8. 10th JULY
Olds-Didsbury Flying Club had kindly loaned us a car. Ed drove us back to the Airport and, having done my usual prolonged walk-around, I took off in the general direction of Edmonton. I am usually quite good at closing Flight Plans, but often seem to forget to open them after take-off. I opened the Plan with Springbank Flight Service ... eventually.
In the States their number for the FSS appears to be the same wherever you are. In Canada it can be a nuisance finding the number you need.
Approaching Edmonton was interesting. Although we were heading for the Edmonton Municipal Airport, our path took us directly over Edmonton International. "No way!" I thought. "Another great long diversion." To my surprise they cleared me directly over the Tower and I was handed straight from the International Tower to Municipal VFR Advisory.
This would have been simple, but I was lazily thinking Ed was switching radio frequencies for me. He was not. I told VFR Advisory twice "DYY .. With you, Sir" .. and then realized what was happening, to my misery, when I was very close to the Airport and had to do an extremely tight circuit.
9. EDMONTON
The day before, as Elly and Ed would be staying with friends, Elly had asked me if I would like her friend to book a room for me. I asked for a medium priced motel, preferably with swimming pool, laundry room and restaurants nearby.
When we arrived, I suddenly realized I had a complete misunderstanding .. Elly's friend's idea of a medium-priced motel turned out to be ... "The MacDonald".
The MacDonald had a "special" package .. for weekends only it cost $120.00. per night including continental breakfast (2 toast & coffee).
With only my two pairs of jeans and ordinary shirts, I considered what to do about supper. There was a big wedding party on and everyone was in evening dress. Dowtown Edmonton there were big restaurants, sushi bars, smart hotel restaurants .. I eventually settled for a large salad and submarine, at Mike's Submarine Shop, next to the MacDonald.
Afterwards, I took my big video camera and, feeling very conspicuous, walked around the MacDonald photographing the views from the patio, which faces across the Saskatchewan River. It was fortunate that I had accidentally booked into this hotel, as I would not have thought of going there myself. It is quite an experience.
I went to the basement and took pictures of the swimming area. It was decorated in the style of a Roman Villa. The plethora of complicated exercise equipment featured every kind of machine one could imagine. (Unfortunately there did not appear to be anyone to use it).
My room was just beautiful: soft, deep, carpeting in a tasteful dusty blue; Huge rosewood post bed, with tapestry coverings which matched the carpeting and curtains; Magnificent ivory marble bathroom; Masses of thick, white, embossed towelling. As I did not have a robe to go down to the swimming pool, the reception quickly said they would have one sent to my room: thick white towelling robe arrived immediately.
I went for a peaceful swim alone in the magnificent pool and later that evening I sat for a while and read my book. Having read every thought, word, deed and philosophy Richard Bach has written, until he writes something else I am clean out of literature. However, I had seen, at the Brandon Aviation Shop "Bush Pilot With A Briefcase": the happy-go-lucky story of Grant McConachie, by Ronald A. Keith. This I had found to be so entertaining I could scarcely put it down.
Ed called and, to my delight, suggested we could fly all through the mountains next day.
10. 11th JULY - THE MOUNTAINS
By Edmonton we had gained two hours .. so I found it relatively easy to get up by 6 a.m. Even more so because, by the time I had showered and dressed, my continental breakfast arrived promptly: with silver containers and toast wrapped in warm sno-white linen. A selection of little Scottish Home Made preserves were provided in individual glass pots. They certainly do make delicious coffee at "The Mac".
I went down five minutes early to meet Ed and he arrived very shortly.
We decided I should fly the leg to Hinton-Jasper Airport. Ed would take over in the mountains, while I used the video, as he had flown there several times previously. We were so fortunate; the weather was perfect, calm, spectacular!
When I filed the flight plan - I was not sure how to word my route through the mountains: "Following the road," didn't sound the way I had been taught. The FSS thought that was ok: "What else can you say?" he said.
The flight to Hinton was easy, beautiful: warm summer sun, early morning mist, just the whisper of a breeze. (Sometimes I feel like the Grimm's Princess in the story: I should be fitted with rose-coloured spectacles - as I am always looking for trouble. Bad weather, engine trouble, sniffing for burning smells, looking for leaks. Today though everything was perfect).
Jasper Hinton is on a hill above the village of Hinton. The peace there is almost tangible. We made a cup of tea, ate our muffins and waited for the Unicom Assistant to arrive from the Village. He was a young Scotsman from Glasgow. He was the C.F.I., Unicom and General Assistant.
I looked at the mountain range in the distance and, frankly, my blood ran cold. The young Scotsman offered flights/sightseeing around the mountains and past the glacier. For a minute I felt very tempted to pay for someone else .. but no. Ed had flown there before. Those stories I had read about lenticular cloud, mountain wave: I looked anxiously about the sky; just one or two innocent little summer cumulous "cu". Like the princess, I thought they could be rain, or could be indication of the usual afternoon storms. But, this was a good big dry air-mass and, for a change, we had struck lucky.
We gassed up, checked everything again and took off.
The double highway into the mountains was easy to follow. A river and a railway were on the starboard side, so I had a good view to film on the video. Ed said: "We should be at Jasper shortly." I consulted the chart and checked with the ground. There were several villages and the road branched off into the mountain canyons. "Well, I have the railroad we have to follow. The river is here" .. I began to mumble. There was Jasper and another town somewhat similar. If I took the wrong branch we would fly up a blind canyon! Now I could see how easy this mistake could be, if one were alone, without assistance.
Ed began to circle DYY in the broad valley. "I'm not taking any of these branches without absolutely positive identification," he said. I searched without success. Suddenly I thought: Jasper must have at least one radio station. Sure enough, in the Flight Supplement, it has two. Great! I tuned them in on the ADF and it pointed to the town which we were circling. It had to be Jasper. It looked the right shape on the map too. Ed accepted this and turned left up the valley toward the glacier.
The mountain altitude steadily increased until the summits were level with us, then above us. The evergreen hills gave way to snow-covered crags. I swept the video scene over the vast mountain range, milky water lakes perched half-way up the mountainside. The lovely morning sparkled on the snowy peaks. The glacier and ice fields poured across the mountainsides, down to still rivers of ice below. A minuscule parking lot, with pin-head sized cars, was right at the edge. Every now and then I raised the video and viewed my "emergency landing site" the double highway - miles below.
We flew past the highest mountain in the range 12,500 ft. It was quite some way above us. I asked Ed if he felt alright. I was wondering about oxygen. I had flown over the mountains, on a sightseeing tour around the Grand Canyon, above 10,000 ft. without oxygen. After all the information I had and instructions about oxygen - I still don't know what to expect. (Now they suggest at night we should use oxygen from the ground up - because of the effect night flying has on one's eyes).
Ed pointed out a particular formation of crags which resembled the ramparts of a castle. I wondered how these ranges came to be. We began to descend. Past Lake Louise, with its' famous hotel and picturesque park. Past Banff. I looked and photographed to my hearts' content. I wished we had time to land at these famous places and look around - almost to envy the tourists on the ground down there.
The mountains became green hills again. The landscape opened out into a beautiful valley. Mostly green, but with bright sunshine yellow of the Canola. Only one type of camera can do justice to this kind of scenery: the IMAX. This is the shot they always have; where the helicopter rises over the range of hills and immediately the splendour of the valley opens out far below.
Through the lovely valley we flew, to Calgary/Springbank Airport: Here the Controller was unusually confused - and no wonder - another plane, very similar to ours, was in his area "NORDO" (No Radio). He was talking to them, thinking they were us. At the same time he was trying to sort out two student pilots in their separate aircraft, neither of whom seemed to know their exact position, nor what they would like to do next.
Suddenly the NORDO plane was gone. The students were separated, found some ground references and decided to fly off around the valley. We were cleared to final and came down for gas. It was about 3 p.m. and we were ready for lunch.
Guess what .... Nothing to eat! Well, the lady CFI found us some Lipton's Chicken Noodle, which she always kept for emergencies. That certainly was welcome.
I flew the leg from Calgary/Springbank back to Edmonton in 1.7 hrs. The countryside was still spectacular, but not as exciting as our flight of the morning.
We passed by Red Deer Control and more or less just followed the main road up to Edmonton. Once again, I was cleared straight over the Edmonton International and handed directly to Edmonton Municipal VFR Advisory. This time I had everything written down and did pretty well .. until I was facing the Municipal Airport.
I just could not seem to see the runway I was supposed to use. Eventually I understood: it was almost completely concealed behind large buildings. The Controller turned me around a very tight circuit and I said to Ed "Imgoingtohavetoovershoot !!! .. "No way. You have lots of runway down there" .. and so I had.
When we arrived back at the Shell/Esso buildings, Elly and their friends were very annoyed with us. Apparently we were supposed to have been "about four hours" .. We had been more like nine! Fortunately they knew how to contact FSS, who informed them we had revised our flight plan. FSS knew exactly where we were on their radar, our ground speed and ETA.
I was very impressed with the Shell/Esso Buildings. They had the most beautiful pilot lounge and stop-over facility I have ever seen. If ever you are going to Edmonton Muni., make sure you go see this place. However, they were planning to destroy the entire Municipal and make way for yet more malls. Several cars outside had the stickers "Save Our Muni."
Continue to next part of the essay.