Toughest Place In Canada To Fly?

[407 Driver]

Hey BandAid, Welcome !

I thought that your worst "real test of intestinal fortitude" was the day after I backed into your new Sports-Car in the Pub parking lot

Any flight that we ever did was no match for that tragedy !

You sort of looked like - -> :hide: the next day

[downwash]

Having flown in all of our provinces and territories, and a very good chunk beyond, the high Arctic has offered some of the most rugged times, as have Labrador and the 'wet coast,' but the worst in this memory are probably those of the Queen Charlottes and Hecate Strait in gale season, when the weather can be bad enough in itself, but the winds are easily able to wrest control of the machine from you in a wink. Trips around Rennell sound and over to Sandspit, then across to 'Rupert, are true survival stories but, at least, there are some of us still here to tell them.

[CTD]

Never had the pleasure of working the Charlottes, but I've heard they are no fun.

 

Newfoundland is no picnic, mainly becasue of the weather, but I'd have to say that the eastern Arctic and northern Labrador would have to qualify as the worse (and best) places places I've flown.

 

There is extremely rugged terrain, with relief that exceeds most of the hills in the west. The east side of Baffin around Auyuittuq park had cliffs that fall close to 7000' to the ocean. The Torngats, Kiglapaits and Kaumajets in Labrador are equally spectacular. Of course, the weather can be brutal beyond your wildest imagination.

 

But what I think makes these places the most difficult, even more so than those areas with more severe topography, is the incredible remoteness, lack of vegetation, and - when I was up there - lack of communication. I don't know how many times I'd be scooting along, picking my way through the weather, and realize that the nearest helicopter to come get me if I had a problem was 900 miles away, and had to come through the same wx to find me. 5680 was useless, and unless you were near a NWS site, Arctic Radio was not an option. The nearest full-on SAR capability was in Trenton ON.

 

With no trees and no shelter, even a failure to start for a dead battery could be a disaster if the weather got bad and nobody could get to you. Pretty serious stuff.

[CTD]

And here's what it can get like on the south coast of Newfoundland. I landed at Hope Brook that evening with a 52 knot wind, which eventually got up to 92 that night. We pinned the A-Star down using two front end loader buckets on the skids, and a Cat dumper for a wind block.

[CTD]

South coast NF again, around the Dashwoods area. Thjis one appears on the cover of the new Vortex, for an article on, you guessed it, whiteout.

[CTD]

But it can be beautiful, like this evening at Saglek Fjord, Labrador.

[bandaid]

407 driver,

Still got that piece of garbage with a lot more dents in it. You just gave it a taste of things to come. I'm not sure it was with you or not but we were flying with a mountie to a climbing accident in the Rogers. The pilot had to land and off load the mountie and myself to longline the patient down to us. I said to the pilot "your not leaving me in an alpine meadow with this mountie" the pilot asked why. I said that one smell of the bacon and we would have grizzly all over us. That was a quiet wait. Good to hear from you, hope all is well.

[Hover-Pig]

Continental shelf off the East Coast? It's either that or the Tutor flight simulator when I was a cone back in 82'.

[Charles W.]

Ahhh yes the Arctic in winter.

 

It was even more fun in the sixties and seventies before we had modern aids such as GPS and Radar alt's and turbine engines.

 

But the polar bears were the same. :up:

 

So were the school teachers and nurses. :up:

 

Chuck. ( A.K.A. Reverend Chas W. )

[407 Driver]

BandAid, that was Dunc from Revelstoke that left you in Bear country. I remember the rescue well. With your money, I thought that you'd have upgraded to something new and foreign, like a BMW or ???

 

As far as difficult places to fly, it certainly isn't here. The central Rockies and interior ranges are generally straight forward, other than some snow. The winds are not extreme, unless you get up high, the weather is somewhat predictable, there's roads in most valleys, communications are good.

 

My time in the northern Rockies (Chet-WIND) was far worse than here. I'd have to agree with a prior poster though, the central and north coasts must be some of the worst areas in the country to operate.

 

CTD, We're dealing on a certain "specialty" job for a large Federal Department in the Torngats, perhaps in the spring??? I may need to borrow something in a Bell, perhaps size L3 ?