Air Caribou - CYTL - CYER

[Deleted]

I had been in Big Trout for 3 or 4 days, running a few local flights in the Twin Otter for the villagers. We had a charter come up that meant taking the local band chief from Big Trout to Severn River, up on the Hudson Bay coast. There's a small native band there, and a park HQ for Polar Bear Provincial Park. This was the perfect opportunity for me to start doing familiarization flights in the company B200, as this was the Blackhawk version, which I don't have much time on. So it was we departed BTL for YER at 08:30, climbing to an altitude of FL250 for the trip. This aircraft has some "get-up-and-go" to it and it didn't take all that long to achieve our cruising altitude. We weren't there all that long as the trip is only about 45 minutes. The weather was pretty clear and we could easily see the frozen muskeg below as we transitioned onto the Hudson Bay Lowlands. As we got within about 40 nm of Severn River, we could easily see the river we were following up. I planned a VFR approach by overflying the strip to have a look at it, then for a 3 nm final to the gravel runway. It was hazy there in the -25C air as the nearby ocean wasn't frozen which meant a slight ice fog was forming. The approach went smoothly and we were down right on time. We planned to stay for the day and bring the chief and his associates back later that afternoon.

Climbing out for FL250 north of Big Trout

There were a few light cirro-cu at altitude but not too much overall.

Approaching Severn River, we could easily make out the frozen river and the frozen muskeg in the region

Our approach meant flying over the airport to check the runway conditions, then set up for a 3 mile final.

Thanks for looking in.

[Bushpounder]

Nice PIREP. Really nice paint!

BP;)

[Deleted]

Thanks Don. All of AC now has that scheme and colours. This is a nice machine but I think you're going to see a LOT more of the Twin Otters and Metroliner than this one. More my style .

[Jay]

I agree, that is a nice scheme, classy!

I wish they'd get around to making that B200 Blackhawk for P3D2 as well, looks unlikely though. Only alternative is to wait for the B350 by Milviz, though I'd much prefer a B200. Gotta have a King Air for when Orbx releases the Norway addon, for some ambulance flying.

[Deleted]

Thanks Jay.

Yeah, I doubt they'll convert it now. That said, I did find one major bug in it. You can't keep it on the runway with a crosswind. I had the rudder boost on, but even with a 30 degree xwind of only 10G15 kts, I had to use full right rudder and differential braking to keep it from heading off the left side of the runway. That doesn't work very well for me. May not see a lot of this airplane down the road.

I suspect Norway is very close. It's high on my "must have" list.

[Jay]

Wow, that is definitely a major bug. Makes it kind of useless for wintertime coastal ops I suppose... A shame.

Yeah, looks like it's close, they really are releasing a lot of screenshots now. Can't wait.

[Deleted]

I think I'll up the rudder effectiveness and see if that will fix it. Other than that, it's a really nice machine. I'd hate to give it up, but at the same time, it's kind of outside of Air 'bou's type of equipment. Still, doesn't hurt to have 1 modern machine around.