there is no need to get all stressed and stuff. It can all wait. If the weather where you are is good, get out and enjoy it. If it is not, grab a good book and a comfortable chair and enjoy that. Either way, see you all next year.
doug
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Hello everyone!
Merry Christmas once again and I sincerely hope
everyone had a wonderful day yesterday!
We had one of the most peaceful Christmas days ever
and enjoyed every minute of it. We arose early around 7:30am and after grabbing
a cup of tea we settled in to the living room to open an array of gifts and
spend a few hours talking and enjoying each others company. We usually over do
the gift giving without meaning to but it just seems to happen that way. Carole
shops from just after Christmas until just before Christmas of the next year
and sometimes forgets how many gifts she’s stashed over that time period. LOL!
It’s not hard to do for sure and of course it’s easy to keep on spending and
giving when it’s so much fun. The first 20 minutes of our day was spent just
watching Bailey our poodle tossing his Christmas stocking around trying to get
his treats out from deep in the toe. We always include him in the occasion and
it’s amazing how much he gets into the spirit. He’s like a little kid on
Christmas morning. He sees his stocking once a year and yet, as soon as he
hears the bells that rim the top of it he knows exactly what to expect. Dogs
have an amazing sense when it comes to something they enjoy. Whether it’s a
sense of smell on the stocking or he just recognizes the jingle of the bells we
are amazed that he seems to remember the purpose for that red stocking. It’s a
definite hoot to watch his playful attitude when he tackles it on the living
room floor. Pets are a big part of the family and bring so much joy into it
without asking for a darned thing. No wonder having them around tends to lower
our blood pressure (most of the time anyway) and makes for a pleasant mood when
they enter the room. Dogs in particular are always happy to see you and never
seem to hold a grudge of any kind. You can have one of the worst possible days
and the minute you walk through the door, the family dog is there to greet you
and cheer you up with his tail wagging and that goofy smile on their face every
time. Ya gotta love ‘em don’tcha agree?
We don’t have a very big family any more so this
year again it was just the three of us and Carole’s older brother here this
evening for our annual turkey dinner. What a feast Carole put on again! The
usual turkey and all the fixin’s! If we had nothing else on our agenda for
Christmas besides this lovely meal this special occasion would be a howling
success! It’s a fine fine thing to have a wonderful cook in our midst! The Xmas
meal is the crowning glory of our holiday every year and this year was no
exception indeed! Thank you Carole!
Well, that’s it for this week everyone!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking
to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now and I hope Santa was good to each and
every one of our Squamidian Family!
Sincerely… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
One more snow fact: Walking a kilometer through 15cm
of snow takes as much effort as walking two kilometers on bare ground!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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