Idle in Prince George

We are idle in Prince George as we wait for our aircraft part to be shipped from Maryland, clear customs, and make its way into Prince George. The estimated delivery time - 5pm on Thursday. Two days to kill and no guarantee that this part would fix the problem. We had to add to this the unusually crappy weather we are having in Alaska and Western Canada - where normally the weather is a balmy 21 degrees centigrade with the sun shining brightly, it is a humid 15 degrees with constant thunder clouds, rain and lightning. Freezing levels are low (the altitude at which a plane is in danger of getting ice when flying in the clouds) limiting IFR travael. VFR flight (visual and low to the ground in Alaska/Canada) is iffy with the rapidly changing weather. Not to mention that we are now a group of one.

So, I have been spending a good chunk of my time over the two days reading about Canada flight rules, researching route options, and constantly checking the weather patterns to determine what we might be able to do to catch up to the group once we get the plane repaired.

It did give us a little opportunity to get familiar with Prince George (you can see the shot from our hotel room of the town above). Tuesday night we caught part of the World baseball championship playing in PG and saw the Formasa/Japan game. We also checked out probably all the good restaurants - a couple of recommendations - the Hummus Brothers (gotta love the name) which actually was a superb tapa restaurant that just opened, and, CiMO, a great italian restuarant with house made pasta and ingredients from local farms. If you every find yourself in Prince George check it out. Oh, and our hotel was booked so we had to switch from the Coast to the Ramada and welcomed a big improvement to our accomodations.

Aside from doing the laundry, and trying to find Jim fresh brewed ice tea (harder to come by then you might think), that was about the extent of our adventures.

Thursday finally came and the aircraft part finally arrived. I won't bore you with the details of my constant web checking and phone calls to track its progress thorugh the FedEx system. The folks at Hill Aviation at Prince George Airport where fantastic and called me as soon as it was in. We rushed down to the airport to assist with removing the airplane cowl so the mechanic could do his work. It only took 10 minutes to install the part (for want of a nail). After a quick engine run-up to check for leaks we took the aircraft out for a shake down flight circling around the Prince George with clouds at 4,000 feet and showers at various points on the horizon with winds of 19 - 21 knots (fortunately right down the runway). The plane performed perfectly so it seems all is repaired and ready to go. While in the air we had a chance to see the swollen Frasier river that has been causing record floods, washing out roads, and causing general mayhem. Talk about global warming.

After landing and securing the aircraft we put in a fuel order and headed back to the hotel to try and sort out options for the next day. I had a chance to talk with a local pilot as well who gave me some tips on the local weather patterns on the various routes.

I gave a call our flight leader to let him know we were ready to get back in the air and catch up with the group and discovered that the group got stuck in Whitehorse, YK - the place we were headed to when our plane acted up. Seems the weather has kept them gounded as well and with the patchy internet services in Whitehorse, and the fact that Canadian aviation weather will only forecast out 6 hours, they haven't been able to quite sort out their options either.

We will have to see how the weather looks in the morning. Plan A is an IFR flight over to Prince Rupert, BC then crossing over the border and landing in Ketchikan, AK. Once over there more options will open up to us. Plan B will be going through 'the Trench' but the line of thunderstorms, however mild in Canada compared to farther south, is creating rapidly changing conditions. Plan C is going further down the list of restaurants in Prince George and checking out the bowling alley.