All this warm sunny weather we have been having in Alberta lately provided the perfect opportunity to attend a fly-in at Lac La Biche put on by the local flying club. Normally you'd have to land at the airport (CYLB), but for this event the flying club carved out a runway right on the lake! The ice runway was located right beside a race track where the town was holding it's annual ice race. There was also a huge pond-hockey tournament with 18 youth teams participating. The lake area was a busy place today.
After checking the weather and filing a flight plan, we were wheels up heading from Villeneuve Airport on our way to Lac La Biche in my brother Ken's Cessna 182. Cruising in perfectly smooth air, we traveled at a speed of 146 knots (262 KPH) and an altitude of 5500' ASL. Along the way we were treated with an aerial view of snow covered lakes littered with ice fishing huts or snowmobile tracks, barren looking forests, small towns, and roads and railroad tracks that seem to criss-cross the landscape everywhere.
Along the way, we used Ken's Spot tracker to send updates of our position to a few family members. Ken bought this tracking device so he could keep us informed of his location while he is gallivanting around the country. At the push of a button, the tracker sent our GPS coordinates via satellite to the Spot central server. From there, the position details were sent out via email to our brother Allan and Ken's son Lee. Allan isn't too happy receiving all these Spot emails, so every time I pressed the "Send Location" button, I had to chuckle, "Let's annoy Al shall we?" This map picture shows Ken's route from Calgary Springbank to Villeneuve then up to Lac La Biche.
As we got nearer to Lac La Biche, the amount of radio chatter started to increase to the point where the airport sounded like it was a bee-hive of activity. Still several miles out, Ken had the fun task of trying to figure out how to join the traffic circuit that already had 2-3 planes coming in for landing and two that were trying to depart. Managing all this while still flying the plane and working the radio is definitely a challenge! To make it even more challenging, there was also other air traffic at the hard-surface airport to the south to contend with. But pilots from the "hard" and "ice" airports worked together and soon Ken and I were in a downwind position for landing on runway 28.
Turning final for runway 28, Ken was set to make his first ever landing on ice and become an official "Ice Pilot". You either have to work for Joe at Buffalo Airways or land at an airstrip on a lake to become an ice pilot. The landing was definitely easier than working your way up the ranks at Buffalo. I guess I'll have to be content with just being an "Ice Co-Pilot" for now until I return in the left seat.
As we worked our way closer to landing, the surface came into better view. It appeared to be smooth and dry with some snowy patches. The runway edges were lined with small spruce trees. This was really neat to see and was a really nice touch by the organizers!
Touchdown didn't seem any different than landing on asphalt. Ken mentioned that the runway was about as slippery as Villeneuve's frost covered runway he landed on the day before.
The organizers we taking photos of each plane as they arrived. Here Ken and I are on final approach rwy 28.
We found out afterwards that there was a spot landing contest upon arrival into the airstrip. I guess Ken was too busy flying and I was too busy taking pictures to notice the spot marker on the runway. Oh well, maybe next time.
After landing, we were directed to the parking area by one of the volunteers. After shutting down, my first task as the "rampie" for this trip was to take a few hero pictures!
Me - "Ice Co-pilot"
Ken - "Ice Pilot"
There were over twenty aircraft of various types at the fly-in.
One of two ski-equipped aircraft at the event, this pilot departed the airstrip by just taxiing from the parking area onto the snow covered lake and just took off from there. I'm sure he was thinking, "I don't need no stinkin runway!"
This was a very pretty looking airplane. Very clean and with those large tires it could land almost anywhere.
The shiniest spinner award goes to the pilot of this aircraft. It was a larger type Cessna, I'm not sure of the exact model.
This plane had a pair of snowshoes and an ice auger secured to the struts. Now is this the perfect ice fishing machine or what!
Shortly after we landed and shut down, this float plane arrived and parked right beside us.
The float plane isn't much larger than Ken's 182 on the left. But in this picture it almost dwarfs it due to its height.
There were even a few helicopters that flew in. They both looked extremely well kept and just sat there glistening in the sunshine.
Must be nice to be able to take a multi-million dollar helicopter out for a flight on a sunny winter day...
This is a homebuilt Bushmaster 250XP belonging to Geoff C-GEOF. A very rugged and powerful aircraft that could take a guy exploring almost anywhere.
The
Lakeland Classic Wheels Club was holding their annual ice racing event. We caught a bit of the racing action from the sidelines. It looks like it would be a lot of fun driving in this race.
We both would have liked to stay a while longer, but Ken has to drop me off at Villeneuve and then fly home to Calgary so it's time to get going.
Here, Ken is filing a flight plan for our return back to Villeneuve.
Notice the ice in the background.. next time we should bring our skates!
Shortly after departing, I followed our shadow on the lake while Ken took us up to our cruising altitude of 6500' for the trip home.
When you're flying at altitude you really don't get a feel of how fast you really are traveling. But our shadow was really cruising and was leaving the snowmobile-rs in the dust!
Cruising home into the sun, we had another great view of the Alberta landscape. We had a slight head-wind going home which slowed us down slightly. Even so, we were still traveling at over 200 KPH!
Uhhh, it's so nice to be back in familiar territory. Here we are on left-base runway 16 back at Villeneuve.
This just happens to be my favorite runway, for it was here that I did my first solo many years ago.
Ever wonder where you fill up your Cessna? Well at Villeneuve it's here at Cardinal Aviation. Pull up to the pump and get out your credit card.
Bill at Cardinal Aviation took good care of refueling Ken's plane for his next leg to Calgary.
Here, Ken just departed off runway 16 on his way home to Calgary Springbank...
What an absolutely fantastic day to go flying. Thanks Ken!!
If you want to see more pictures, here is a
slideshow you can view.
Now I gotta go give
Buffalo Joe a call to chat about job opportunities...
I took a short flight today with my daughter on board as my co-pilot. The last time we flew together was in the back seat of a Cessna 172 on fathers day a few years ago. That wasn't an especially enjoyable flight for Danielle. You see, up front was my flight instructor and a "one-legged" man. One-legged man was having a blast up there and asked the pilot to do something fun. Well, a loop was out of the question, so the pilot decided to do a few steep turns. Now, steep turns are fun when you are in the front seat, but in the back seat they are not too comfortable. It feels like your guys are sloshing around and nausia sets in very quickly. By the time we landed neither of us were very happy and I had Danielle's hand prints embedded in my arm from her holding on so tight.
Here is a closer view of the skating track.
