October 24 2013

          This is now my second post for the aviation blog.  Some blogs are just a series of pictures designed for the short attention span generation, so I might have to condense my stories to keep the excitement level around 10.  In this post I'm going to try to hit some of the memories that were the most exciting for me while training to fly.

This shot is of my friend's house halfway between Libau and Lac Du Bonnet on my first cross country flight to the north-east.  The trip towards LDB is very scenic.  We pass over the man-made lake in Birdshill Park and follow a set of power lines directly towards town.  If you're doing it right, you'll fly over a forest with the Milner Ridge Correctional Facility out the right wingtip.  It's not advised to fly near the jail, to avoid being assumed to be throwing supplies down to the prisoners.  Milner Ridge does not have an official no-fly zone about it, unlike the high security Stony Mountain jail.  Its a respect thing in this case.

These two were photographed on my first flight towards Victoria Beach over the sunset on Lake Winnipeg.  Its hilarious looking back at this flight, because it was my second time flying the Cessna 172 (it has 4 seats rather than the two I had been used to.)  I jumped in the aircraft with two friends, ready to document Winnipeg's downtown scene, and I rifled through my preparation checks.  I would reset the transponder (imagine on a radar screen seeing all the airplanes in the sky, the transponder gives our little blip a unique number to be identified by) and... I can't find the transponder.  New aircraft; maybe its in a different location.  I'm nervous now because I don't want to alarm anyone, but I have no idea how to reset the transponder in this aircraft, because I can't find it.  It is very important when flying into Winnipeg airspace.  Eventually I shut off the engine and call one of the instructors.  He comes over and observes the aircraft, says to me, "Well looks like someone removed it, you can't get into Winnipeg without it."  Quick thinking, I suggested an alternate up the lake's shoreline and the day was saved.

Grunthal, Manitoba: Race day

This was the first flight that I took my dad on. We flew over downtown Winnipeg and then straight out 59 highway to the national motocross track. We were going to stop in at the Steinbach airport on the northbound leg but decided to buzz back through the city over the Symington Train Yards. 

Its difficult to imagine when looking at the serenity of a summer sunset that the whole province can switch from thriving greenery to snow-covered wastelands in under a few weeks.  Still looks real nice when seen at 1200 feet above the ground (equivalent to 2000 feet above sea level in most of southern MB).

That's all for today, time to go prepare my summer toys for winter storage.