13:00 Saturday 15 May
Toronto, Canada

Yesterday the SAC Canadian Flyout group arrived back in Ontario from its flyout to the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.

We spent two days in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia) as we were weathered in on Tuesday/11th.  Passage of a cold front and its accompanying low cloud & fog precluded VFR departures, and a forecast of extensive en-route icing made even an IFR departure in the Comanche unwise.  We happily spent the extra day exploring Baddeck and environs (did you know that the first powered flight in Canada took place here in 1909 and that the team included Alexander Graham Bell?), and relaxing after the rather hectic pace of the trip so far.

Wednesday we departed Baddeck for Frederickton, capital of New Brunswick.  After a two hour trip, much of it in IMC, C-FDCM landed to discover rather serious gouges to its prop, which had occured on the takeoff from the rocky gravel strip at Baddeck.  Fortumately, a local engineer filed it down while we had lunch at Ken and Barbie's diner, a couple of miles from the airport.  (I am not making this up).  Mike and Jean had landed about 30 minutes behind us at Frederickton, and were rather tired after being beaten up by strong headwinds, and considerable mechanical turbulence at low level VFR altitudes.   At this point, Mike declared they were going to forego our last planned stop at Parry Sound the following day, where we were to stay with friends of mine who are lucky enough to own an island on Georgian Bay.

After lunch, C-FDCM pressed on to Montreal, IMC much of the way, and seeking constantly higher altitutes to escape moderate icing at 8 to 10,000 ft and above. We finally settled in at 11,500 ft, in the clear.  Landed in sunny weather at Montreal's International Airport.  Mike called later to say they had landed at a small airport south of Quebec City, and confirmed they would be going back to Brantford, their origin, directly the next day.

As it happened, Wednesday night was hockey night in Montreal, as their NHL team defeated Pittsburgh in the semi-finals, and the streets turned to near riots in celebration.  We had a great dinner, avoided the police clashes with over-exuberant hockey fans, and did a bit of sight seeing in less contentious parts of the city.

Thursday morning a brief tour and breakfast in Old Montreal, overlooking the mighty St Lawrence River.  14:00 departure to a small field in eastern Ontario, where we dropped son Sean, then on to Parry Sound where we landed in light but steady rain.

Dave's friend Ken Stricker picked us up at the airport and then drove us - first by car, then by boat, to his 5 acre island on Georgian Bay.  Steady rain all night and very low cloud early Friday am.  This lifted to scattered cloud in a big blue sky by 11:00 hours, and Ken took us for a tour of a few hundred of Georgian Bay's 30,000 islands in his Maule float plane.  Marvellous.

Back to Parry Sound, and a glorious 1 hour flight under sunny skies back into Burlington Airport, home base, by about 16:00.  A fitting final leg for this marvelous tour of Eastern Canada.

See you back at EGPT.

Dave McElroy