The Jodel's left main tire was more than flat and she was
uncontrollable to taxi. I shut her down right on the spot, Mr. Bianchi parked
his Tornado to the side, and we all gathered to inspect the flat tire. Powell
River Airport is serviced by Pacific Coastal Airlines and had they needed to
taxi to or from the active runway, we would have provided them with a very nice yellow and blue obstacle. We couldn't
move the airplane right away because the left wheel was right on the rims, and
we needed to find something to put under the flat tire to prevent any damage from happening to
the rims. Looking around the airport I couldn't see anything
particularly useful, so I ran back to the Powell River Flying Club building
which was right beside where we had been parked earlier and was lucky enough to
bump into Patrick Riley, who was one of the two gentlemen that I had spoken
with not 10 minutes before, and thankfully he had not yet left the airport.
He
offered me his homemade plywood dolly, and said that he would be right over to
the Jodel with his van full of tools. I ran back to the plane and we lifted up
the Jodel and lowered it onto the dolly. Immediately, we heard cracking wood
sounds, so we took it out from under the plane before we broke the dolly. A
minute later Patrick arrived and insisted that we try the dolly again and said
not to worry if it broke because he'd just make himself a new one. Sure
enough, it broke in short order. Plan B was quickly enacted as Patrick pulled
out a wheeled jack from his van and we raised the left gear off the ground and
pushed the Jodel very carefully to the edge of the apron. In this much safer
location, we were then able to get to work diagnosing the exact problem. And,
in all honesty, this is where Patrick took over completely. Both of us David's
and my Dad were simply by-standers as Patrick made incredibly quick work of
removing the wheel and determining that the cause of flat tire was that the
valve on the tire's tube had sheared off.
After we learned that it was not going to be a quick fix,
and that daylight was creeping slowly closer to night, Mr. Bianchi made the
decision to fly home on his own. As he got his plane started and then departed,
I was on my phone putting together a plan of action. I started communicating
with people that I thought could help with parts sourcing, repair work, and the
inevitable need for Powell River accommodations. The hardest part about this was
that my iPhone does not like the cold, and when it is too cold, it turns off,
and it won't work again until it is adequately warmed up. That explains my lack of photos at this point, but in the moments my phone was functioning, I was
able to get in touch with some greatly helpful people.
This part of the story is where the aviation community
really begins to shine brightly! Through my involvement with the Royal Canadian
Air Cadet Gliding Program, I have made some amazing lifelong friends. And, to
my immediate benefit, a number of them lived in Powell River. To make a long story short,
I got in touch with Gary Johnson, who unbeknownst to me was the current Vice
President of the Powell River Flight Club, and former president of the club.
He opened his house to me and my dad as a place to stay the night and he also served as
our transportation around town during our visit. He also had many flying club resources to
offer, from a warm place to do flight planning at the airport, to the possible volunteering
of club members to fly down to Vancouver to pick up a new tube.
Enter stage left, my good friend Jason Binns, who regularly
flies a Piper Seneca for a client of his. I called him and asked if he might be
able to source a 6.00x6 tire tube and maybe even fly it up to Powell River that
night, or the next day. As it turns out, the Seneca was down for maintenance,
and so was Jason due to a dental issue, and thus he was somewhat medicated.
What he was able to do though, was check his hangar for a spare tube, since in
a twist of fate, the Seneca and the Jodel actually share the same size tire tubes.
Holy cow, Jason came thought for me big time! He confirmed with me within an hour
of me asking, that he did have a spare tube and that he would send it up to Powell
River on the first Pacific Coastal Airlines flight the next day! Eureka!
When I first contacted Gary, he was on the ferry coming back
to Powell River from Comox. So, we had Patrick dropped us off in town and we sat, waiting for Gary at a pub called "The Zoo." The name is no
misrepresentation. Apparently the Zoo is the rowdiest establishment in town and
is known for bar fights, drunks, loud partiers, and biker vs. mill-worker brawls. Thankfully
for my Dad and I, it was still daylight, and the regulars were all tame and not
yet in a fighting mood. The Zoo possesses an amazing view looking out over the
Salish Sea towards the Comox/Courtenay area and there we sat, enjoying the
sunset. Due to its reputation, when Gary arrived to pick us up, he let us know
via text message that he was outside, implying that he had no interest in
coming inside. Fair enough. From there he took us back to his place, and after catching up
with each other, and having some delivery pizza, we soon went to bed, expecting
the next day to be a busy one.
We woke up to SNOW! Not a whole lot of it, but about a
couple centimeters of the white stuff covering most parts of the city.
Seeing as how the
replacement tube wasn't going to arrive until shortly after noon, we thought
we'd tag along with Gary for the first hour of his work shift as he is a Powell River bus driver. We got a scenic and guided tour of practically the
entire city, and it was much bigger than either my Dad or I had thought. The
tour also gave us a better idea of the layout of the city, which would prove to
be handy if we needed to stay any more nights in Powell River. Foreshadowing?
Maybe.
We had organized for Patrick Riley to meet us again at the airport
around noon so he could help us install the new tube, and get the tire back on
the plane. But before he arrived, my Dad headed to the closest liquor store to
get a couple of bottles of wine as a thank you to Patrick for the help he had provided
for us. Without him, our situation would have been a serious struggle. While my
Dad was doing that, I swept the snow off of the Jodel. Both our tasks concluded
around the same time and we met up again at the Powell River Flying Club where I
monitored the weather until Patrick arrived. Patrick arrived before Pacific
Coastal Airlines did with our tube, so we sat and chatted about flying and
other typical things pilots talk about. He told us about how the Powell River Flying
Club used to host a seafood fly-in. From the sounds of it, it was a highly
attended event with over a hundred airplanes flying in from as far away as
California, and all attendees feasted on local fresh oysters, shrimp, clams,
mussels, and anything else that was in season. What an event that must have been! Something tells me this event needs to be brought back!!!
By now we had witnessed the PASCO Beech 1900 land and off-load
its passengers and freight at the terminal building, so we headed down the apron and picked up our tube.
We took the tube over to the cold and lonely Jodel and again, Patrick made
incredibly quick work of repairing and installing the tire.
He had a portable
air compressor and was able to fill the tire on site, as well as top up the air
on the other main tire.
For all intents and purposes, we were now ready to go!
But, after taxiing the Jodel back over to the Powell River
Flying Club building, I checked the most recent METAR's and TAF's for our route
home. Yikes! It didn't look good. Every 30 minutes I'd be back on the computer
hoping for some positive SPECI's or amended forecasts, but things were not
looking good. Powell River had VFR to Marginal VFR conditions, with lots of low
scud (low clouds that get in your way at every turn).
There were moments where
we could tell that visibility had improved and the ceiling looked to be approximately
1500', but as soon as it appeared that way, it would dip back down to being
lousy. Reports from Campbell River and Comox were not painting a pretty picture
either, yet it was likely that we could have gotten as far as Sechelt. Looking
at the Nav Canada webcam in West Vancouver, it was evident that even if we did get past Sechelt, making it
through Vancouver Harbour would likely be impossible.
We were suggested to try flying
over to Vancouver Island and down to Victoria,
and then across to Point Roberts, but the prevailing visibility in
Victoria was less than 2 miles, and the webcam in Nanaimo suggested that a trip
along that route would include a decent amount of scud-running. Despite the
weather being slightly better on Vancouver Island, I decided that it was not an
option because of my lack of familiarity with that area, and because I didn't
want to cross the Salish Sea at very low altitudes.
So, it was either Vancouver
Harbour, or nothing. 3:00pm was the time we set as our last chance to leave for
the day, otherwise we would not have enough daylight to make it back to Delta.
If conditions were not good enough to go by 3:00pm, we would be forced to spend
another night in Powell River. As this time neared, I was monitoring the Nav
Canada weather website constantly, checking the automated ATIS phone line for
Boundary Bay, Vancouver Harbour, and Pitt Meadows, and I also called my friend
Gerard, who is the caretaker at Delta Air Park to get a weather observation
from him. Gerard told me that conditions were very bad, and that if it were
him, the only reason he'd even consider giving it a try, would be if someone's
life hung in the balance. Nobody's life did, and I didn't have to work the next
day, and with my Dad being retired we very easily made the decision to not
risk anything and stay put. As the saying goes, "It's better to be down
here wishing you were up there, than to be up there wishing you were down here."
And this rang true with the knowledge that if we had departed that
day and had to return back to Powell River for whatever reason, there was
the very real possibility of conditions deteriorating to the point where a return might
not have been possible. With only 1.5hrs of fuel left in the Jodel, and no 100LL
available at the field, our options were limited. I was not going to go
anywhere unless I had a very firm trust in making it.
As many of the TAF's
were not long enough to give a good forecast into the next day, I turned to
alternative sources for weather, and to my dismay, I came across many articles
talking about a serious winter storm that was going to be rolling in the very
next day! I didn't want any of that, so kept combing through the TAF's and
noticed that there looked to be a window of opportunity early Saturday morning.
Now that it was nearly dinner time, we tied down the Jodel in a proper parking spot, and my Dad and I walked from
the airport into town and had a very enjoyable dinner at the bowling alley lounge/pub,
which was right across the street from the Zoo. I highly recommend the curry chicken
soup!
We watched the quarter-finals game between Canada and Denmark in the junior world hockey championships at the bowling alley as we waited for Gary to finish work. Seeing as how we were going to be staying another night, we decided a trip to Walmart was in order so we could
pick up some essentials. Once this mission was completed, we headed back to
Gary's, had another great evening of conversation and catching up, and then we
went to bed early, counting on the morning being a small window of opportunity
for us to get out and get home.
Just before tucking myself into bed, I checked the TAF's one
last time, and the impression I was getting, was that over the entire lower mainland
area, we would be blessed with 4000' ceilings, but by the afternoon conditions
would deteriorate. Needless to say, I set my alarm for an early wake up.
We awoke fresh and ready to go and had Gary drive us to the
airport where we found the Jodel entombed in ice. With credit cards and squeegees
in hand, we de-iced the plane "bush league" style.
The apron in front
of where we parked the Jodel was a sheet of ice, so not wanting to start up the
Jodel and uncontrollably slide into any obstructions, we worked together and pushed the Jodel
to the grass where I could start up, do a run-up, and then be on our way. That's
what we did, and with much improved weather compared to the day before, we
departed giving heavy thanks to Gary for everything he had done for us.
Once airborne, we found conditions to be very good. Our
original plan was to have a fuel stop in Sechelt, but considering how icy Powell
River's apron was, we didn't want to risk slipping off the side of the runway
in Sechelt, had they had the same conditions.
We had enough fuel to make it home
with a 30 minute reserve, so we pushed on, past Sechelt, over the saddle of
Bowen Island, and through Vancouver Harbour
Once past the second narrows bridge, we descended to an
altitude appropriate for avoiding the YVR approach path and headed along the
Fraser River to the Alex Fraser Bridge, then straight down to Delta Air Park.
As we neared Delta, conditions become very hazy, and once over Mud Bay and in
the descent for circuit altitude, it was observed how the grey clouds, haze,
and grey-ish water made for a visually seamless transition between surface and
sky.
Quite a disconcerting view if we needed to be flying towards it for a prolonged
amount of time. Thankfully we didn't have to, and proceeded to joined a
downwind left for a full stop on runway 07. The landing was smooth and
effortless and was made easy due to the absence of any kind of crosswind.
With the engine shut down, we were finally home, and boy did
it feel good! Relief swept over me and my Dad.
In the end, I learned quite a few things from this trip:
1.) Fellow pilots are some of the best people in the world.
2.) Always be adaptable with your flight.
3.) Never take risks that you don't need to take.
4.) Always bring your cell phone charger with you.
5.) Consider bringing a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, and other personal health products, just in case.
2.) Always be adaptable with your flight.
3.) Never take risks that you don't need to take.
4.) Always bring your cell phone charger with you.
5.) Consider bringing a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, and other personal health products, just in case.
Happy New Year and safe flying!
