2. Hope to Mackenzie

Route of flight: CYHE-CAZ5-CYWL-CYXS-CYZY

June 7, 2008

The weather on Saturday was a lot like the weather on Friday – low ceilings and some rain. Added to that was a big wind out of the west. It wasn't looking all that flyable so we took our time getting started with our day, hoping for some clearer skies later in the afternoon.

Low clouds and green grass in Hope, British Columbia

It turns out all that lovely grass at Hope is kept trim and manicured by the Vancouver Soaring Association. They're a friendly club of glider pilots who soar in the ridge lift off the mountains. We spent the morning talking to a few of the pilots there who were, like us, waiting on the clouds to lift so they could get up in the sky. They toured us around their aircraft and we toured them around ours.

Glider hangar at Hope, BC

We also spent some time studying up on the Canadian flight rules and studying the charts for the next couple legs of the trip.

In the middle of the afternoon we saw a small plane pass over Hope headed east. We got on the phone to the weather briefers and found that conditions were finally starting to improve. So we packed up, fueled up, had some lunch and got ready to go. The glider pilots went up to take a look and they also came back with a report of improving conditions. They were already soaring the ridgelift by the time we took off.

Catching a tow in Hope, British Columbia

North up the Fraser River

We left Hope heading east and turned north with the Fraser River, following it through a tight canyon up to Lytton and continued north past 100 Mile House, stopped for fuel in Prince George and finished up at Mackenzie. This was our first longish day of cross-country flying and we spent much of our time trying to establish a routine of formation flying. It can be pretty stressful flying in close proximity with another aircraft, so we tried to stay in predictable locations with regards to each other. Now, this is pretty challenging as both aircraft and pilots tend to fly at different rates and at a hundred miles an hour, things can change pretty quickly. It's important to try to maintain a steady rate of speed and keep a consistent distance between aircraft. Too far away and it gets difficult to see each other. Too close together and it can get a little scary.

Formation flying up the Fraser River Canyon, BC

Adding to our challenge was the wind which was honkin' from the west creating a lot of turbulence in the lee of the Coast Range. We were getting tossed around pretty good coming up that canyon making it even more difficult for the two planes to fly in a coordinated manner.

For the most part, we led in the yellow Sportsman and managed most of the navagation and communication for our flight of two. This left all the work of formation flight to the guys in the white C180. I have to hand it to them – they got proficient very quickly at formation flight. It takes keen piloting skills to maintain a consistent position to another craft moving through 3D space. It really is a lot harder than it looks.

Formation flying

Eventually the land rose to high plains and broadened below us. The skies cleared out above us as well. We began to relax a little and look around at the landscape. All around us were hillsides covered with fir trees and a surprising number of those trees were dying.

Pine Bark Beetle infestation, British Columbia

Pine Bark Beetles had infested enormous swaths of forest leaving whole hillsides covered with sick brown trees. Winters simply haven't been cold enough in recent years to keep the beetle population in check. From our vantage we could trace the paths they took through the forest below. In some areas the trees are sick in straight lines as though the insects were a rake across sand. In other areas they spread out in big brown pools. Well over 50% of the forests were brown. It made us wonder what the land would look like in another 20 years after fires sweep through the dead timber.

Fraser River north of Quesnel

Over the course of this flight we became a little more proficient with our Canadian communications protocols, and we finally figured out where to find the airport identifiers to plug into the GPS (they're not on the NavCanada charts, they're in the Canadian Flight Supplement). By the time we reached Prince George for fuel, we were starting to feel pretty comfortable in the airspace.

We reached Mackenzie at 7:55pm and the sun was only just starting to get low and golden. We secured the planes in a field of dandelions and pitched our tents for the night.

Dinner in Mackenzie

There were mosquitos in Mackenzie. A bunch of them.