Well. April 24th started off  as a beautiful day at 6:30am. And for my 80th birthday, it  was my  goal to get the ATF by Northwing into the  air. The motor needed the plug cleared of the  winter "smoking ", fired up and purred .

Before I could count to four, the Stratus wing was lifting me from Mother Earth, and into the  best ever feeling of being alive and airborne .

The crosswind came up soon into my "patch flight ", but this little bird is strong with  good  sized wheels and it was wise to just land crosswise on the runway on this first flight, needs  hardly any landing length anyway .  As "ATF" means  "air time fix " it just made for a great  birthday treat.

Trusting  you are still  looking  to scratch  your  own   "itch " to  fly . 

Cheers! Gordon Isaac

The slide blocking the salmon run on the Fraser River.

From Darren Watts

The sky dive club has inquired about using Blair field to run some jumps. They have contacted Don Blair and Bill Davidson. Don sent them to us to discuss. Can we put it out to the members for opinions please. If we agree we will have to do some planning for upkeep of the strip and procedures etc.
 

Backyard intruder, most unwanted!

From Jan Nademlenjsky

 286. Flight from Merritt to Kamloops, May 8, 2020.

This is return trip of my previous video # 285. While I was cruising up to 145 km/h flying to Merritt, I could not reach even 100 km/h of ground speed when flying back. I took direction of the famous “Coquihalla Highway to Hell”. This section of highway is featured on continual TV reality serial about heavy rescues from serious crashed during quickly changing weather conditions there. My flight was also not too peaceful, because of large clear cut forest areas, with light brown color.

Those “patches” are much warmer then surrounding green forests, creating serious turbulence. It was bumpy and occasionally unpleasant.

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285. Flight from Kamloops to Merritt BC, May 8, 2020.

It was very nice flight in one of those times which don’t happen very often. Warm day with blue sky and no wind. I decided to fly to Merritt following one of the most scenic roads in the Kamloops region, Nicola Valley around hwy 5A. I saw flooded road by Stump Lake, flooded area by Quilchena  and Merritt. The beginning of the flight was turbulent air between the Kamloops and Nicola Valley with constant evaluation whether to continue or turn back, but then it was almost too good to wasted it. It was perfect and very enjoyable flight to Merritt airport. This video shows the first leg of my 190 km round trip flight.

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284. Flight from Kamloops to Cache Creek, May 1, 2020.

Beautiful, early morning, 140 km long flight through Thompson River valley to Cache Creek village. I went to check the flooded area there, but it did not look too bad.

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283. Flight from Buse Hill to Kamloops, Uncut Version. Apr 19, 2020.

It is always the most difficult and time consuming process to edit my flying videos into short version for human consumption. The problem is that Kamloops area is one of the most beautiful parts of the world, with very diverse and complex countryside. There are no boring sections around which to cut off. Majority of people would take just 20 seconds of their precious time. I bring home 3 to 4 hours of video from my one hour flight. My target is about 3 minutes of final video, but it is not almost possible.

I also learn with my #273 video, that there are people with interest in nature and beauty presented to them in very rare and unique views which few people could experience. That video is my most popular flying video so far and it is long. The new GoPro camera technology (Hero 7) solved the most annoying problems of vibration and jello effect. Hero 7 camera has perfect stabilization producing spectacular HD and wide angle videos. One of my cameras is mounted on the front of the trike showing nothing but the beauty as I fly through it. That technology also allows me to speed up this video 2.5 to 3x so more information is presented in shorter time. Aerial videos are not easy to produce, because the perception of speed is diminishing with the elevation above the ground. Basically, it looks more boring higher I fly.

I am showing in this video flight in west direction, when the sun was behind or on my left side, exactly what I needed for good exposure. Sky was fully seeded with fluffy clouds casting spotty shadows over the hills and valleys. You could see there some spectacular views from about 1000’ above ground. You could appreciate the complexity of the terrain when you look around the screen. It was very good flight.

 Pictures

282. Flight to Buse Hill, Apr 19, 2020.

It was beautiful day to fly over Kamloops spectacular nature areas. I followed the North side of South Thompson River eastwards over deeply scarred terrain by the ancient ice movement. Then I turned south towards Buse Lake and Buse Hill. It is small wonder of the nature. Sky was fully seeded with fluffy clouds casting spotty shadows over the hills and valleys. It was very good flight.

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281. How to Set up SPOT to be Ready in Emergency with only the Last Track.

https://maps.findmespot.com/s/K36V/4R is the perfect. This link or some other to produce the same result is needed. It is very clear and it should be always default. Everything else to be optional. Currently you get tons of info but the most important substance must be painfully discovered. 9. What is alert and what is its purpose? Check in, Help, SOS… are already alerts. Why do we need duplication? 10. The logging button within the map is also messed up. First, it says log out, but it means both. To log in it suggests my email, which is not my ID. As soon as I start type in first character then Password changes to Manage. I have to enter password first and then user ID. That’s amateurish!

280. Kamloops from 10,000’ above Airport, Apr 9, 2020

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to fly just around the airport without my usual exploration flights. I could return safely back to airport without the engine power. To make it more interesting I set a goal to go up to 10,000’ (3 048m) above airport. I made it to 11,600’ (3 536m) above sea level. Obviously, higher up above ground the perception of speed disappears. You feel like suspended motionless in the air with spectacular 360 deg view. It was very pleasant feeling. My views are especially special, because I am not looking through glass or through small windows. There is nothing between me and the environment. The ground temperature was 12C (54 F) and 3C (37 F) on the top, which is very good. No more frozen fingers.

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