ATWC051 Saint John CYSJ - Miquelon LFVM

[CSoul 182]

Ok, my final leg for ATWC III. I'm hoping ATWC IV starts soon, 'cause this is starting to get, ahem, well, addictive. The aircraft for this leg is the Quest Kodiak Amphibian. I thought I'd fly this leg with random failures on, although, as it turned out, nothing spectacular happened.

Flightplan

Saint John to Miquelon direct, but with the option to divert to Saint Pierre if the weather is bad.

We've seen Una, Kerrie, Sharon and many others, so here she is. My sister Sara is joining me on this leg, and here she is. As you can see, she got all the looks, brains, dress sense, and the um, magic powers in the family. And a temper.

So, here we go, and Sara is flying shotgun (not that she needs one). Since there's no push-back service available, we need some reverse thrust to get going.

Easy does it though, as there's not much ground clearance under those floats.

Ditto for rotation. Visibility is reasonable, but there's a stiff crosswind and the turbulence hits us as soon as we get airborne. Sara handles the gear and flaps,

'cause I'm sweating a bit keeping her straight.

We don't immediately climb to cruising altitude, though. And there's the reason; the Queen Mary 2 has docked in New Brunswick and we fly overhead as Sara snaps a few pictures.

Climbing to cruise altitude and the turbulence eases. Sara digs around in her bag and finds some drinks; water for me, some kind of cocktail thingy for her.

A touch worrying, as she does get tipsy quite easily, and with those powers of hers...

We're on autopilot, and since there's not much to do, I end up playing with the sun shade. It can be rotated to the side as well.

Sara says that the weather is going to get worse. I look around, see nothing but clear blue sky, and wonder what she's talking about. The weather looks great,

and apart from some scattered low-level cloud, everything is fine.

I spoke too soon. An hour later and the weather turns bad, with the turbulence kicking back in.

Even worse, low-level visibility does not look good, and if it's not good, then we'll have to divert to Saint Pierre. Sara suggests we go down to take a

look. So down we go, descending from 9000 to 300ft.

A good thing we did. We'll not be able to land at Miquelon in this, even considering that we're planning on a water landing.

Up we go to 2000ft and there, rising through the fog, Saint Pierre.

The approach is uneventful but that changed at this point, where I realized I had a very stiff crosswind blowing from the left. And I'm flying an amphibian.

Sara just laughs and quips that she's glad that she's not me. Now, what exactly are those magic powers good for, anyway?

The tower snapped this shot of us on final. You can just make out the pilot, face a picture of intense concentration.

The landing is a little bumpy but turns out well.

So here we at Saint Pierre, and now all I can do is wait for the fog to lift enough to land at Miquelon. Sara and I wander inside for a cup of coffee.

A few hours later and the weather lifts enough to get going, and a good thing too, as the sun is setting fast. We take off and are treated to a great view of Saint Pierre as we climb out.

A very short flight later and there's Miquelon, just to the left of that hill there.

On final.

Touchdown! Sara gives me a smile. No failures at all, and except for some bad weather, it was a pleasant flight.

The locals are a little surprised to see us taxiing in. Apparently, they don't see many seaplanes, at least not on days like this.

We find a handy beach and bring the Kodiak up onto firm ground (no docks nearby). I saw a documentary once, where the pilot drove a Lake Renegade right

up onto the beach, so I thought I'd try it with the Kodiak. It worked.

And that's it. Sara sends her greetings. Thank you all for viewing this leg.

Over to you, Dai. :dance2:

[IcedUpPitotTube 0]

Fantastic leg Marcellus. The 17th shot, not counting Wizard Sara, is my favorite. Seems like Sara was in a good mood; if not, she might've caused some failures. :th_smiles73: I have a question: is reverse thrust actually used sometimes on commercial jets to push back without a tug? I heard that they are forbidden to do that, especially in icy weather, because then engine might blow ice and snow on the wing, which goes one of two ways:

1) More deicing ----> More $$ to spend

or

2) Take off and stall out, which looks bad on your record if you survive the crash.

Finally, at the end: "Thank you all for viewing thig leg." I think you should edit that.

[stu7708 244]

Great leg Marcellus.

Entertaining story and some great shots.

Where did you find the Kodiak? I've been looking for a good GA model with glass cockpit, but most models seem to be with old school steam gauges.

@Andrew: I'm no expert on real life aviation, but I doubt they use the reversers as a replacement for pushback with jets. I'd imagine that the jet wash would wreck havoc with the jetways and other ground equipment. I have seen some videos of turbo props that use that method thuogh.

[colwah 0]

Hello

Brilliant pics and a great story

Well Done

Colin

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Hi Marcellus!

A great leg there, with great shots and stunning scenery!

@Andrew - Jet's aren't allow to use reverse thrust to push back. The C-130 is only allowed to do it when there is no facilities

@Stu - Here is the Kodiak - http://www.lionheartcreations.com/Kodiak.html

[stu7708 244]

Thanks Kieran..

That will most likely make into my hangar sooner or later...

[rob16584 42]

Great leg, well done on the diversion and keeping the baton safe

[SEATAC 400]

Congratulations on a successful ATWC leg.

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks Marcel, a truly entertaining post!

Wait until your next flight in the Kodiak, she is bound to go wrong...

Thanks for getting us safely to Miquelon, Dai should be lurking around somewhere, he will be the confused looking one trying to remember why he came to Miquelon

Cheers,

Joe

[CSoul 182]

Finally, at the end: "Thank you all for viewing thig leg." I think you should edit that.

Oops. :blush: Edited. Maybe I was thinking of Top Gear...actually I wonder how The Stig would do in a plane?

Thank you all for the kind comments. As for reverse thrust, to the best of my knowledge commercial jets cannot use reverse as an aid to pushback. It just occurred to me that I could have simply asked Sara to magic us into position, but she is not keen on frivolous uses of magic. For those who are interested, the pic I used for Sara is actually the character Moiraine Damodred from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series.

@Stu. Kieran is correct, that is the Lionheart Creations Kodiak. My apologies for not clarifying.

@Mutley. On an earlier flight of this leg, I had an engine failure 10nm from Saint Pierre and had to ditch. Then on another, I had a fuel leak just 5nm out from Saint John, and had to ditch...again. After that, I used floats.

[ddavid 149]

Well done, Marcellus - third time lucky, eh? Interesting storyline - not had a magicienne (?) in the ATWC before! Oh, and there was me thinking that the Queen Mary had three funnels! Thanks for sharing...

I'm currently partying , with Sam, in Montreal - so I'm not lurking in Saint-Pierre, yet, but I should be there soon.

Cheers - Dai.