A new flying year begins!

Here's a vista that gladdens a pilot's heart:  blue sky, clear apron, open runway, and a plane ready to fly:

Soon we too will be airborne.

It is rare to see visiting aircraft in Nakusp.  Taking off was a student, on a cross-country out of Nelson.  We have a soft spot for this rental plane because it contains our old wingtips - sold when we replaced them with strobes and landing lights.  We can't always spot other aircraft, but everyone can now see us!

Where did we go, in celebration of a fine day?  A two and a half hour circle trip, captured in this Spot Adventure: 
https://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=320415

My favourite image:  sharing the peaks with a cloud layer at 8,5000 feet.

Here is a strange panorama (yes, Bill is flying the plane, but no, he is not that dangerously thin!), taken in the Incomopleaux Valley.

Incomopleaux panorama

 

Flying High - no plane!

Over the beach in Ixtapa

As soon as I saw the paraglide operation on our Mexican beach, I issued a family challenge:  who wanted to join me in the air?  Bill can't understand why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly functioning plane, so the idea of being towed behind a boat sure didn't appeal to him.  Jay, Chris and Julie took up the challenge, with Chris so confident of a dry landing that he brought his camera along for the ride:

looking back on takeoff

landing ahead

Grandma's takeoff and landing were captured in these videos:

An exhilarating experience!

Merry White Christmas!

Great day for fireside flying!

Vandalism

One of the downsides of Nakusp's beautiful, sleepy little airport is its isolation.  The proximity between town and airport is seen in the large photo in the post below.
Sometimes there are dog walkers, quick to scurry off the runway when a plane approaches.  Birds, coyotes and deer are seasonal hazards.  Occasionally, usually after a weekend, Bill finds beer bottles near the hanger, likely left by partying teenagers.  It is worrying, because it takes very little tampering to affect an aircraft's flight.
The skies cleared briefly yesterday, and we headed to the airport to run the engine and test a new camera.  We were shocked to see the wanton destruction of one of the three resident aircraft!  An essential part was ripped off a second plane.  Damage was done inside a storage hanger.  It is possible that the culprits were interrupted as they approached our plane, as our damage was superficial.
It is a Criminal Code offense to tamper with aircraft.  Last seen, the RCMP Constable was awaiting the forensic team's arrival from Revelstoke.
http://kootenays.myezrock.com/News/story.aspx?ID=1846080

Perhaps a very real benefit of small town life will apply:  someone will squeal.