This story is dedicated to William, simply the perfect seatmate up for the Northern Territories
The trip in one word:
NOISY
"The theme around this part of the trip is easily described,
catch one rare and another very rare aircraft type"
Ainngai, tunngahugit,
hello and welcome dear readers,
are you prepared for some Northern Canadian style travel?.
Reached Edmonton yesterday in the evening.
A short night as expected and up again for some more flying like this:
Thanx to this great tool:
http://www.gcmap.com/
Saturday, 17.08.2013
YEG (Edmonton International Airport)
YZF (Yellowknife Airport - Som-ba Kay Miffinga)
Service 5T 444 operated by Canadian North
Scheduled: 08.00 // 09.40
The first new visited airport around this trip is YEG with
no. 256 on the map now:
Visited Airports II auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen
The previous 200 places:
Visited airports auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen
The Tripreporter 2013 data so far:
TRIPREPORTER 2013 auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen
And all the countries:
VISITED COUNTRIES auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen
It´s usually not my style to wait at the breakfast restaurants door till it opens, but with the early departure and the need for a good fundamental to start the day, it´s the way to go here.
And it was worth it, definitely.
After hotels and more hotels done around this trip it´s easy to say, the first breakfast was the best breakfast!
A nicely aviation themed early morning
and further by the free hotel shuttle towards "Edmonton International Airport"
The tickets are secured with the companies website directly, the fare is 175.00 Euro´s per pax, not cheap, but life up the north is definitely not cheap here in Canada.
Our target today is "Som-ba Kay", as called by the locals, "The Diamond capital of North America" or also
"The place where the money is", now that´s perfectly described!.
And the 732C, yes, just to repeat it once again, the 732C is on schedule also during my latest check, lovely.
OLCI works well with the Canadian North website and there is also a separate counter at the airport and an SSK to collect the papers. The standard counters are well used, but there is simply no one else at the dedicated OLCI counter. It seems confidence in technology isn´t the standard here in Alberta!.
A nice woman accepted our bags, en route to security what is a breeze this morning and for the gate.
That´s the view I like to follow for the next hours or so
and therefore no chance to use a lounge this time
Sometimes, ok, maybe not at Edmonton, but somewhere more up the north, it´s better to have you´re own stairs with you
The cargo bay is well loaded and these shield at the forward undercarriage looks like really special
No more cargo, close the bay, please!
Cargowork is finally done
It looks like so cute this way
And this is perfectly the plane like on schedule, the 732C,
not that I´ve even talked about it sometimes before!
A warm welcome to C-GDPA now, no individual name doesn´t matter this time!. The very first flight for me on the 732C
This bird is only 33 year´s young with a wide canadian history. It started it´s career by Dome Petroleum, was in service with Pacific Western and Canadian Airlines, with Air Canada, Air Norterra and finally Canadian North and there are 5 combi´s in the fleet.
Here are a couple of stories:
http://avherald.com/h?article=421dbfa3&opt=0
http://avherald.com/h?article=43af5abb&opt=0
http://avherald.com/h?article=43e92fb0&opt=0
http://avherald.com/h?article=46630cea&opt=0
Gate 49J up till Norman Wells
Or maybe also a little further till Inuvik?
Boarding starts with the, also here necessary under the wing, you know, shot
How I love these engine view
and also these oldfashioned, thick, comfy fabric seaters, too
The last row 19 E/F for us.
An elder guy joined us in the aisle seat, engineer style.
Soon thereafter he noticed my picture work and we had a good chat all the way.
He works for Atlantic Airways in England and also Buffalo Airways here as an flight engineer on the Lookheed Electra
and is also one of these many, so it seems, unknown readers around these well written, ahem, hopefully, Trip Reports.
Just for the case that you have a seatmate, this is definitely a good move today.
He even offered to show us around Yellowknife, but he is on the way for Norman Wells for the next couple of days.
08.05 am, close to ontime by "Empress" and 1.20 hours up the north.
Cockpit crew is from Canada, the captain with a nice welcome on the ground and he is once again on the mike inflight later announcing a very short stop in Yellowknife only on the way further up the north.
No route info but flightlevel is 31000 feet.
20 degrees and partly cloudy today.
Departure from the 3109 meters runway "One-Two".
This is the clean retro style cabin and the legroom
Cabin crew is two younger and nice female FA´s.
The safety card fits and the magazine, too
Just departed. Noisy?. Oh, yes, noisy!
Seat details and just to my surprise, the menue
Inside and that´s definitely a well themed cabin
The cargo bay is upfront and the pax seated in the rear of the plane with a small walkway beside the cargo boxes for the cockpit section, just for the case that the guy´s in the first row need something else
Northern cruising and the retro style restroom
"Yellowknife Airport", or also "Som-ba Kay Miffinga" here we come and I like these special feature
Touchdown at the 2287 meters runway "Three-Four". 09.40 am, perfectly ontime and 15 partly cloudy degrees.
Looks like a functional terminal building
And we are not alone here!
Terminal interior is well fitting and First Air with one of the very few civilian registered Hercules planes
Noisy?. Oh, yes, it is noisy!
The final bye-bye now or not, who knows, to Canadian North. There is one more 732 on schedule, but by the direct competition First Air, next week and further on the free shuttle to the Explorer hotel.
There is a courtesy phone to call them, not that I´ve been in contact by mail like I always do.
The shuttle is on the way, is the answer after several tries.
Thanx god, that this is an interesting place here,
with the shuttle on the way.
And it seems the shuttle started at the north pole and missed the right exit on the way.
Hours later, ok, some time later it arrived and a guy, you know the type of guy´s here,
the age not really to recognize, long hair, long white beard,
sportscap, drove us for the hotel
I´am not with the royal´s, but it sounds interesting to know that Will and Kate stayed here just some months ago during their visit to the northern territories. A good sign or not, but there is not that much acceptable competition around here in Yellowknife.
Top floor, as requested
And for sure a good idea when we visited the local information office, where the young guy told us about bikes to rent for free to cruise around the village
Down by the wharf
Imagine these scenery in winter time with the lake frozen and the nowadays houseboats are simply to reach by feet
on the ice.
But these day´s you park you´re plane here and take a canoe for you´re home
This way and under the wing, you know
Someone for fishing?
The birds know how to use an old crane and what about Summit Air?
Air Tindi?
No house without a plane closeby
Take care here and slow down ontime
The diamond mine exhibition and further back for the hotel
For a view from above
Well, you see, we ride the bikes and the weather conditions are somewhat cloudy but warm.
Simply also the weather for the mostly aboriginal locals to enjoy their life outdoor. And I feel really sorry, when I see all these people in the city, by the street, in the park, by the lake, spending all the money with alcohol and believe me, there are not only one or two this way.
Ok, call it a night, breakfast is scheduled early the next morning
Also ok with northern style views
Weather was ok the next morning, too, so why not catch the cruisers again for a ride around the countryside.
Snowmobiles here, please
But take care, you are not alone here
Perfect by snowmobile, but what about by cruiserbike?
Here it is!
Boreal forest all around as far as it goes with the cruisers and further back for the hotel without a bear to see at all.
Ok, it seems we have driven them!
By shuttle, faster this time, for the airport after the extented hotel checkout, nice and a closer look around.
And well there is a nice place in the terminal where you can play the local game!.
What kind of aircraft and airline is this coming in?
Success, Air North Yukon´s airline and a Tindi Dash-7, lovely
But also today, there is a flight to go soon.
The standard short haul A320 flight, I´am sure, you know!.
Coming up here, hopefully, soon!.
The TRIPREPORTER.
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