Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2016 11:38:25 GMT -5
Well, just when I was getting settled into Fredericton (or at least, New Brunswick), I got a call from a client about an extended job out in Alberta. I was to photograph cowboys on the range, as they are today for a major book coming next year. By 10 a.m. this morning, I was on a Westjet flight for Calgary. From there I'd pick up a car and head to Sundre, where I'd be staying for an indefinite period of time. The publisher had done some homework for me after asking me if I wanted to stay in town or live out in the country, and of course my preference was for the latter. So, they were able to find me a farm lot that the owners were renting out for a couple of years while they were overseas visiting with their kids. This was perfect for me.
The fly in the ointment in all this is that they were supposed to start working on my Comanche next week in Halifax. It wasn't going to do me any good having it in Nova Scotia and me in Alberta, so I asked Andy (my buddy with the flight school) how he felt about a "somewhat extended" cross country flight. He said it had been a year since he had any time off and he (or, should I say, his wife, who was actually from Alberta) thought that a long trip would be a good idea. He figured 5 days to get out there so I gave him the name and location of the maintenance people who could do the job in Red Deer, and told him the rest was up to him.
It was sure a hectic day, to say the least, but after settling in to my new digs (which were much better than I expected), I headed off to the Sundre airport to check it out and book some tie down space there. They didn't have any room left in their hangars at present but they did have tie downs. Sundre has 2 GPS approaches and one NDB approach, with their main runway being paved and close to 4500 ft long and a second runway that was 2500 and grass. This was perfect for me. I also liked that it wasn't in the mountains, but you could see them on a clear day. There were a few other aircraft tied down there and I met a couple of the pilots plus the local flight school proprietor while I was there and everyone was super friendly. Alberta is like that though. Mostly there were 150's and 172's, with a couple of Cherokees and 182's on the field. They did hint that there was one very "special" aircraft there but just winked when I asked what it was. They said the owner was extremely protective of "his baby", which was hangared out of sight so he'd be the one to tell me about it... if he wanted to. I was intrigued.
Anyway, looks like now I'll be spending a significant amount of time out this way. I quite like Alberta so I was looking forward to it.
The fly in the ointment in all this is that they were supposed to start working on my Comanche next week in Halifax. It wasn't going to do me any good having it in Nova Scotia and me in Alberta, so I asked Andy (my buddy with the flight school) how he felt about a "somewhat extended" cross country flight. He said it had been a year since he had any time off and he (or, should I say, his wife, who was actually from Alberta) thought that a long trip would be a good idea. He figured 5 days to get out there so I gave him the name and location of the maintenance people who could do the job in Red Deer, and told him the rest was up to him.
It was sure a hectic day, to say the least, but after settling in to my new digs (which were much better than I expected), I headed off to the Sundre airport to check it out and book some tie down space there. They didn't have any room left in their hangars at present but they did have tie downs. Sundre has 2 GPS approaches and one NDB approach, with their main runway being paved and close to 4500 ft long and a second runway that was 2500 and grass. This was perfect for me. I also liked that it wasn't in the mountains, but you could see them on a clear day. There were a few other aircraft tied down there and I met a couple of the pilots plus the local flight school proprietor while I was there and everyone was super friendly. Alberta is like that though. Mostly there were 150's and 172's, with a couple of Cherokees and 182's on the field. They did hint that there was one very "special" aircraft there but just winked when I asked what it was. They said the owner was extremely protective of "his baby", which was hangared out of sight so he'd be the one to tell me about it... if he wanted to. I was intrigued.
Anyway, looks like now I'll be spending a significant amount of time out this way. I quite like Alberta so I was looking forward to it.
