1st International flight, Nova Scotia

[tkatc]

I wanted to post this trip report for numerous reasons. I wanted to encourage builders who think the work will never stop, I wanted to give some insight on how easy it is to cross into Canada, I wanted to thank our Canadian hosts for going ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty to make us feel welcome, and lastly to show how great the people associated with RVs really are. Hopefully the 5 RVs that made the journey and the crew will contribute to this thread as well.

Like most of us, I am pretty busy. My -8 build has been neglected for a month or so and I have a ton of other interests/obligations that need attention. My Russian cousin had been trying to talk me into going to Canada with a bunch of RVs but I was reluctant. I am so glad he persisted and convinced me to go. I wanted to tackle the challenge of filing the necessary paperwork and arrangements of an international flight.

Anyway, he walked me through the eAPIS filing procedure for customs and we were all set. We would launch before dawn and meet over JFK enroute to Plymouth, MA to meet the others.

The weather was perfect but I was surprised by some early morning ground fog. A quick check on the air-to air freq confirmed my cousin was also airborne 20 miles north of me. I would catch his slow -9A along the way!


I had never watched the sun come up as I was in the air before. Pretty cool.


We all met up at Plymouth and planned our route and finalized the require coordination with authorities.


Our favorite Russian!




Climbed out over Boston class B and jumped over some friendly clouds.


We all fueled up in Wisscasset, ME and departed as a loose gaggle flight of 5.

The (2) -7s and the -6 hung up front while the slow pair of -9s conserved fuel in the rear. Some inflight photos...

[tkatc]

This is #3 who turned out to be the fastest RV so he was actually #1!


This was #2.


I didn't see much of #4 and #5...they were a couple miles behind!!

And after a short but beautiful flight....


We all arrived in St John and waited for customs...


To be continued...

[YellowPeril]

Awesome trip guys! I look forward to the rest of the story.

I apologize for being so surly when you visited Wiscasset (KIWI). I was absorbed in flogging my backup electron into obeisance with my proton-plated crescent-hammer.

[tkatc]

Hey Nick....don't worry about it. We didn't have a lot of time to hang out anyway. Beautiful -8 by the way.

Now that I've had some sleep, hopefully I can do a better job with this report. We did ALOT of flying yesterday (7.5 hours) and the trip home involved some nasty weather down here near Philadelphia.

So we land at St John and many of us got our first taste of "Canadian" flight rules. The frequencies listed on our GPS's and iPads listed St John "RADIO" as the Unicom. We all figured this was an uncontrolled field, at least I did, without a tower. As we spoke to "Radio", the controller never once said "Tower" but we could tell she was a "Controlling" entity versus just someone "Advisory" in nature. #3 made it in first before the rest of us and he landed rwy 23. The configuration isn't ideal so after landing, you have to back taxi and then cross another runway to get to the terminal. the remaining 4 RVs had to extend downwind so the first RV could back taxi and clear the runway. The rest of us landed together and started to backtaxi on the left side of the runway as the others were still landing on the right. The runway must have been 200+ feet wide. We all exited the runway and parked on the terminal ramp. We waited for the Russian cruise director to show us the way. He seemed just as confused as all of us newbies. There were no customs agents anywhere to be found. We decided to call CANPASS and announce our arrival. They said we were all fine and gave us a confirmation number. Wow....how easy was that?

We loaded up to depart for our next and final leg of the day. Stanley!
Enroute, we cross a bit of water, Capt John donned his life jacket just in case. Safety first and away we go. I was the lead on takeoff....but was quickly overtaken by #3....I like to conserve fuel but Rich likes to cruise. The scenery was gorgeous...but the water did look COLD!!




This was my route of flight BTW.


We arrived at Stanley to a welcome Unicom voice. This airport was definitely uncontrolled but since our last experience, we weren't quite sure. the guy on the radio gave us the landing runway and preferred direction of traffic. The 4 "A" drivers were concerned about the grass field condition so we let the only taildragger, #3, who was ahead anyway, go first. He reported good conditions and the A models felt better. Finally, we had arrived.

[tkatc]

On the end of the row you can see Paul Tuttle's freshly minted -8 and the -4 belonged to one of the RV-1 pilots! We were among RV royalty.

Of course Vlad had to have his limited edition "Canvas" painting signed by the artist.


Of course he also had it signed by the RV-1 pilot. Vlad's mission was now complete. That's what he had come to do!


So there he goes taxing out to survey the local area....he had only been on the ground less than an hour. Restless! (the ribs weren't ready yet so he had to kill time!)

[tkatc]

As we waited for the ribs to smoke to perfection, the first lady, Linda, kept us entertained in the club house with margaritas and pina colodas. They call her the first lady because she is married to the club president, Kevin who was busy smoking our ribs. More on these 2 later....

Next came dinner. I was so anxious to get those ribs in my stomach I forget to take the obligatory picture of the first plate. But I remembered on the second.




By now the drinks were flowing for most of us on this beautiful day.


Our gracious hosts even went out of their way to dig up an American flag to welcome us. When I inquired as to why the US flag was on the bottom they replied "Because Canada is north of the US"

[Captain_John]

Nick, the REAL rest of the story must only be told verbally over homebrewed ale. I am sure we will get that opportunity soon!

Here is a group photo of the entire lot (taken at KIWI) of intrepid aviators who made the International trek:



From Left to right we have Al "Token Lib" Girard, Solar Steve, The Russian, Tony "TKATC" in rear, Glen "Humptybump, Captain John, Don a.k.a. Hot Cylinders, Omega Devil Dan and last (only when he is on the ground) Machine Man.

Here is the conga line for departure:



Hands on throttles, ready to launch!

After flying along and discovering a "pecking order" we saw Machine man was out front by a margin. His 7 is truly a machine! TKATC and Dan were mixing it up too much to know who was truly the dominant male of the two. If they only had guns we could be certain!

The -9's were flying "bomber-style" as Vlad would say. He and I kept everyone out of the glue!



Here is a picture of the line of planes at Saint John, Canada.



I snapped pictures of the flight teams while I was there.

Here is Machine Man in front of his "Rocket Bird" with Solar Steve:



Tony "TKATC" on the wing of Tweety Bird:



Dan and Token Al:



...and Don with Humptybump:



No picture of Vlad and I. Photographic evidence is strictly prohibited by KGB!

Here is our conga line departing Saint John. Vlad said that must wait for a flying boat to land before we could shove off!



More pictures to follow upon our arrival at Stanley, Nova Scotia!

CJ

[tkatc]

In the "Last Supper" picture above you can see Linda chuckling in the corner by herself. I think she was so proud of herself that she got most of us drunk before dinner.

After dinner, they broke out the hay ride! These boys do it all up here. We tried to made Vlad pull the cart but that clearly wasn't going to work so we busted out the Massey Fergusun.


Everyone got some fresh drinks (some of us got TWO) and boarded the wagon.






You'll notice the Russian still only drinking Coke....he wanted to fly at sunset to he maintained discipline.


We took the tour and told tall tales...

[tkatc]

[tkatc]

Kevin, the club president was our hay ride tour guide. Here he is displaying the KR2 he built embroidered on his jacket.


Tales were told as we toured the backwoods of Stanley. Adelle told us there were murders back here they couldn't discuss and Paul admitted he committed one of them. I didn't believe them for a second until I took this picture....now I have second thoughts!


Shouldn't this pic be in the VAF hat sighting thread???