Soaring Spring.

          As I sit here in the flight planning room with the air conditioning keeping me cool, I look back on the winter and feel happy that it's over! This was my first winter in the prairies, and I can say it was vastly different than the winters that I am accustom to.

          It isn't so much the weather out here, it's the way the city handles it. Saskatoon's city management, in their infinite wisdom, decided that plowing the roads after any snowfall wasn't necessary. As you drive down the roads you have to make sure that you stay in the ruts from other cars... They get so deep after a few snowy days that the car can bottom out and you'll get stuck. It made me crazy driving here.

          Now we're rounding the corner from spring to summer, and it's a beautiful thing. The airframe icing conditions that we have to deal with during the winter months have given way to thunderstorms and turbulence. I enjoy the fluffy cumulus clouds and finding ways to dodge the bumps. It reminds me of the jump flying I did for so long. Every day I flew jumpers was about finding an efficient way up between the clouds, and locating an open spot for the jumpers to get out. I miss that job!

          As far as stories from winter flying goes.... I don't have many. It was a fairly uneventful winter. The one super cool memory I have was landing one night in Saskatoon. I was on the way back from somewhere up north and we were picking up the ATIS in preparation for landing. We heard the RVR reported as 1200 feet, which isn't good. Our operation needs 1600RVR to land from an ILS, so it looked like we were going to need to head to our alternate. Before we made the decision to do that, we called Saskatoon Radio to get his impression of the conditions and if he thought it was clearing. He reported that the RVR for runway 09 was variable between 1100 and 1600. No good. But, the visibility to the east was unlimited, and runway 27 had no RVR, so it was game on!

          The winds were calm, and my captain was setting up the FMS for the GNSS overlay NDB on 27. I could see where the airport was, and I could make out the first third of the runway. Turning final it became clear to us that the majority of the runway was completely obscured by fog, and the first few hundred feet of 27 was completely clear. Perfect! I planned on touching down in the clear and rolling into the fog. My plan worked out perfectly and I touched down about 200-300 feet down 27, and rolled into the soup. It was so cool! To go from super clear VFR to the worst IFR ground conditions I have experienced so far, blew my mind. The way the runway lights cut through the fog when they're at strength 6 is wicked. I was pretty pumped after that and I wanted to go do it again. The airport went to zero zero about five minutes after we landed, so we got very lucky.

          That's about my only story from the winter. I can think of a few more cool things that happened, but that was by far the best. I'm looking forward to a nice summer season of flying, hopefully to some cool places. Next up, summer vacation! Ottawa, Oshkosh, and Newfoundland.

Blue skies!!