Kelowna to Vancouver and Whitehorse – I love flying!
My last day in BC turned out to be the nicest day by far weather-wise, as overnight rain had washed all the smoke and crap out of the air for a few hours. An afternoon flight out of Kelowna allowed me to enjoy most of the day, though the haze had started to move back in by then. Knowing that it will be months until I see my family again made it a pretty flat day regardless of the weather. Below is Okanagan Lake on the climb-out.
The photo below shows the same part of the Coquihalla Valley as in the photo I posted a few days ago. This flight followed the perfect route for me to look down and see many of the back-country places where I used to spend time.
Below is the Pitt Meadows airport where I learned to fly in 1966 – back when a pilot’s license only cost $400 net, as there was a large government grant for training ($600). That’s a far cry from the current situation where the MoT does everything possible to discourage private pilots from flying. For most of is, it worked – one of the big reasons I buy lottery tickets is so I can get back in the air, though. The new bridge being built there to cross the Fraser River sure makes the area look different.
I never mind spending time at most airports – I can amuse myself for hours taking pictures of airplanes. The 70 minutes I had between flights at Vancouver was perfect, as WestJet’s busy gates were in the same area.
Instead of the forecast sunshine for most of the trip up the coast we had mostly clouds, but my seat-mate was a woman from Victoria heading to Whitehorse for an education conference, so the 2 hours passed in pleasant conversation anyway. The weather in Whitehorse was wet and cold, with fresh snow very low on all the mountains, but the warm welcome home made that hardly noticeable.
Now it’s back to reality – Web site building, finances, drywalling, putting new brakes on Subie, installing a lot of hardwood flooring, etc, etc, etc. I did manage to save enough money on a flooring nailer at Home Depot in Westbank to pay for a lot of the trip, though – good bonus (and yesterday was the first day for no-charge 2nd bag (the large, heavy nailer)! w00t
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