Slippin' and a slidin', sweepin' and a glidin' here comes Adam's Dash 8

A beautiful day on approach into Windsor. I asked the Detroit air traffic controller if I could fly down the river to take a few pictures before landing. Detroit is on the far side of the river, Windsor on this side. I think this is one of the few places in Canada where the US is north of Canada.



This is a Ford transmission plant in Windsor. They are made here and then transported across the river to the Ford production plant in Dearborn, Michigan. (Suburb of Detroit)



On my last trip to Windsor, Ontario we woke up in a world of ice. A storm was passing through and covering everything with freezing rain. The airplane had been sitting on the ramp overnight and had been covered in an inch of solid, clear ice. So had all the runways and the taxiways.

Aircraft tires don't come in Blizzak or Ice-X models so we pretty much have no tread for traction. We ended up delaying for 4 hours for the airport crews to prepare the runway for our use. They don't often use sand, but will spray urea or lay down potassium acetate pellets in order to get rid of the ice. Then you just have to wait until the chemicals do their work. We need a certain CRFI (Canadian runway friction index) to take off and land. This is a magical number. Most larger airports have a special vehicle with a system onboard that gives them an idea of the friction of a runway when it is contaminated. The vehicle drives down the runway and then slams on the brakes and the system produces a number. That number is then relayed to all the aircraft arriving or departing. We use that number in a chart we have, to determine whether we can safely land or take off or...not. For example, the more crosswind we have the more restricted we are. Anyway, we had to wait in Windsor until the CRFI was at an acceptable number corresponding to the crosswind that was prevailing that morning. Got that?

I have never seen aircraft tires covered in ice like this. It took almost 45 minutes of hot de-icing fluid to melt/get rid of all the ice on the aircraft.



I gave the tire a kick to show the ice coverage.

There is no groundhog!

Quebec City and Montreal have very different winter weather. Quebec often has a longer, colder winter with a lot more snow. Montreals snow has been melting very fast and spring is well on its way.

A week ago I arrived at the Quebec airport at some extremely early and ungodly hour to start my day. There had not been any snow when we landed the night before, but now there was 3 inches on everything and still falling. Let the delays begin! After a 20 minute de-snow/de-ice we were on our way. I am SO ready for spring!

The Dash Huit!



Look at that Pratt and Whitney PW 102 with Hamilton Standard fully feathering, composite propeller! Such a thing of beauty! Lets dust them off, kick the tires and light the fires and we'll be on our way.



How does snow fall on the underside of a propeller blade? Hmmmm....

Shanty Towns

Ice fishing is a great winter sport. I loved going ice fishing with my dad as a kid. I remember lying down on the ice with a tarp or blanket over my head looking down into the hole and watching the fish swim by and grab the hook. Now out here, it is a whole different mentality when it comes to ice fishing. I know some people back in BC have ice shacks that they put out on the lake to sit in, but here they have the same but the shacks are hardly "shacks". These ones have vinyl siding, insulation and shingles on the rooves. They are equipped with mini-kitchens and wood stoves. People leave them out on the ice until spring. They also turn ice fishing into a multi-family weekend social event.

They actually pull the ice huts out onto the lake and align them in rows so the ice fishing community can become a town with streets. Yes, they actually drive their vehicles or snowmobiles on these "streets" and park beside their "houses" as they would at home. I have the advantage of seeing this phenomenon from the air and it really does look like there are little towns on the lakes. This first picture is taken near Montreal and the frozen body of water is actually the St. Lawrence River!



The further North I travelled, I found these fishing communities were ever more prevalent. North Bay, Ontario is on the shores of Lake Nipissing. Here there are many little communities all over the lake. I bet there were well over 100 shacks out on the lake all placed either in a half moon configuration or the standard parallel and perpendicular fashion. I have yet to see a cul de sac though!! One town on this lake had a snowmobile dragstrip down mainstreet! Very interesting the people of the east are. You might have to click on this picture to see the phenom a bit better.