In the morning in
Saskatoon, 25th August, I went for a walk along the well groomed
path along the river passing the University Bridge.
This is a beautiful time of the year in the Prairies, but we must
remember the harsh winter's the people who reside here go
through.
Evidence was clear where obvious and crude reinforcements were
installed in the University Bridge where water ingress followed
by freezing had forced cracks in the concrete.
I don't think this bridge is long for this world!
Lunch was at the Living
Sky Café which was very good. This café is "owned and
operated by women" so we were the only blokes in there!
Regardless, the food was very good, and I recommend it if you
visit Saskatoon.
Departure from Saskatoon
was at 21:05z for the two hour flight to Wainwright Alberta with
arrival at 23:05z.
Fuel is paid by cheque or by credit card with a phone call to the
fuel pump operator. 67 litres was added.
This was a quick pit stop, only thirty four minutes, and then we
departed northbound to clear the military restricted airspace to
the west of Wainwright Airport.
Departure was at 23:41z and landing at Wetaskiwin at 00:51z.
We tied the aeroplane
down to two screw pickets supplied by a local aviator.
They had restored a few Chipmunks at Wetaskiwin which is a haven
for people interested in history and historic aircraft.
The night was spent in
the nearby Travelodge, which I wouldn't recommend except in
desperation, and we ate across the road at Boston Pizza...
This was the 'lowest point' of our evenings out on this trip.
Hawker Hurricane with a Dragon Rapide and a Fleet Finch behind.
A high point of our
journey was again visiting the Reynolds Museum with its extensive
collection of vehicles, farm machinery, and aircraft.
We saw the small proportion of this collection on display... If
you have time, take the warehouse tours and see the huge amount
of stuff not on display...
Beautifully displayed.
The mountains called...
And so the next leg would take us to Rocky Mountain House, we
added 36.7 litres of Avgas to the Chipmunk's tanks.
As with the day before, a couple of enthusiastic young women
arrived to fly a Super Cub. It's reassuring to see that some
young enthusiasm continues in an activity that is so grey haired
these days.
We departed runway 30
following backtracking from the museum at 19:18z for the
relatively short flight to Rocky Mountain House, an airfield with
its own Aerobatic Box and a few enthusiasts to use it.
Landing was at 20:02z after 44 minutes in the air.
A few years ago I flew
through the valleys we would travel through in an attempt to
reach Rocky Mountain House and then on to Edmonton.
That August there was a finger of weather that blocked the
route... It was snowing along the east side of the Rocky
Mountains down by Calgary!
This time we would be successful as for once summer meant summer!
Our route to Golden
British Columbia was via Abraham Lake, Saskatchewan River
Crossing, and Blaeberry. It's an interesting journey through the
Rocky Mountains.
On our way we were passed by a Lockheed Electra, out to do some
water bombing practice. We communicated by radio with each other.
Departure was at 20:44z and we landed at Golden at 22:22z before
a bunch of parachutists took their leaps from a Cessna above us.
57 litres of fuel was added.
I dipped into my pictures to provide a few
striking images of the mountains. There are many spectacular
shots from this flight.
Sky Demon has default circuit procedures in
its system. Here we went against the default left hand circuit to
join right downwind.
Left downwind would have been over the high ground.
or