June 21, 22 & 23, 2008

June 20, 21 & 22, 2008

 

During the first three years of our full time RV lifestyle the only part of our old lives that I truly missed was flying. So when we purchased our lot here in Keremeos a year ago I was thrilled to find that there is a small "Mom & Pop" aviation charter, flight training, and aircraft rental business in Penticton with a couple of Cessna 172's available for rental. Their aircraft are very old, and ... well, perhaps a little decrepit, but that's the only choice I have available if I want to fly. Last summer I flew six times, but Southern Skies Aviation restricted my flying to the Okanagan Valley and Similkameen Valley until I completed their Mountain Performance course.

I have been flying for 23 years. Until last summer all my flying has been "flat land" flying except for a few weeks in 1986 when we went to Vancouver for Expo 86. I rented a Cessna 172 from the Pacific Flying Club at Boundary Bay a few times to fly with family and friends over Expo 86, Vancouver, and a bit of the surrounding area. I took a 1.2 hour "mountain flying introduction" flight with an instructor at the Pacific Flying Club, but that was almost no training, and it was a very long time ago.

So this weekend I attended Southern Skies Aviation's Mountain Performance Course ground school. Friday evening, all day Saturday, and half a day on Sunday. Gee, I'm even more intimidated by flying in the mountains after this ground school course than I was last year when I flew around without benefit of any mountain flight training. I'm confident that will change by the time I complete the practical / flying portion of this training. My first of six required training flights is in a week and a half. I was somewhat dismayed to find out during ground school that the Penticton flight region has one of the highest incidents of aviation accidents in the country. Them mountains sure can reach up and bite your ass quickly when flying a small airplane ! And a "forced landing" ( aviation terminology for a crash ) in the mountains just ain't the same as having to go down on a wheat field ! The first two of the six training flights are fairly routine ( for an experienced pilot ), but the latter flights are truly very challenging "cross country" flights incorporating many of the mountain flight "ass biters" that have claimed a lot of lives in this area. They're more than a bit scary, but better to be exposed to scary situations with the benefit of an instructor beside me. I can hardly wait < rolling eyes > to fly at low altitude to the end of a box canyon and then have to use some pretty hairy techniques of flying to turn around and get out without turning myself into a smoking hole on the side of a mountain.

On Saturday morning I caught a ride into Penticton with a neighbour who works in the city. Saturday afternoon Joanne drove our truck into Penticton, ran some errands, then picked me up at the airport after my ground school course was finished for the day. We went down to Lakeshore Drive on Okanagan Lake to see all the antique and classic cars attending the Peach City Beach Cruise, a three day exhibition event of amazingly restored and customized antique and classic automobiles. Gee, does every old man with a few bucks in his pocket except me own a 1930's Model "A" or 1970's muscle car ? ! ? I sure would like one of them 1960's vintage Cadillac convertibles ! After wandering along the lakeshore viewing the hundreds of vehicles we walked over to Okanagan Lake Park to see the local "First Nations" celebration of National Aboriginal Day. We watched a very good hoop dance performance, but there was a chilly wind coming off the lake so we didn't stay long. We walked to Gyro Park where the Peach City Beach Cruise festivities were taking place, but we didn't want to pay the admission fee to enter. To be on time for the ground school course that morning I had gotten up very early, and had to do so again the next day. I was tired and we were hungry. We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant that we had not been to before and "pigged out" before heading back home to Keremeos.

DSK