Definition of a Good Day

[Ned Gravel]

So I get back into Canada from three weeks in Bangladesh and one week in Vietnam.  Great tour.  Got good work done and looking forward to accomplish more.  Off the Cathay Pacific flight in Toronto and catch the ground shuttle to Waterloo.  Need to rest up for my own flying the next day.

 

I get to Waterloo airport at 07:45 and the pull the aircraft from the FBO hanger.  The autopilot is WORKING!! And the GPS data card is loaded with the most recent data, but COM 2 is now totally kaput.  Oh well.  I can always bring it back.

 

File the flight plan (IFR) to Rockcliffe (see http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CFSWR/history/20130915/1245ZZ/CYKF/CYRO) and the tracklog shows 170 kts and 180 kts caused by a tailwind.  Made it in 1 hour and 35 minutes (tracklog is wrong) and landed 30 minutes before they closed the airfield for an airshow that covered both Rockcliffe (CYRO) and Gatineau (CYND).  Vintage Wings of Canada was doing some display stuff and they had a special guest coming to Gatineau.  It was Chris Hatfield (most recently the ISS Commander), but I saw him on the ramp at Rockcliffe where I landed (my home drome), waiting for one of the Vintage Wings warbirds to drop in and pick him up and fly him over.  So I got out of my aircraft while the line guys fueled it up and walked over to the staff that were standing around taking pictures with him and I got one too.  

 

Perfect day!!

 

PS:  As I sit here writing this, a couple of CF-18s from his old squadron just did a low and over.

[yvesg]

And I thought you would be jealous of the picture I sent you with me, my family and our caravan formation instructor!

Well done Ned!

Yves

[Ned Gravel]

Yves:

 

That was a cool picture, but I only recognised the three of you. Was this taken today too?  At Gatineau?  Put it up here and see what kind of comment you get.

[yvesg]

Yes it was taken at the Gatineau's airshow after Andrew's Pitts Special performance.

Yves