I was in the right-hand seat, and my daughter in the left seat. We were finishing up an hour-long session of practicing her skills on a wonderful day of crosswinds. We ended up discussing box canyon turns, and that’s when I finished up by demonstrating a hammerhead turn. (This was in the context of talking about being in a canyon, and converting forward speed into altitude.) I didn’t know it’s true name until later on (from Google), but it was basically exactly like the diagrams show. From level flight at 120 Knots, I pulled the nose sharply upward, slowing rapidly and applying flaps. When speed reached 80 Knots, I began a sharp left turn, which was complete by the speed of 50. My plane stalls around 55, so it must have stalled briefly without my noticing, but by then, my nose was pointing down to the ground, gaining speed again, for a nice pullout, going in the opposite direction.

Continue reading “Hammerhead turn” »

This weekend flight from Camrose to Fairmont Hot Springs started in beautiful sunny weather with few clouds.
The Alberta side of the Rocky Mountains near Kananaskis and Canmore was getting a little more cloudy, with ceiling at 11,000 feet.

Continue reading “Mountain flying to Fairmont hot springs” »

I did a solo flight over Edmonton and managed to get a few pictures of my house. And a few other points of interest.

Continue reading “My house from the air.” »

I’ve made the flight from Camrose, Alberta to Hudson Island, British Columbia, a number of times now. Sometimes I file an official flight plan, and other times I use a relative as a flight itinerary contact. What I’ve learned is that changing cloud conditions can make flight plans go longer than planned, while the flight itinerary gives me much more flexibility, because I can send TXT messages from my cellphone whenever I fly over a town, to let my contact person know where I am.

To improve my own safety, I’ve made this webpage posting my route, and the choices I could make to avoid clouds. My ground contact person could then refer the search-and-rescue people to this webpage, to look for me along these routes, if I go missing. Plus, these Google Earth images tell a beautiful story, I think.

My flight begins by setting the GPS for a direct route from Camrose to Salmon Arm, BC.
Continue reading “BC mountain flying – flight path” »

Today I had a nice practice flight in the Expedition, doing simulated power-off forced landings at Camrose airfield CEQ3. As background to this, when I first got the E350 almost 2 years ago, the engine was new, and I was advised to not pull the throttle to idle for a while. Although I was taught theoretically, I never did actual practice forced landings until today.
Continue reading “Practiced forced landings” »

Because I blog about my airplane, an Expedition E350 aircraft, from Found Aircraft Canada Inc, people who are considering buying one, often email me to ask if I’ve had any problems. I’ve had my plane less than 2 years, and it’s just past 150 hours airtime. There have been a few little problems, and below I’ll list them.

But to put this into context, one of the emails I received recently said:

“I was looking at the logs of some 206s and was suprised how so many smaller items needed to be fixed or replaced within a few years of delivery.”

My Expedition was #2 on the production line, serial number 302. My little problems have been:
Continue reading “My few Expedition problems” »

I learned a few new things about “preparedness”, for things that can wrong, on this flying trip to Hudson Island, BC. This post has some video of take-offs, features dead batteries, getting stuck in the mud, diverting to alternate airports due to low-lying fog, etc. Continue reading “A quick, eventful trip to Hudson Island” »

From my pre- wordpress days, before I had this personal blog, I had made a webpage documenting the building of my Expedition E350 airplane. So if you are looking for a lot more pictures of the inside of the plane, and its characteristics, and some of my early flights with it, visit that page.

During Christmas break 2011, I made two different flights from Camrose Alberta, up to Fort McMurray, and from there, north for 50 miles to see the oil sands, or formerly called the tar sands facilities, of Syncrude, Suncor and others. It was a wonderful trip, taking about 6 hours in total, including lunch & refueling in Ft McMurray airport.

Continue reading “Oil sands, tar sands, aerial photos” »

This post is to convey my excitement at discovering that Revelstoke BC has a beautiful airport within walking distance of an amazing skihill! Revelstoke Mountain Resort. I took these pictures to entice my friends to come skiing with me!
Continue reading “Revelstoke airport and skihill” »