Surfing Holiday

Ooooooooh!!! Another cloud photo! Jennilyn's not very sick of these, she's only seen hundreds over the last 8 years of my flying career. Surf's up DUDE!! Catch a wave!!



I have seen this phenomenon a few times where there is a snow storm in Toronto and the associated clouds end abruptly, just before Ottawa.



This is the beginning of the afternoon rush hour at Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport. I am next for take-off and am departing for a round trip to Baltimore, Maryland. All of the planes you see in line for take-off departed after me and basically chased me down the east coast on their way to the Caribbean. Well, they didn't do a lot of chasing since their climb speed is way faster than my top cruise speed. As they blew my doors off in the climb out of Toronto, I was wishing I was heading out on a vacation down south. I was fortunate to snap such a great picture!!

Nails and Pancakes

I know y'all think that I don't work hard but..........you're right, I don't. I had the pleasure of partaking in a few of the winter festivals here in the Centre du Canada during a few of my overnights. Actually, my first winter festival was in Detroit.

This is a view of the Detroit skyline, looking out across the Detroit River from my hotel room in Windsor, ON. For $2.75 each way (exact change please), you too can hop the tunnel bus from one side to the other.



Through the tunnel and here we are at...



The city trucked in umpteen truckloads of snow and dumped them in a popular square in the heart of the Detroit city center. They had a dogsled team taking kids for rides, but the line up was too long for me to wait for my turn. I'll be there at the front of the line next time!!



The line up for the tube slide was rumored to be over 2 hours long! Luckily, I only had to talk myself and not my kids out of waiting in THAT line up!! There was also a snowboard track, but it was a pretty short run, and the effort to get there was more than the ride was worth.



I decided to go indoors and to my luck, I stumbled across the worlds tallest indoor waterfall!! But don't go booking your next holiday to see this Wonder of the World!! In the foyer of the skyscraper where the indoor waterfall was located, there was a whole market of displays and a stage. Soon after my arrival, a German lady came onstage and started playing her accordian. She was joined by a number of men drinking beer and wearing Lederhosen and performing a traditional Shuhplattler dance.



Next, I was off to Ottawa for my next winter festival, or Bal De Neige, as it's called there. OK, it's Winterlude in English. Not sure how Ball of Snow translates into Winterlude, but I don't ask questions. I'm not sure about a lot of things in this part of the country. I actually took part in the Free Pancake Breakfast here. Standing in the warm morning sun with the temperature gauge showing -20, I enjoyed my pancakes with fresh maple syrup, of course, and thought to myself "How lucky am I to have a free breakfast AND watch a Blacksmith make nails!!!!!!!" Bet you wish you were in my shoes!! There's nothing like wearing dress shoes in -20 weather!



So, for those of you who didn't know, myself included, the frozen Rideau Canal is the largest skating surface in the world!!! The start of the Rideau Canal is at the foot of the Chateau Laurier and the end is in Kingston, Ontario. We aren't going to be skating to Kingston today though. The first 1/2 km of the canal is packed full of food vendors, skate rentals, warming huts, benches and a stage for the evening performances. There are pit stops stretched out along the 7.8km length of the river that is used for skating, consisting of extra warming huts and food vendors.



I had no idea this many people skated on the Rideau!!



Along with free pancakes and a nail making Blacksmith, there was a huge ice-sculpting competition. There were groups, pairs and singles all busily carving their ice blocks under a strict time constraint. I thought this sphere was extra cool. It looks like it is 1/2 filled with water!



I learned that a lot of the parts are made separately and then attached to the main sculpture later. This artist was attaching the teeth to this dragon head, which was not yet attached to the body. Neat, hey!!



Now, off to the Land of Quebec. Unfortunately, my employer didn't schedule me enough time to participate in Carnaval de Quebec, the largest of them all! Arriving late one night, I braved the -30 temps to snap a few pictures of a nearby exhibit. A security guard came to remove me from the area, telling me it was closed. But because he was speaking French, "Ferme ce soir" meant nothing to me and the lengths I'd go to for my faithful blog followers!! Me No-ah Speak-ah Fran-says.



This is a stage made out of ice blocks. The picture doesn't do the thing justice.



And you thought YOU were carrying a burden on your shoulders. How do you think this guy feels? But seriously, how heavy could a building made of snow be?

Holy Blowing Snow Batman

This is a little vid from Montreal Airport. We were stationary and waiting to park at the gate. The wind was gusting about 40 mph here and I have to say....I'm glad I was inside the airplane and not standing outside of it on this day!



Trying to land on a runway with snow blowing across it that fast has been my greatest challenge this winter. My brain told me to "go with the snow," but somehow I had to try to land straight down the center of the runway. What do they expect of me? They make me turn the autopilot OFF to land and expect me to land safely in these conditions while holding my deux creme et deux sucre without spilling it? The NERVE!!!!! I'm SO ready for an auto-landing airplane.

The Reason Pilots Are Rich. Ha ha ha......

And you thought all I did was fly the plane... We are busy printing money too. Luckily, our machine prints multiple currencies!!



I DO drink at least 2 or more Double Doubles each day at "work!" Do you think money just grows on trees? Or prints out of ACARS printers? W.

The Bigger Picture.....

If I posted this picture originally, I was sure that someone would figure out right away why the icicles are pointing upward. I didn't want to make it too easy. OK, enough with the stupid icicle thing! On to something new next time!

We have a winner!!!!!

Sea Hawk Bubba got the right answer. Icicles cannot form upwards, that would just defy the rules of gravity. If icicles formed as usual, pointing down, and a certain person just rotated the propeller 180 degrees they would appear to be pointing upward. I took a quick snapshot and fooled all y'all. Due to precipitation, sometimes icicles form on the aircraft. During our walk around before flight we see if any there is any ice on the aircraft and determine if we need to go get de-iced before we go. I was spinning the propeller to look at each blade for ice accumulation and when I was finished the icicles that had formed on the propeller hub were pointed upwards. That's it. Pretty simple. Now I want to find something else to boggle your mind.

Those helicopter pilots are pretty smart you know...........all those moving parts..........night vision goggles..........landing on a storm tossed carrier at nightime....etc.

More clues to the mystery???????

The aircraft is not in the air. (duh, hello, the blades are in feather), sorry a little pilot humour.

The propeller was stationary when I took the picture.
The camera was not turned upside down for the picture.
There are no tricks, the icicles are pointing to the sky!
I took the picture from outside the aircraft standing about 15 feet in front of the propeller.
The answer is very simple, almost too simple.

Any more clues and I would give it away.

The few guesses I got were good but I got lost in all the technical physics associated with the comments.

Keep trying.