Back in the early 1970’s when I was
learning to fly, my lessons took place at the airport in
Prince George, British Columbia. Private license
training extended over one winter. In northern B.C. the
weather can be terribly cold, and forty years ago, there
wasn’t any global warming yet. So the ice and snow
didn’t melt until we were way into spring.
The cold and the snow were always
obstacles to flying. I learned how to operate a Herman
Nelson heater before I could start up an airplane. Ice
fog could be as thick as falling, blowing snow. The
little Cessna 150’s we flew struggled to provide cabin
heat sufficient to defrost the windows. The pilot needed
to wear many layers of clothing.
Oddly enough, the most dangerous part
of all was not the flying. It was the drive to the
airport each morning on icy, snow-covered roads. And as
I recall, there was always a lot of truck traffic up
there. Big logging trucks mostly. Each time one would go
by, my Volkswagen beetle was blown all over the ice, and
visibility was reduced to zero in the blowing snow.
There were many anxious moments on those highways, and I
remember vividly the relief and calm I felt once
airborne.
Fast forward to August of this year,
I did some flying out of Victoria Airport (YYJ). Not
having lived or spent a whole lot of time in this
interesting little city, I’m not entirely familiar with
some of the roads and streets. But they’re not too bad
to navigate, except for one spot where someone has
designed and built a freeway interchange, the likes of
which I’m sure has never been seen before in the history
of traffic engineering. It’s so confusing for motorists
that lighted signs, flashing lights, standard signs and
arrows, are installed to guide traffic. But it’s not
enough, so they have painted arrows, signs, directions,
even pictures right on the pavement. The whole mess
consists of three very small traffic circles, a bus
loop, and a parking lot, all crammed into a very limited
space. With about 13 entrance lanes and the same number
of exit possibilities, traffic is flowing around in
several different directions, at varying speeds, trying
to negotiate and merge, enter and exit, all at the same
time. The unfortunate part of it for me was that this
interchange is the exit from a freeway to the airport.
I’d face the ice and snow and trucks any day rather than
use this monstrosity.

Funny enough, the people who use it
regularly insist there’s no problem. They just follow
the pictures on the pavement. I showed a couple of the
local drivers a photograph which I took while flying out
one day, and they couldn’t believe how complicated it
appears. Maybe the answer is to drive it once or twice
following the little pictures that show an airport,
hurry right through and forget about the rest of it. If
the need to go out another exit ever arises, all bets
would be off as to whether or not you’d become lost, or
worse, get yourself involved in an accident.
I wonder how many people have been
late for their departures from YYJ because of the
confusion at that interchange. How many flights have
been delayed by crews reporting late for duty. The first
time I found myself in that mess, I ended up not just in
the bus loop, but eventually right in the parking lot,
unable to decide where I needed to go to get back on the
road into the airport. Making matters worse, I was
caught in the morning rush, and a ferry had just arrived
at Swartz Bay, turning loose over six hundred more
vehicles on that highway. Finding myself forced out onto
a country road, I needed a map to find another way to
the airport. It would have been easier to be in a plane
crash!

Many pilots avoid flying into
controlled airspace where they need to talk to a
controller. Some steer clear of the mountains. Others
stay on the ground when there’s a bit of weather in the
forecast. But those same people will head off on a
highway anytime to drive to an airport. To me, the
stress isn’t in the flying. More often, it’s on a road
to the airport. By far, the easiest way to Victoria
Airport is to fly in and land !