Red Lake, Ont. Canada, 28.04.2005
Inspection in threefold
That's just combining jobs; 3 different 'inspections' at the same time:
1- Checking the recently serviced 'Super Beaver', the Chimo's C-GBUL with the PZL-3S 600 hp engine.
2- As requested by the local traffic- and tourist board, inspecting the situation of the road driving North from Red Lake up to the northern shore Kirkness Lake.
3- Visual check -low pass over- the cabins and lodges in the Nungesser Lake area, on behalf of Sabourin and Red Lake Airways (the operators).
27.04.2005
After a final pre-flight check of C-GBUL, we took off from Chimo's base on Howie bay ... First taxiing out in the lake for a take off run in a 270º heading, dictated by the wind.
It was just Coop and me in the 'pit -when I need tocheck the plane and it's engine I always ask him along, with his keen ear, gut feeling and golden fingers. As cargo we were only carrying Coop's toolbox, a 5 ltr. jerrycan of engine oil (just in case) and our 'survival gear' (sleeping bags, mealkits and such).
The whole flight was spent for 'inspection no. 1', combined with the other 2 jobs. That went fine; most of the trip we flew in 'hi cruise' mode ... To give you an idea of how it felt; that's when you lower your (engine) rpm to 1800, the throttle set to 75% and the mixture leaned to 70% and still yields a cruise speed of 140 mph, with music in your ears -I love the sound of that fat PZL engine!
Flying out from Red Lake all the way up tothe northern shore of Kirkness lake, we worked 'inspection no.2'; as requested by the traffic board: see if the road is already snow free and if you can spot traffic on the road. OK, no traffic and the road was snow free even past Kirkness -as far as we could see from there. It's good to be doing some IFR flying again ; 'I Follow Roads' :-)
And from Kirkness we changed to 'inspection no.3'; flying back to Pedlar Lake and the western shore of Nungesser Lake; trying to spot the cabins/lodges and doing a low pass for a visual check of the facilities.
Then we followed Nungesser Lake to it's eastern shore, over to Crossland Lake and Guernsey Lake, again checking the outposts. From there headed South to Trout Lake, along it's western shore and the norther tip of Ranger Lake back to the Red Lake area, returning to Chimo.
Marked the locations (outposts) on the map and made some notes on the situation for the 'customers' -Sabourin and Red Lake Airways.
After flying and touching down, on a 270 course again, in Howie Bay; we beached at Chimo and closed our log at about 15.23.
Enjoyed the landscape, enjoyed the plane, a good cigar and a chat with Coop... and we're getting payed too. What else would one want? :-).
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
Ready at Chimo | Takeoff in Howie Bay
| Over Red Lake
Road inspection | Sabourin lodge, Nungesser East | Crossland Lake
On final for CKS4 | Touchdown on Howie Bay | Back at Chimo's
Road inspection | Sabourin lodge, Nungesser East | Crossland Lake
On final for CKS4 | Touchdown on Howie Bay | Back at Chimo's
Cheers,
Brick
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