Brick's PIREP: RLBA - February 2004 ops

Gambella, Ethiopia, 29.6.2004

Belated report of the February ops at Red Lake - Part 1

Right, so this is a very late report of past activity in the Red Lake area, back in February 2004.
This will be more of a pictorial tour as some words and feelings were already erased from memory... Anyway, a few pics tell you as much or more than many, many words.

Oh, but I did find two old transcripts from the com channel:

"Good afternoon, gents, this is Coop again..

No, sir Brick is not in at the moment.

I just his last radio message relayed to me, via a some outpost/lodges and Pikangikum.
No worries, he's alright... well not that right either. Says he had to do a forced landing somewhere in the bush, had some trouble with the engine leaking oil and loosing pressure...
He will try to relay another message later on, he said.

Oh yes, he left early this morning for, in a mild snow storm, on a combined charter and delivery flight.
He was to deliver in Pikangikum an old Auster we've been restoring for a customer living there. He also took a job for airdropping some small packages on his way; quite a detour if you ask me, flying from Red Lake to Pikangikum via Sabourin Lake...

Anyway, I did snap to photos of sir Brick leaving this morning.

Cheers,
Coop."
So, what happened in the course of that flight is mostly told by the following collection of snaps.
The flight went from to Red Lake - CYRL to the shore of Burntwood Lake, a place we know as 'Joe's' or CKS7; where I force landed the old Auster due to engine failure.
The 'emergency goods' were 26 bags (cushioned bags for airdropping) of 5 kg each and I was asked to drop a few of them at each location. The locations being a number of lodges and cabins enroute from Pipestone Bay to Sabourin lake:
2 locations at and near Pipestone Bay, one at Domain lake, another at Larus lake and the last one at Sabourin lake.
The weather forecast showed a large cold front coming in and the local operators (air services in Red Lake) wanted to make sure that the guests and staff at those locations got a portable radio, fresh batteries and some food rations, just in case...
After the last drop at Sabourin I was to fly straight for Pikangikum to deliver the Auster to her new owner, but when I was flying over Thickwood lake the engine suddenly started to produce white smoke, sputtering from time to time. At that moment I decided to climb a bit, without forcing the engine, and then throttle back to almost idle and start looking for a suitable place to land... switch off the engine and glide towards it, if needed.
Luckily I spotted some smoke in the distance and a clearing nearby; that was near Burntwood lake and yes, I managed to land safely (gliding down, engine still idling) and, as I was hoping, there was human life there too.
That's where I met Joseph Reilly (if you get friendly enough and he likes you, you may call him uncle Joe)...

-click to enlarge the snapshots-

Not the best weather... first drop and second, Pipestone Bay...