Sunday, May 27, 2007

Day One ending in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Tacoma Narrows Airport, Sunday, May 27, 2007

We took off from Tacoma Narrows Airport at the designated time. Mariza sat up front with Ras and I was in one of the four back seats. There are two on each side facing each other with a folding table between each pair. A fifth seat has been removed to make room for luggage and the safety raft. It was chilly and overcast and it was raining in Seattle although not in Tacoma.

At 10:22am taxied out to the runway. We all had earphone on which connected us to the tower and to each other. Here we go.... We are "cleared for take off!" and then we are AIR BORN!


We climbed to 5,000 feet. The sound of the radial engines (propellers to the layperson) is a steady hum/beat, that is soothing as opposed to oppressive. We are in the cloud and there is some turbulence.

We went to 9,000 feet still in cloud although there was some break as we left the coastal rain forest, and Mount Rainier is spectacular, rising snow-capped above the clouds.

At 12:25 pm we crossed the Canadian border and climbed to 13,000 feet over the Rockies because of the mountainous terrain. We passed though clouds filled with rain and snow and experienced more turbulence.

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We flew across the prairie and the sky was clear. At one point we flew over a rainbow. The ground is squared off into plots of brown.

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Sitting in the co-pilot seat of this Twin Beech, the visibility is fantastic. The nose cone is small and, by leaning forward, the ground can be seen directly below.

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We landed at the Saskatoon airport at 2:49 pm. It was 23C (74F) and the wind felt dry after the humidity of Seattle. The weather forecast for Churchill, Manitoba for tomorrow, however, is unfavourable so we may be seeing more of Saskatoon than planned....

3 comments:

nealoss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nealoss said...

Hi All,
Wish I was there with you in Churchill! Sounds like the trip has been great so far...hope to hear About all the interesting things you see there.

Take Care!
Neal

Anonymous said...

Great work.