We had planned an evening departure today to Moncton.  The weather tomorrow is not good and we figured we had better leave early to make sure we can get there.Well I have made the decision to cancel the flight.

The winds here have been howling all day, and it is not so much the wind as the direction.  It has been 90 degree across the runway.  10 gusting 25 kts.  I have never seen such a gusting wind.  I am sure the trees are causing most of it.  The wind is also forecasted to get worse as the evening goes on.  It is also 32C on the ground before the humidity!

We could take off but every other runway in New Brunswick is east/west.  If we got airborne and could not land we would have to go to Halifax.  Then the incoming weather plays another roll.

The front is just about to the Maine/NB border so we would not have much time to get to a new destination.  Saint John is currently IFR.  Might be always IFR there though;-)

The other strike is they do not sell 100ll in Bathurst, yep you heard that right.  We don’t have a ton of time to do circuits trying to land.

Circling around over heavily wooded areas, trying to land but can’t because of the cross wind and running out of fuel.  No thanks!

Maybe tomorrows weather will not be as bad as predicted and we will be on our original schedule anyway.   Time will tell.

Branch airlines carry precious cargo and they are fine for an extra day with Nan and Pop.

SPOT Tracker

We arrived in Bathurst around 2:30 local today.  We had a wonderful flight along the shoreline of lake Ontario.  Fly right next to the CN Tower as well. We followed it all the way to to the St Lawrence and over flew the Thousand Islands area.  We heard so much about it in school (many years ago) that I was really excited to see it.  It was beautiful, but i think the Perry Sound area was much nicer, from the air at least.  We over flew the Montreal area as well.  First stop was Trois Rivière for a quick fuel stop.

Weather was showing a very unstable air mass creating many thunder storms.  We were not sure if we could even get to our destination.  The flight briefer made it sound even worse. I said we would try and see.  Some times getting a weather brief is worse than not.  We have xm on board so we plan as we go, that always seems to work the best.

We had to fly the first half at 2500ft.  We were above the river so we were good.  Turning inland gave us higher ceilings and we were able to get to 3500.  We watched the radar as we progress and also played the animate weather to see which way it was moving.  There was a scattered line on the Quebec / NB broader and bigger line just west of the Bathurst airport.  I planned to skirt around the southern edge and see if we could get in. Amazingly the cell dissipated as we got closer and getting it was a none issue.

The family was there to greet us and off we went to the house.   Next few days will be spent at the beech and the lake. After that we are off to Moncton.

SPOT Tracker

Tomorrow we depart for Bathurst N.B.  We have around 4hrs of flying ahead of us.  Weather looks great until about Ottawa. After that I think we will be dodging thunder storms.  Sure hope the ceilings stay high enough to be able to pick our way through.  We plan to fly the lake Ontario shore line and follow the St Laurence.  We will likely stop in Trois Rivière for a break.  After that get clearance from Boston Centre and go direct over Maine or follow the river until about Rivière du loupe.  It depends on what the weather is doing.  Should be an interesting day.

SPOT Tracker

We had a nice flight out of Thunder Bay this morning.  We flew the shoreline to Marathon then direct to Sudbury via Chapleau.  The only weather was near marathon and it was still good vfr, just lower visibility from all the moisture.  I did lots of map reading to ensure I knew where we were even though it was always the middle of nowhere.  Bogs seemed to be the best choice if the prop stopped and we stayed fairly close to some type of road or railway.  I did not have flight following like we had from Brandon as we were to low, so you are really on your own. The flight was 2.5hrs as we flew lower and slower in the thick air.  It was a pleasant ride with only a few bumps near the end.

The relatives were there to pick us up and were soon wizzing through town to their place.  We had a great afternoon and evening, it was great to see everyone.  No alarm for tomorrow, we want the rest.  Then off to st Catherine’s for 3 nights in Niagra falls.  It will be another short day of flying.

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Update!

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We are happy with the decision we made to press on and not stop in Kenora. There is two lines of weather, one that is just missing kenora and the other is partially over Dryden. It could have easily been south 30 miles and we would have possible been stuck if we stayed. Besides fuel is much cheaper here, $2.23/l in kenora, ouch!

We plan to stay off the oxygen today and fly low for the scenery. We will be skirting the edge of the lake and heading inland just after Marathon taking us over Chapleau then into Sudbury. The flight will be just over 2 hrs, so a short day of flying today. We plan to just stay one night and head out to Niagra falls on Monday to beat the weather coming in on Tuesday. We will be in Niagra Falls for a few days.

SPOT Tracker

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Hello,

We are presently cruising at 9500 doing 182kts over the ground burning 10.5 165 kts true. We had to turn south of suffield do to the weather ahead. We like to avoid the areas with lightening;-). Showing 2.5 hrs from Brandon and 461 nm out. After that we head to thunder bay to avoid the thunder storms tomorrow morning.

Follow our SPOT progress at:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0K2qUrM1205OcaMGxkSqBFXnY4fQmhF4E

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Update!

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Made it to thunder bay in under six hours.  After Winnipeg we climbed to 11,500 for a smooth ride over the scattered clouds.  We did a bit of a dogleg just to stay within glide of civilization. Total flight for the day was 980 nm.  Very smooth flight for the most part.  Sudbury tomorrow to visit my great aunt and uncle.

SPOT Tracker

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Here is Troys spot tracker to follow along if you wish, we leave this Saturday, July 28, 2012.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0K2qUrM1205OcaMGxkSqBFXnY4fQmhF4E

Plan is to fly to Kenora, Sudbury, Niagra Falls, Bathurst to Moncton. Then down the east coast towards New York, back through Chicago, Grand forks then home.

Hopefully the weather co-operates as these plans could totally change.