When Vlad was out I had mentioned that I had not done many write ups lately as I had been doing the Videos. He insisted I should get back at it. Well you can thank Vlad for this one!
Last Friday we loaded up the RV10 and headed for Vancouver Island. All of our trips have been south bound so we figured we would change it up a little this year and see our own country. The last time we were off to the Island was in 2009 in the Ten, first trip we ever made in the plane. There was a huge high coming in off the coast and it was shaping up to being perfect weather. We had been getting hit by terrible weather all summer in Alberta and knew we had to get out early before the thunder storms hit yet again.
Airborne at about 8:30 we skirted between two storms already brewing and made our way direct. A climb to 10,500 and we were on our way.
Once over the Columbia valley the weather turned to clear sky’s. It was perfectly smooth the entire flight. It wasn’t long and we were on with Vancouver centre getting vectored well north of Vancouver. He was nice enough to line us up perfectly with an Airbus for its wake turbulence, luckily we did not hit any. Soon switched to Terminal and we were direct to Gower point then direct to Nanaimo. 2.7 hrs flight time.
Over Hope
Fraser Valley
North of Vancouver
We spent two nights in Nanaimo. Went to Coombs Market, Parksville beach, hiked Newcastle Island and Protection Island. Sunday we planned to head to Tofino.
Protection Island Pub
Hiking Newcastle Island
Tofino is known for its fog and unpredictable weather; it was off course Low IFR and forecasted to go VFR by 11:00. We left Nanaimo around 11:00 and headed for Courtenay watching to see if Tofino would go VFR on route. It never happened so we landed in Courtenay for fuel.
Courtenay
We decided to go for a look and see what it looked like. Half way over it went VFR. It is only about 20min to get across the Island. As we neared the west side all we could see is cloud over the ocean. We approached the airport and half was clear and half was under fog. Traffic was departing 34 away from the fog and traffic was landing 16 into the fog. We flew over the town of Tofino and Vargas Island for a look before landing. It was in the clear. Vargas Island is where you can land on the beach. I plan to get back there in the Carbon Cub to do just that.
Last Friday we loaded up the RV10 and headed for Vancouver Island. All of our trips have been south bound so we figured we would change it up a little this year and see our own country. The last time we were off to the Island was in 2009 in the Ten, first trip we ever made in the plane. There was a huge high coming in off the coast and it was shaping up to being perfect weather. We had been getting hit by terrible weather all summer in Alberta and knew we had to get out early before the thunder storms hit yet again.
Airborne at about 8:30 we skirted between two storms already brewing and made our way direct. A climb to 10,500 and we were on our way.
Once over the Columbia valley the weather turned to clear sky’s. It was perfectly smooth the entire flight. It wasn’t long and we were on with Vancouver centre getting vectored well north of Vancouver. He was nice enough to line us up perfectly with an Airbus for its wake turbulence, luckily we did not hit any. Soon switched to Terminal and we were direct to Gower point then direct to Nanaimo. 2.7 hrs flight time.
Over Hope
Fraser Valley
North of Vancouver
We spent two nights in Nanaimo. Went to Coombs Market, Parksville beach, hiked Newcastle Island and Protection Island. Sunday we planned to head to Tofino.
Protection Island Pub
Hiking Newcastle Island
Tofino is known for its fog and unpredictable weather; it was off course Low IFR and forecasted to go VFR by 11:00. We left Nanaimo around 11:00 and headed for Courtenay watching to see if Tofino would go VFR on route. It never happened so we landed in Courtenay for fuel.
Courtenay
We decided to go for a look and see what it looked like. Half way over it went VFR. It is only about 20min to get across the Island. As we neared the west side all we could see is cloud over the ocean. We approached the airport and half was clear and half was under fog. Traffic was departing 34 away from the fog and traffic was landing 16 into the fog. We flew over the town of Tofino and Vargas Island for a look before landing. It was in the clear. Vargas Island is where you can land on the beach. I plan to get back there in the Carbon Cub to do just that.
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