Pi Pie.... 3.14159.....

Because I'm a nerd, the last time Dave Bianchi and I were enjoying a pie in Chilliwack, I noticed that it was "Pi" o'clock. Ya know, 3.14159....  but before we could take a picture of our Transport Canada approved clock showing 3:14pm, it clicked over to 3:15pm. darn it! I suggested to Dave that we needed to fly out to CYCW for pie again sometime, and capture the moment of having pie at "Pi" o'clock.   

Both of us Daves had the day off, so on Tuesday we arranged to take the Jodel up the valley and make it happen.

When I met Dave at CAK3 he told me that Peter may be joining us in Chilliwack with his fairly new to him, Folgore. Before we even got a chance to pull the Jodel out of it's barn, Peter arrived in the Folgore. We had a quick chat and decided to head to Chilliwack in a "Plus 1" formation. We briefly discussed our intended routing, enroute frequencies, and our plan for exploring the Fraser, then hopped in our winged chariots and we were off.

Peter took off first, and Dave and I departed soon after in the Jodel and caught up to the Folgore just before reaching the Cloverdale race track.
 
As luck would have it, the Folgore and the Jodel have very similar cruise speeds, making formating easy. We cruised through the northern part of Langley's busy airspace, barely having time to get a word in with our intentions, because so many other aviators were trying to do the same on what proved to be a stunningly beautiful day.
 

After passing through Glen Valley, I took the lead and led Peter through a low level inspection of the Fraser River. The River appeared to be wet and flowing westbound, which according to the 2015 farmers almanac was exactly the way it was supposed to be for this time of year.
 
Upon completion of the River inspection we climbed up to 1000' and headed to CYCW. The winds were less than 5kts and variable +/- 10 degrees off runway centreline. These conditions posed no problem for either airplane. After parking the two planes we headed inside the terminal for some pie.

Considering how beautiful the weather was, the airplane parking apron was emptier than we would had expected. As we consumed our pies we did notice the arrival of a nice Nanchang CJ-6 as well as a couple brightly coloured RV-6A's, or were they 9's? Anyways, despite the sparce apron, the restaurant itself still rather busy with local pie lovers.

 

I can't remember what Dave was doing here, but I think it had something to do with him wondering when his new propeller blades were finally going to arrive so he can get his Titan Tornado back in the air.
 

With our bellies filled with goodness, we thought it would be best if we did some more air-to-air photography, but this time have a more thorough briefing of our planned routing, altitudes, and frequencies. 

We reviewed my newly purchased VTA chart and noted the exact routing and planned everything out so there were no grey areas.

 

Before departing we both did quick walk-arounds and then we fired up the birds and were off!

I think it is of the utmost importance to eliminate any chance of confusion or misunderstanding when operating airplanes close together in flight. Safety first, safety first, safety first.

Because of our thorough pre-flight briefing our trip home went very smoothly. Dave (me) and Dave (the other one) in the Jodel led the way in the "Plus 1" until clearing Langley's airspace to the west. We kept up with Peter and watched Him land at King George Airpark while we kept on our westbound track to Delta Airpark.

 
After getting on the ground at Delta, we put the Jodel to bed, beer mug on the fuel cap, canopy cover on, and then we headed for home. It was just another brilliant day of playing in the skies of British Columbia!