Building a Pelican (October 28th 2001, part 1)
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October 28th 2001 Follow-up of the building of a Pelican Sport from Ultravia Aero International Inc. |
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7 O'clock Sunday morning... (Last night we set our clocks back and should have gained an hour more of sleep). The phone rings. The handset is transfered to me : "It's for you..." - "Hi! It's Christian Godin!" (Still part asleep, my head is asking Christian who?) - "Feel like flying with the Pelican? I'll be at your place in ten minutes!" Now I know which "Christian" is calling. I ask for 20 minutes. We'll finally meet at Mascouche Airport. (For those of you who have been following this site for the past few months, you may consider this invitation long overdue. Unfortunately circumstances [really] out of my control had me say "No" to quite a few invitations this summer. Christian's "surprise" technique has been successful though). In the following few pages, follow our fligth and landing on a grass runway (Lac Agile), a flyover Mirabel International Airport (YMX), landing at Lachute regional airport, flyoevr downtown Montreal and abck to Mascouche Airport. Thanks Christian! It was really nice. ( I hope Luc won't mind as he"s the one who asked me troughout summer. Luc, I'm ready to back any time!) |
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| Approaching the runway on the taxiway I realise I forgot my wide angle lens. Too bad, cockpit pictures some other time folks.
On the runway the plane begins to roll. In a few seconds the front gear is already off the ground. Were off the ground all together in no time... This plane has near STOL caracteristics (Short Take-Off and Landing) |
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| Turning North for the grass field of Lac Agile. This magnificent grass strip is not even on Transport Canada Airports list. Don't ask were the field is... All I know is it's a few miles up North of Mascouche. | ||||
| Shortly before landing, Christian asks if I see the field. I reply "Landing strip, what landing strip?"
See the field in the middle of the forest. It's THE landing strip. Some pilots found it to be a little short and did not appreciate the oncoming tree tops on take-off... So some trees were taken down at the end of the runway. This was not necessary for the Pelican. I'm no sure we even used half the length of the field on take-off. |
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