Sabourin fleet training

Friends of the blue skies,

Now that Victoria and I have worked our way through the final paper work for the company visit in Red Lake, I am actually in the process of being trained... yeah, being trained by Victoria for years now... but here and now, I mean trained by the fleet instructors of Sabourin air.

Went to the hangar at Sabourin base, and had a first quick look at the available planes. First thing my eyes noticed was a DHC 3 Otter. I liked her appearance very much, and probably not at last because she looks a bit like the Waterpipe... So, I talked to Ryan from Sabourin Air, and he handed me over the keys and the POH of the Otter.

I took the time needed to wade through the wast amount of valuable information in the bush flying manual we got from Troll and the girls, and read the Otter POH
very carefully. After all, I don't want to give a bad impression on my first flight for this company... After one day of basic cockpit training on the ground, some walking around at the base to get familar with the ramp, it was time to take off. The weather was pretty fine, although there were significant winds and turbulences. Anyway. With Yank Perry as the safety pilot in the right seat, I took off from Sabourin base and flew a few rounds around the airport region. She behaved well, and pretty similar to the Waterpipe. So, we landed, and went on for the next bird.


As the second aircraft to get used to, I picked the Beech 18. I'm not sure why, but this bird didn't please my eyes on first pass in the hangar. But on the second visit, it was immediately clear: this one, I need to get my hands on NOW. Again, the beginning was with reading tons of paper from the POH. Then it was taxi time. With the excellent manual from Cpt. Troll, I took off like a boat, and spent quite a time to get used to proper steering manoeuvres. To the right, you see a picture taken from one of the passing by Sabourin air pilots...




After a while, the basic taxiing went so smooth that Yank ordered me to take off, and to a couple touch and go's, to get used to the steering at higher speeds. I must say, I'm impressed with the Beech 18 handling. She's a joy to fly - especially in such a lovely scenery!

The many little islands make it very important for a pilot to fly precisely and with extra high situational awareness. There's so much water here... so one thinks landing a float plane is a snap. Right, but there also are sooo many obstacles! But as a reward, flying low around these islands is so exciting.

I planned to have a little longer trip with Victoria, to visit one of the Sabourin outposts, and have a pic nic somewhere between these paradise islands...


But before I was ready for that, I had a sweat driving time to get these landing tecniques right. Yank, as nice a guy he is, is a very tough teacher. And I performed certainly well over 20 full landings in various AOA's and speeds, with and without flaps, from straight approaches and steep turns...

Judging from his face, the training paid off, and my landings became better. The experience from the Waterpipe certainly helped a lot. But the Beech 18 is different to fly with her two engines...




After more than 1 and a half hour tough training he said: Ok, Hak. Youre ready for a little break from strict training. land, pick up Victoria and have a nice afternoon. Yeah! How much I wanted to do that!

So, I asked Vic over the radio to organize everything we need for a nice pic nic in the canadian outback. Just her and me... and just a few minutes after landing, the Beech was refuelled and loaded with Vic and the picnic, and we took off for the leisure trip.




We passed uncountable little lakes, each one nicer than the previous... and we had a hel of a time to decide where we want to have our break. So, I ended up with another dozen landings and starts from the smaragd blue waters...

We didn't talk much during the flight. We probably sat there with open mouth, stunned from the nice views we were presented. Wow. I mean, it was already a pleasure during the TWC campaign, But flying here around Red Lake is totally different!





Once we found Valhal Lake, we stopped by the only house we found, even though it doesn't have a blue roof, as we would have expected. Anyway. The landing and the approach to the ramp showed my next field for training...

And we took off rather quickly, since no one was there.











The flight back was rather uneventful, and we prepared to land almost 20 minutes before we arrived. There are no mountains to fly around... and Victoria very much enjoyed that she could fly the Beech for a while - leaving me with enough time to go through the full landing preparations in absolutely no hurry. landing went smooth. The practising pays off. Then we had a short debriefing with Yank, and now we're off to get under the shower and then get some sleep. See ya all tomorrow.




Clear sky!

Hak