Red Lake, Sabourin base, 6. July 03

Fellow nomads,

We were quite sure that something is going on this early morning. We came to that conclusion after analysing all our gathered intelligence data. But we were unable to clearly determine if "it" will be floating on water or flying in the air... so we prepared for everything.

Sgt. Stefschitz and Coop were hiding behind the islands in a speed boat, while I was waiting, ready to take off, in the Beech 18 of the Sabourin fleet.

We were in position starting at around 5 o clock in the morning. And it was 05:19 when Coop sent me the information that someting is moving out of the boat house. At 05:22 it became clear that "it" was the seaplane we had seen before. So it was my job to chase it without being seen. Coop gave me the "go", and I took off from behind an island, staying very low to make it hard if not impossible for the pilot of the other plane to see me.

I stayed in contact with Coop and Stefschitz, while following the yellow plane. Coop mentioned he was pretty sure the plane's engine sounded very much like well mantained P&W Wasp or R-1340... running quite smooth indeed.

The yellow seaplane took off (±300º heading) from the lake and first
flew North, about 330º to 360º, and then turning East and finaly S-SE...
over that piece of land where the lake makes kind of a U-turn....
Coop was helping me out with some landmarks, while I reported my radial distance from Red lake...

After a few minutes of flight, he was flying a heading of 140º to 150º and climbing to about 5000 ft msl.

Approx. heading towards Ear Falls, as Coop and Stefschitz could guess from translating my raidal/distance to coordinates at the map/charts, while back at Sabourin base's cabin.

Close to Ear Falls -must have been 5 to 10 minutes to that airfield- I lost visual contact. The weather was getting worse: overcast and light drizzle/rain. And suddenly I found myself in pure IFR conditions. Then, it was time to say "safety first", and I decided to revert back towards Red Lake.

When heading towards home base, I heard Ear Falls tower did get an incoming transmission from another plane, charlie-frank-delta-romeo-delta inquiring about the fate of the plane flying in his vicinity, somewhere right behind him...

(Hmm, did the other pilot notice something?) He seemed to be concerned about the followers (my) plane's fate- as reported from Ear Falls - CYMY to CYRL (Red Lake) tower.


Neither tower had any further information about that C-FDRD plane and its flight plan.

Any news I missed during the flight?

Smooth flight.
Hak