Day 30 Travel Trivia

This is the 30th day of Jack's trip and he is still going strong.

He has flown 7,379 miles

He has stopped at 34 airports

Most stressful moment, "getting past point of no return on flight from Cambridge Bay to Resolute, 4+ hours into the flight then being told by Resolute flight services, contrary to weather forecast, it was deteriorating in Resolute, low ceilings, snow. Could not go back!!...no where else to land, not enough fuel, so carried on. Made it through a "hole" after 460 mi.....oh well it worked out"

Other stressful moment, GPS over heating in unfamiliar territory having to remember heading and time to next destination.

Tonight he is sleeping in his little aeronautic hotel at Houghton MI airport which is across Lake Superior from Thunder Bay Ont. 

He will cross over into Canada  tomorrow  and head to Red Lake Ont to visit his surrogate son Braydon. 

More travel trivia next post. 

posted by Jo

Day 29 State Side

Jack made it to Michigan no problem. He said the border agents were very friendly. Guess the best way to enter the US is via your own private plane!

He did hit some turbulence on his way there but by now that is a walk in the park for Jack. Once he landed they took care of his plane for him, tied it down etc. 

Tonight he is having a good chin wag with his youngest brother and tomorrow heading back to Canada.

Tomorrow also marks the 30th day of travel and he does not appear to be tired of it yet. He did say he did not realize how cold he had been at times while up north until he was in the nice hot weather of southern Ontario/Michigan.

GEJG signing off

Posted by Jo 

Day 28 The Ottawa-Toronto Corridor to London Ont

Jack left a great stopover, just outside of Ottawa, at Rockcliffe airport. He spent yesterday evening there with a new aviation acquaintance, Andre'. Fellow plane addict and adventurer like Jack. A visit that will likely last in a continued connection. I mean really what else would one want to talk about other than planes =)

He left Ottawa and made a stop in Stirling Ont. the famous home town of my former boss, Butch. Two retired guys filling each other up with adventure stories....ain't life grand when you are retired!!! In order to stop in Stirling he had to go through a military airspace. That was interesting.

Then, what the heck, might as well take the most direct route and travel through the most populated area of Canada and busiest radio traffic, the GTA!!! Jack said all the control towers, and there were many, were all very helpful and guided him through.

Up north there was so little radio chatter, hours with nothing to hear and down here there is too much!! He said it is so much more beautiful and peaceful up north with its amazing mountains and wilderness. The Toronto area was hot, humid and smoggy, yet he said was still interesting to fly over it and see how it was laid out. You can see from the two pictures, one of Toronto and one of Montreal how congested such a small part of our country is.

The stop for the night is in London Ont. He is nicely set up in a B&B with an excellent internet so he was able to download all the foreflight essentials for tomorrows flight.
Jack will be flying into US air space to visit a brother in Michigan. He feels he has all the paperwork in order so lets hope there are no glitches.

Lots of focusing today made for a tired pilot tonight.

Sleep well Captain J


Posted by
Jo

Day 27 Crossed 3 provinces and landed in 4th

Today Jack left Port Hawkesbury with a big "thank-you" to the team at the airport. Lots of good contacts made and stories told.

Keep your wings up until we see you again

He touched down in Summerside PEI

Then a stop in Miramichi, NB. They must have heard he was coming because they had a nice new hat there for him.

A fly over Quebec, as he said, back to civilization

 And a finally a rest stop in Ottawa.  Had to stop in the Capital of the great country he has been seeing.

Jack's new life saying

posted by 

Jo

Day 26 Grounded in Port Hawesbury

Another day in the Port for Jack. He spent a good part of the day planning out the fuel calculations for the next few days. He needs to calculate that July 1 may see a few gas pumps closed. Also he is planning to go to Grand Rapids Michigan to visit a brother. This involves a fair bit of paperwork and unfortunately he now has to do it all himself ( not his first love). For those of you who do not know, Jack has had a faithful meticulous scribe ( almost surrogate son) flying with him for the past 2 years.  Braydon, you showed him the ropes, ( should say, the data entry)  he is solo now...lets hope it is all filled out correctly when he lands on US soil =)

Here are the "boys" on one of their many times together.  This is in the cockpit of a plane they dream about.  

Jack will be visiting Braydon In Red Lake Ontario next week where Braydon is flying float planes for his summer job. How can your dream be called a job? Braydon loves float planes.

Maybe Jack will try his hand at landing one of them and that my friends will be the beginning of another adventure!!

Jack has met many interesting  and helpful ppl here in P Hawkesbury whom I am sure he will be talking to again. Eric, the assistant airport manger another wealth of knowledge.

So as Jack prepares to leave the friendly little town of Port Hawkesbury here is a piece of real estate he is leaving behind.  

It is only $89,000.00.

Good night GEJG, happy flying tomorrow. 

Jo

Day 26 R&R in Port Hawkesbury

Today Jack spent a day of complete down time. Did not even take a picture as the weather was bad.

While talking to him this evening he seemed a bit bored! grounded because of weather and on his own with no one to talk to,(imagine!)  I am sure it was a bit of an anticlimax after the past 3 weeks!!  Even being in Pond Inlet for the 5 days saw more activity than he had today. =) 

Best part of his day was this morning during a 2 + hour chat with Al, the airport manager there. A wealth of knowledge according to Jack, a seasoned pilot, with many great tips. Don't give him too many ideas Al, we might never see him then!   Al was also kind enough to give Jack the "2 buck tour" of town. Quite the diverse little community , with a gas plant, gypsum plant and tourism.  

If you are in the market for a house there was one sold not that long ago for $10,000.00 on a tax sale.  You could do allot with a house that only cost $10,000!! Most good houses are around $100,000. A buyers paradise !!!  Jack says there are some really nice places too....maybe another real estate acquisition in the works =)

Here is Jack's prayer for the evening, its posted on the wall of the pilots lounge.

Hoping to fly out tomorrow.

Sleep well GEJG

 

Day 25 Port Hawkesbury Nova Scotia

Today Jack left his lovely B&B in Deer Lake Nfld after a scrumcious breakfast with eggs and sausage...yummy he said.

1.He thought the Isle of Newfoundland was beautiful, many contrasts and wonderful shorelines.

2 Passing by Corner Brook Nfld., then a touch down in Stephensville Nfld then on to Nova Scotia

3. Along the Cape Breton National Park

 

4 The shoreline of Nova Scotia is spectacular as well. A lonely lighthouse out on a point

5. The water almost tropical looking

 

6. Finally ending up in Port Hawkesbury Nova Scotia. There is an amazing pilot's lounge here. Jack said the NS gov infused alot of money improving the smaller airports in the province. This one was a testimony to that. Has a kitchen, laundry and shower facilities and short term resting rooms for little cost.  Plus a 42" TV! for someone who has not watched for over 3 weeks it is a bit of a culture shock. Also he has internet and cell reception. Back to civilization!

The airport manager, Al, takes great pride in his facility, and whit his flying history in the north, is a source of a lot of information.  It turns out he knows many of the same people that Jack knows.

He said the landing was a bit bouncy with 12- gusting to 19 knots at a cross wind. All he kept thinking was "Jeanette would be saying to me...Use caution Jack !!!" see he did learn something at flight school. He also said "she probably had me pegged for a slow learner and look at what I have managed to do in 2 years =) good teacher!"

Tonight as we spoke Jack was reflecting. Many folks have been telling him how much of an adventurer he is and what an inspiration he is to them. He tends to minimize that a bit and said something interesting to me " I believe it is important to "live" each day as best as you can, enjoy it, there is no replay, you cannot do it over again. You can choose to make it the best it can be." He was being quite philosophical about it all, based on his health history etc, he has every reason to live life to its fullest. I am very proud of him.

7. So tonight in the lap of luxury in Hawkesbury's lovely pilots lounge, with freshly washed jeans and some chats on the regular phone, Captain Jack bids you goodnight.

8. His plane is safely tucked in and tied down for the night.


Will decide in the am, based on weather forecast where he will go. Hopes to stop on PEI.

GEJG goodnight.

Day 24 Goose Bay to St Antony's to Deer Lake NFLD

Jack had a good flight today. He is now happily tucked in bed at the lovely Lakeview B&B in Deer Lake NFLD.

Nice pick up service from the airport and a comfy bed. I think he may have had his fill of sleeping in the plane?  It works and is great in a pinch but nothing beats a real bed.

He found flying over the coast line of Newfoundland awesome.  He flew over Gros Morne National Park which he and his family had visited years ago.  It brought back a few memories.

Today there were a few technical challenges but nothing the handy iPhone could not handle.

Gros Morne NFLD.

St Anthony's

A new little piece of real estate he is thinking of buying, considered a heritage site so he would not have to do much work on it....His kind of building!!!

Lovely Newfoundland, if you look hard enough you may see a moose or two.

Not too sure what tomorrow will bring. He has a few options and it will depend on the weather.


Stay tuned.


To Jack "come from away" in Newffieland "I misses ya me dear"

Jo

Day 23 Schefferville Que to Goose Bay Labrador‏

Goodbye Shefferville Quebec.  It was an interesting place. Yesterday he met 2 teachers while out on his walk and got a nice history lesson.
Lots of mining activity here although the community is quite angry with Brian Mulroney who sits on some large mining board which decided to close one of the mines.
Hard on the local people. Here are some of the ore mines that have been almost all closed down.

What a beautiful sunset! Getting far enough south so there is some twilight.

Jack has made it to Happy Valley-Goose Bay - Labrador and he is happy!!!

                 

Cell and internet service, all the modern facilities.

  

These tracking pictures are our IT assistant Sean's handy work.
Thanks Sean you KNOW we could NOT do it without you =)

For those of you who wonder what he does on those long flights, he does have onboard meal service. Kippers and trail mix, gourmet all the way.

Please take note of the specially designed table complete with table cloth!
This table was hand crafted out of aluminium by his hanger mate Jeff ( thanks Jeff) to fit over the rubbermaid container holding the gas cans.  And remember, everything has to have at least two purposes if it was allowed to come on the trip!  Well this table has three; holds gas cans in place, handy dandy surface for eating while flying, (note the higher edges so nothing can fall off) and when it is turned over it fits over top of Jacks lounge chair.  You saw the chair when he was sitting on at Pond Inlet having coffee on the tarmac. When positioned on the chair it acts as a step ladder so Jack can reach to fill the gas. This table was well planned out in those months of preparation. See all the gadgets positioned around the plane and of course Pingo, the mascot, in its perch of honour on the dash.

Jack said crossing over the start of the tree line was stunning.
It was as if there was a very distinct line drawn and hundreds of thousands of lakes.

Leaving Schef he had a good tail wind. He had allot of fun flying low over the trees and lakes!
He said "Note speed- nice tail wind. Need more HP to do consistently"

So he is already dreaming of the next adventure!!!

Jack said he admires the folks who live in the north. They are a very tenacious group and always ready to help.  When the ice melts there are lots of activities and they do not waste time waiting for the perfect moment in Iqualuit.  Kayaking with the ice.

So Jack finished off his day in Goose Bay with a yummy meal. What do you think he had??
After dinner time to do some emails and tuck himself into his plane for a well deserved rest.

GEJG sleep tight dreaming of more horsepower.


Jo

 

 

Day 22 La Belle Provence Quebec

Jack has made it safely to Schefferville, Quebec

He hopes to leave there tomorrow for Deer Lake NFLD. 

No services there, only a short message from the Sat phone.

Bonne nuit le Capitaine Jack.

Schefferville ce trafic est GEJG signature off

Jo

Day 21 - Iqaluit Tourist day

Jack has enjoyed a day touring around Iqaluit. He says it is a happening place.
He has met another whole group of interesting ppl .
He is new best friends with the Air North plane mechanic.
They even went shopping together so that must have cemented the friendship.

#1 is a close encounter with the local wild life....in the museum

#2 Who says you can't have a Harley in the North

#3 The hospital, Jack walked in and located the Supervisor of the medical device reprocessing department and suggested they buy one of our sterilizers & I would come up to do some inservicing =) .... then they proceeded to share adventure stories. Turns out the fellow was from Trail BC

 #4 Jack says in the museum he read about this team that had an adventure that tops his. He found their story amazing!


National Geographic Live! - Sarah and Eric McNair-Landry ...

Tomorrow he hopes to head for Labrador weather permitting.


Abbotsford area traffic this is GEJG 's scribe signing off.

Day 20: Rest Day In Iqualuit

Jack spent the day in Iqaluit, busy place he says, airport hopping with lots of coming and goings.
The runway is huge, 8, 604 ft long.
Check out the information link Iqaluit Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is Frobisher Bay Airport services office.
As Jack says they "Do everything for you including pick you up & drop off, picked up oil, borrowed their portable vacuum ....
Nice pilot lounge - costs a bit but you're treated like gold"

He was saying everyone here has helped out to do the fix ups on the plane, different mechanics etc

So very, very happy they saved a barrel for him.
"Aviation gas is my friend!"

The planes that lands there come in all shapes and sizes.
Little ones, big ones, Jack says the Hercules "They basically go right over my wing. Humongous ! 

Pilots all look down smile & salute.  Both canadian and american today.
New Planes are winter tested here so they see all the new airplanes ESP big ones"

House cleaning day ....minus the housekeeper
"Took everything out. Small vacuum to take gravel out.
Changed oil ....had to text Chad my trusted mech to find out how much pressure in front shock.
4 fingers worth. Us guys understand. Had no pressure gage that would fit ... "

Jack says Iqaluit is a happening place. Lots of gov't activity, it is the capital of Nunuvat.
He is not sure what the weather will do but hopes he will not get stranded there for another 5 days.
Two would be good. His memory of Pond Inlet, the people there were very happy, there was always some laughter somewhere.


View from his B&B, there has to be some beauty up there, its not in the yards landscaping

Last night Jack had a great sleep, slept right through his alarm this morning, just like home.
He must have been dog tired but very comfortable!

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks, lets see if the next three are as interesting as the first.


Good night Captain Jack.


Jo