Red Lake, Ont. Canada, 23.04.2005
VIPs in, garbage out
Flying a small group of VIPs in to the dESPair Retreat and taking the garbage out for recycling / disposal.
22.04.2005
Leg 1, taking the VIPs to the Retreat for some (yet undisclosed) business talks.
I thought it would be a good idea to give these businessmen a special treatment and offer them a fast and confy ride on a suitable plane ... Not our typical 'outpost hopping flight' with a slow(er) flying 'classic'.
As ACLF just took delivery of a fresh 850LLC Caravan conversion -leased for the Trade Show- and I wanted to a first impression and short test flight, I just put one and one together.
The plane itself is just an older, second hand, C208 Caravan that received the 850LLC conversion, replacing the original P&W PT6A-114 for a Honeywell (Garrett) TPE-331-12JR; delivering 850 shp instead of the P&W's 675 shp ... After that, a complete overhaul, thorough cleanup and conversion to Amphibian, made her what she is now.
Anyway, we left Red Lake - CYRL at about a quarter to three in the afternoon, for a more less direct flight to the dESPair Retreat - DA1.
Right after take off from CYRL 26 I turned to a northerly direction (±350º) heading for Odin Lake. From there I picked a N-NW course to fly along the following Wagin, Cairns and One Pine Lakes (and a few others), taking us to the Retreat at DA1.
Cruising at 4.000 ft msl at about 170 kts (only at ±60% throttle!), upon reaching Cairns Lake, the gentlemen started to wonder what there was to be see around this side of country
-yes, we did have a chat from time to time
So, I asked them if they would like to fly low(er) and slow(er) and have a closer look. that said, we ended doing kind of a short sightseeing and photo opportunity detour over Cairns, One Pine and Malette Lakes.
The flight, including the sightseeing detour, took just under one hour. By 15.40 local we were safely docked at the Retreat's facility.
I must say that was after missing the dock on the first run, drifting too fast on the still snowy/icy water ...
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
Starting at CYRL | Leaving CYRL 26 |
Near Odin Lake
Heading for DA1 | Over the dESPair Retreat | Taxiing on lake
Missed the dock ... | Docked at DA1 | dESPair Retreat scene
CYRL - DA1 >Flightno.1017Heading for DA1 | Over the dESPair Retreat | Taxiing on lake
Missed the dock ... | Docked at DA1 | dESPair Retreat scene
23.04.2005
Leg 2, early morning flight to take the 'garbage' from dESPair Retreat down to Pikangikum.
Just plain business in the early hours of this saturday.
Remove the seats from the cabin of the 850LLC Caravan and load the weekly refuse -no worries, it's neatly packed in containers and bags- for delivery at Pikangikum - CYPM. Then take new stock (propane containers, food and groceries) on board at the Pik and fly back to the Retreat.
Flew to CYPM via Clear Lake, not a straight line. The way back was the direct route, flying over the forest with Clear Lake to the South and Berens River to the North.
It took only 20 minutes to change cargo at Pikangikum.
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
Start at dESPair Retreat | Leaving DA1 03 | Early morning
Unloading at Pikangikum | Take off CYPM | Leaving Pikangikum
Checking approach DA1 03 | Touchdown at DA1 | Docked at Retreat
DA1 - CYPM v.v. >Flightno.1018
23.04.2005
Lets call this Leg 2 1/2 ;-) After the scheduled business talk with the VIPs we though it would be handy to have them taking a closer look at a typical outpost cabin setup; so, we decided to take them to some of the close by lakes for that purpose.
The short trip took us to the cabins at Malaher Lake and Herod Lake, both operated / serviced by Red Lake Airways.
After a short 20 minute stay at the Malaher cabin, on our way to Herod Lake I noticed the autopilot wasn't working properly -I use from time to time when I need to shift my attention from flying to checking the charts or talking to the passengers- so I decided to extend our stay at the Herod cabin to just over one hour. While the VIPs inspected the cabin setup and had a short picknick, I took the time to have a look at that autopilot -a loosened cable connection and 2 breakers needing exchange- Then we flew back to the dESPair Retreat to continue the business meeting.
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
Take off from DA1 | Landing over Malaher cabin | Take off over Herod cabin
DA1 to Malaher & Herod >Flightno.1019
24.04.2005
Leg 3 and last part of this 'action'; taking the VIPs back to Red Lake.
Sunday morning; the smell of fresh coffee, pancakes and maple syrup; the whine of a starting turboprop engine :-)
OK, gentlemen, finished your coffee? Yes, you can have some of that maple syrup, in fact, I do have a neat set of souvenirs for each one of you ... and there's a jar of that gandma's syrup in there.
As for flying, it was a quite uneventful trip. We flew down to Red Lake, over Cairns, Wagin and Kittyhawk Lakes (and few others, of course), cruising at 3500 ft msl.
Oh yes, we did a low pass over Wagin Lake just to check the scenery and have a close look at some small, rocky islands.
Arrived at CYRL well in time for the VIPs' connecting flights. As I walked them to terminal, after parking the big Caravan, they told me that we could expect news and/or a business offer within the next week or two ...
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
DA1 to CYRL >Flightno.1022
Cheers,
Brick
< back to RLBA-2 index