Calgary Deli meet 20 October 2007

[Erebus]

The Calgary meet happened. It looked like it was going to be small until last minute. But it pulled together.

We started at the Tim Horton's in Cochrane, where Jungle Jon joined us for coffee. Unfortunately he couldn't stay.

So, the rest of us, Ruminante (myself), Green1, piyeguyo, and Chris (a friend of Green1 and mine, driving a J**p Cherokee) headed off.

Since 3 of us are ham operators, we lent Fabio a radio so we were all in radio contact at all times.

We headed west, then up the Forestry Trunk road until the junction with the TransAlta road where we paused for photos. (location #1 on the map)


The black line is our track, the two left hand yellow waypoints are where the planes found us.

Then off down a pretty good dirt road that regularly showed views of the Ghost River and its floodplain about 750 feet below. At the end of the road (End), we paused again to admire the view of the valley where we going to be going. In the photo it is the left centre, towards the snow covered mountain.



We sent Chris (the expendable one in the J**p) down to photograph the rest of us coming down the hill. Using low range 4x4 and the transmission in Low let us must crawl down without effort.



Then we drove west on the flood plain. The Ghost River may be only about 2 metres wide and under a foot deep in normal times, but spring melt can turn it into a raging torrent, which you can tell by the fact that the flood plain is several hundred metres wide. In 2005 when much of southern Alberta was under water, the floodplain was filled to over 1 metre depth. We could clearly see the damage it did to the edges.



This next shot shows us at the river's diversion, looking east with the vehicles still facing west. You can see the "river" in the background


Here we also paused to let the first search and rescue plane try to find us. We could hear them, but they had trouble finding us.


Then we let Green1 point the way. That's Black Rock mountain in the background (it's the point marked "8078" on the map, which is the height of the peak in feet).


When we stopped for lunch, we were at a ford, which we didn't cross. The water was only about a foot deep, but we decided to keep something for the next time. But we did find a flooded trail to at least get our tires wet. And while we ate, the second SAR plane came wandering over. They were getting some turbulance from winds. Also, where we were was right at the entrance to a box canyon that has claimed several planes in the past, so SAR crews are very cautious flying near there and also near Black Rock.



And finally, on the way home, we found one of the berms to park on for another photo op.


Then the drive back to the Tim's for the final good-byes. Stay tuned for the next one. Hopefully, robinimpey, Helidriver and others will be able to make it.

Fred

[mattias]

Great shots, Fred. Looks like you had a beautiful day.

Did I miss something with the SAR plane? Did they coordinate with you for training?

[Erebus]

Did I miss something with the SAR plane? Did they coordinate with you for training?

Well, you might say that I'm the Training Officer for the Calgary Zone of the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) [http://www.casara.ca] so when I planned the Deli meet, I tried to coordinate it to do training as well. Of course the drag is that I can't be up in the air participating when I'm on the ground. Whenever I work on an event in the region, I try to incorporate it into CASARA training. The scenario this weekend was off-roaders went out Friday and didn't come back.

Fortunately the weather and the budget cooperated, although the winds were a little rough. Also, there wasn't a lot of room for them. On the map the little stop signs indicate the four corners of the Springbank Airport's practice area for new pilots. We stay away from that as much as possible. So our crews had to fly between the practice area and the mountains. Going into the mountains with 4 people on board with full fuel is a little risky and is not done without careful planning and a close check on the weather.

(If you like flying, want a challenge, and maybe someday be part of saving someone's life, check out CASARA or your local ground search team; there are CASARA zones across Canada. Okay, I'll get off my recruiting soapbox now!)

[jrman]

Great pics and description - really appreciate it.
Wish I could have made it. Would love to coordinate a trip with a personal holiday so I could spend more time in what is clearly one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Tks again.

[Erebus]

One of the crew on the first plane that overflew us took some pictures.

Here is the first one. I hope to get some more.


(photo copyright 2007 Larry Litt)