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When love comes to town...
Whenever I have to leave my trusty old Waterpipe for such a long time, it is like loosing a partner, a friend who spent countless breathtaking moments with you. I don't take such things lightly. And the Waterpipe does neither. So, I went to the hangar 12 in Red Lake to say hello to my love after almost a year separation. As usual, I bribed the technicians with a pint in the pub so I had the hangar alone for her and me. Just us two, in the cool, darkened hangar. Ahh. Victoria knows the "ceremony" takes 3 hours 48 minutes and 16 seconds (25 seconds on fridays). No one who ever witnessed the ceremony is still alive to tell you about. So, she just secured the entrance with her charming smile. And I am sure all people of Red Lake have felt the good vibes radiating from that place and time. Victoria, the Waterpipe and I finally are together again. Sure enough we wanted to have a little off time for us after all the BYRD work. So we checked and found out we could combine duty and joy: we agreed to run a stock replenishment cargo trip to dESPair retreat outpost. |
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 Up, up in the air... When our luck brought us some meteorological relief, we quickly performed the preflight checks of the Waterpipe and took off as soon as Red Lake Tower allowed.The family was together up in the air. It's hard to describe the feelings of being whole, of feeling to be tightly connected with the world, the clouds, the air. Those who know that feeling are either dESPairados, or nomads of the blue skies who not yet found their home: dESPair! |
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 We were supposed to drop cargo (delicious collection of old double malt) at Joe's, and pick up six VIPs comming home from a photo hunt. Judging from the few moments I heard them speaking, I guess they were involved in planing sneaky plots for humanitarian goals. They seem to have good connections to Cpt. Troll, so it was obviously ok to bring them to dESPair retreat. It's one of these places in the world where big plans have been started... |
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 When we arrived at Joe's, we saw smoke arising and got a bit frightened. It was too much smoke for a simple fire. We tried to reach anyone on the ground by radio, but there was no reply. I decided to perform a low bypass, or maybe two, to see if there are any problematic aspects that would prohibit to use teh runway and rather direct us to the lake for a ice landing. But since spring is approaching, the ice gets thinner and I don't feel particularily well with breakng ice... |
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 No signs of trouble, no debris in the flight path - and on the second pass, we saw someone coming out the house. Ok, looks like things are under control, so I decided to use the runway to land.The canadian gusts still are getting me. BYRD learned me much about chaning weather over the day, but Red Lake really is remarkable in terms of turblent airmasses over the landscape. One get used to it, but I was really happy I didn't pick up the VIPs on the first leg. That way I had time to get in shape again with the Waterpipe's reaction to rudder movement. The trees at the end of the runway seemed to have grown five feet since our last visit, making the approach a real challange for precision flying... |
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 Once on the ground, I was surprised again by the icy conditions and their effect on the ground movement of the planes!Luckily, there were not many people watching the sliding party just after touch down. Once off the runway, steering was acceptably sensitive. |
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 Once the engine stopped, Joe from Joe's (duh!) was greeting us, and we began to unload his precious bottles load the cargo for dESPair retreat and prepare the cabine for the VIPs.Victoria and I cleaned the seats and windows, and I sprayed my special perfume to help with the positive first impression we try to provide. The perfume is called "Money". There won't be a public report for the flight to dESPair retreat, on request of the VIPs. The fewer the traces the bigger the chance for success... we dESPairados know that by heart. Victoria and I will fly off to visit Sabourin bases and replenish their stocks, then come back to dESPair retreat and pick the VIPs and bring them back to Red Lake. Good money for good flying. :-) Clear skies, Cpt. Hak |
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