New Years Day Flying Adventure: Part 1 of 2 - "Alternate, Alternate, Alternate, STOP!"

Our original plan was for David Bianchi, in his Titan Tornado, and my Dad (Daryl) and I (David McIntosh) in the Jodel F11 to fly over to Bamfield on New Year's Day.

We couldn't help but be motivated by the blog posting by Guido. It looked like such a neat place to explore. So, flight planning done, and timings worked out, we planned to meet at Delta Air Park at 9:00am. But, with Mr Bianchi being a little delayed due to a sticky choke cable, and then after his arrival, my Jodel's lack of interest in starting in minus temperatures, meant that had we departed at that time, we would only have had about an hour in the tiny west coast village to explore and have lunch before we'd have to depart for home.

Our plan shifted to meeting Mr. Bianchi's parents at Qualicum Beach Airport (CAT4) to have a New Year's Day lunch with them. But, as you will soon see, this didn't happen either.

With intentions to fly to Qualicum Beach, we called Kamloops FSS and got transponder codes, hopped in our planes, started them up, then called over to Boundary Bay Ground on the radio and let them know of our imminent departure off of Runway 07. Mr. Bianchi departed first, and up like an elevator his little Tornado took him skyward while he made the left turn out towards the Alex Fraser Bridge.

As my Dad and I departed behind him, we very, very quickly caught up to Mr. Bianchi and passed him. Originally, we had assumed that the Jodel was actually a slower plane than the Tornado, but this was clearly not the case. It was around this time that we became aware that whenever Mr. Bianchi tried to transmit over the radio, it was 90% static hiss, and 10% audible voice. In communication with Boundary Bay Tower, we formed C-FPAO "Plus One" for the remainder of our trip. This meant that I would be making all of the communications on behalf of our two planes, and he would simply listen in and make all frequency changes as necessary, since he could still hear incoming radio transmissions just fine. Problem solved.

We flew over Burnaby Lake, and through Vancouver Harbour and onward towards the Sunshine Coast, and everything was glorious! What a start to the new year!

As we cruised on past Roberts Creek on the way to the southern tip of Texada Island, my Dad and I noticed two things: One, there was a massive cloud bank that blanketed the whole of the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia) from just off of Point Grey all the way to the eastern shoreline of Vancouver Island, and two, that Mr Bianchi and his Tornado were nowhere in sight. Had we left him in the proverbial dust?

Through some radio calls and extra keen listening skills, we communicated with Mr. Bianchi and understood him to be approximately 5 miles behind us. Informing him of what we were about to do, we executed a 360° orbit over Davis Bay followed by some lazy S-turns to help Mr. Bianchi catch up. We also reduced our cruise power to take our original 110mph indicated airspeed down to 90mph. Knowing that the Tornado can easily cruise at 105mph, we figured this would do the trick to allow him to catch up, and that he did, appearing off our starboard wing just as we were nearing Powell River.

Powell River, you say? Well, before he did catch up to us, we determined that making it to Qualicum Beach would be impossible due to the prevailing meteorological conditions, so we deviated North towards Powell River where weather conditions were far more conducive to VFR operations and we were pretty certain we could find some form of food there too.

At approximately 11:30am, we were both on the ground and parked at Powell River (CYPW). With hunger in our eyes, we made our way to Julie's Airport Cafe which is just out the gates of the airport and to the right, and about a 5 minute walk. Low, and behold, it was closed! So, we turned around and headed down Duncan Street in the opposite direction, towards downtown Powell River.

There should be a lot of restaurants open for lunch, right? Yes-ish. After walking past several closed signs, we did find a few places that were actually open and we chose a place that we later learned was a very new establishment, called "Base Camp."

It was a very nicely done up coffee shop/restaurant with a mountain climber's base camp theme. Because they were one of the very few places open and serving food, our meals naturally took a long time in getting to us, but they did, and it was very nice.

With bellies full, we proceeded to make the 20-25 minute walk back to the airport. Once there, Mr. Bianchi and my Dad topped up the Tornado's tank with the jerrycan that Mr. Bianchi brought along as his co-pilot/R2 Unit. Meanwhile, I had struck up a conversation with two gentlemen that took a liking to the Jodel; one of whom would become instrumental in saving the day for me, my Dad, and the Jodel.

Anyways, back to the story. As we bid adieu to our new friends, we lept into our planes, got them started, and taxied out for departure. Because of the previous radio problem with Mr. Bianchi's plane, we again decided to go as C-FPAO "Plus One" and I planned to taxi into position on the runway and have him depart ahead of me. This way, he could be lead, and I would form up on him in loose formation, so that we could avoid the problem of me outrunning him.

So, we're taxiing out and... Oops, what's that?!!! Why is the Jodel suddenly wanting to turn left despite all of my best efforts to straighten her out? The first thought was that the tailwheel assembly had failed and it was stuck in the castering position, which was a problem I thought Mr. Bianchi and I had remedied in previous weeks. But, it wasn't that at all. As I was stuck only being able to do very tight left turns, I had Mr. Bianchi taxi around us to take a look at my gear and see if maybe I had a flat tire.

Yes, the Jodel had a very flat tire!


To Be Continued...