Last week Kendall, Liz & I took the 182 up to Yellowknife and back for some commercial training. It was a great trip. We managed to do it in a day - so no sightseeing this time.
It was gorgeous blue skies up to Fort McMurray and then we entered the smoke from the nearby forest fires.
This was a great experience to fly in minimal visibility. After a quick fuel stop in Fort Smith, we finally popped out of the smoke just outside of Yellowknife, landed, switched pilots and started our flight back.
The smoke was much thicker on our return trip as we climbed and descended to try to increase our forward visibility.
As we approached Fort McMurray for the second time, we immediately met blue clear skies. (Look at the wall of smoke!)
We landed and taxied for fuel. Unfortunately, due to the nearby forest fires, our type of fuel was commonly being used for the bird-dogs (those aircraft spotting fires) over the last few days. Thus, one company was out and the other was just about to fill a fuel truck which would have taken several hours. The man we were speaking with seemed pessimistic that we were going to be able to leave that evening. I said a quick prayer that we would find some fuel, and several minutes later, a fuel truck was sent over to us. We filled up and in short time we were on our way.
The weather held out the rest of our flight home. By the time we reached Edmonton, it was night and in those first 30 minutes the sky was BLACK with limited references on the ground. Kendall commented that what we needed right then was a bright moon and some stars. About an hour later, a HUGE orange moon rose and many twinkly stars. It was gorgeous. We touched down in Three Hills at 11:30pm. A successful trip was had by all!
Courtesy of the weather network that evening.
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