Enjoying Penticton

The weathers been pretty nice since we got here on Saturday. More or less sunny with cloudy periods the whole time. The temps have been great and we've been touring around and soaking up some of the okanagon's sunshine.

A few things have helped to make this one layover more memorable than most. On our first night, the other pilot and I (once again Phil) were outside on the patio of Starbucks in downtown Penticton when we watched another one of our planes fly over top of us on their way in. Some quick emailing back and forth with my roommate gave me the identity of the crew and I immediately shot them an email which I knew they'd get right away on their blackberry. They told us they were just dropping off a couple of people and carrying onto Calgary, so they planned to take off from the airport and then keep it low over the town on their way out. So Phil and I made our way to a parking lot with a better open view towards where the airport was and we noticed a large construction tower right nearby. I emailed the crew and told them we were just beside this crane which they couldn't miss on the departure. So a couple minutes later... holy cow. I catch the lights of the plane as they came screaming overtop of us at maybe about 300 feet, which is damn low. It would be illegal if the airport wasn't so close bye. But even still, they had to keep the plane very very low after departure to accomplish what they did. It was pretty amazing to see, but certainly not normal flying techniques. :) It left a smile on our face for quite some time later.

Today after breakfast Phil and I also decided to hike up towards some of the hills around town (similar to our Vernon hike) and managed to get quite a ways up. We passed some signs that lead us to believe there was a Moose on the prowl in the area. So we were making extra noises in spots to make sure we didn't startle any large creatures. Well, we did. But thankfully not a Moose, we stumbled across a couple of deer. It was still pretty startling though as for the first few seconds they do appear to be the same shape as a Moose, so it gave us quite the initial scare!

We figure we walked about 10kms today and made it back to the hotel to relax as both of our feet were tingling numb after the 3 hour ordeal. Then Phil gets a phone call from the client we brought out here. He is inviting us out to his property in Summerland for drinks. Phil tried to be polite and say no, because we really aren't supposed to be doing stuff like that. But he was insistent we come to his house and gave us his address. After Phil and I deliberated for a few minutes we realized it would be too rude to not go. But unfortunately because we were still on call and still so close to home base we couldn't have any wine with him and his wife. So we walked over to a gas station, bought some coke and called a cab! A $40 cab ride later we arrived at his amazing waterfront property which is nice and secluded in Summerland. Just amazing. We chatted with them for an hour and a bit on their patio and just enjoyed the great scenery and sliced fruit :) Another $40 cab ride and we were back at our hotel... we've decided the company will be reimbursing us for the cab fare as we were keeping up client relations and stuff like that!

Tomorrow we head back to Calgary and our day is done. Wednesday I get to take a trip out all the way to Denver with Air Canada commercially to get my fingerprints taken by US security. It's a large process that is required prior to being able to go on any flight training courses in the states now after 9/11. It's quite a waste though, because I'll fly all the way there and then spend 10 minutes getting the finger prints taken and then fly right back. Especially considering the fact that it is the exact same process I've already gone through with Canadian security in Calgary with the exact same machines, it's just that Calgary isn't a US recognized screening center (no Canadian place is).

I then go on much needed days off this weekend. I will take some time to restock the fridge, relax and hopefully replace my much cracked and smashed windshield in the WRX!