The 510 Realm

MORE...

MORE

MORE

MORE

MORE

MORE

MORE...THE HERO'S....

MORE

AND FINAL, THE HIGHLAND VALLEY SETTLING POND, AND THE "COKE" GOING HOME, WITH THE SNOW BANK HIGHER THAN THE TRUCK.

The Coke 4 days later Keith

here are 3 of Matt's, he may have reduced them down too small, but you get the idea

Nice shots Keith. Please post more of Matt's action pics!!

James

As our news letter has finally succumbed to the modern age, I still like to write, and hope you will still read. I wrote this story after last summer, having had the opportunity to go for my life long desire to ride in a glider. As Matt and I just did the Duffy Lake road a few weeks ago, I remembered I had written this, and was waiting for the news letter. I had been asked to attend to help out at a re-opening gold mine, in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to use the Duffy Lake to get there. When seen from the air, at 7,000 feet, it looks to be just a hair running through the mountains.

I thought I would post this story now, then, later I will post up my next story: GOLD, GHOST TOWNS, AND THE HIRED GUN......( IT EVEN HAS A DATSUN IN IT..)

The common thread here is the Duffy lake road, which some of you have traveled..some at great speed. It is one of the conduits to the interior of our Province, taking us away from the coastal low lands, up though a mountain pass, and into the dryer area of B.C. It is 100 Km (60 miles) of driving heaven.

TALES FROM THE GREAT ROLLING DYNO

HIGH FLIGHT


“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings”

John Magee


I am now at 7,000 feet, having just pulled the yellow lever in front of me, the Duffy Lake road below, looking like a rubber band that has been cut, and then laid down through the mountains. It looks FLAT, which, as we all know that have done the drive, is anything but!
Jumping back to March of last year, the calendar rolled over for the 60th time, and, as the watershed event that we attach to this is, I was given the gift of my lifelong dream……a GLIDER FLIGHT. Now, for those of you that know me, I have had this love/hate relationship with flight, or, more exactly, aircraft. As my Dad was in the air force during the Second World War, and brought back a ton of photos, it had always been in the forefront of thought for me. I read all I could about the men and machines that flew over Europe. This of course sometimes ended in disaster, trying to get their wounded machines back to safety, or, crash landing.
In later years, I was lucky that friends of my family had pilot’s licenses’, and took us up for flights. Then, there were my Dad’s trips to remote areas, that involved small plane flight, and I could tag along on. All this slowly gave me a sense of how fragile a plane really is in some ways, and when it all goes wrong… UP THERE…you cannot just pull over and park. I also have spent a lot of time in helicopters, another interesting machine. I once got to experience an autorotation, as one of my friends demonstrated it to me. That was scary.
Then, some 20 years ago, my brother bought a 1971 Cessna 172, which I have now worked on, and seen how really fragile, these things of flight are.
Topping it off, which has not helped my fear factor, is the programs on T.V., which I sit and watch, fascinated by WHAT, caused the air disaster. Programs like MAYDAY, which give you the forensic breakdown, of the crash. Billy Bob, who was tired that day, picked the WRONG bolt, out of the bin, for the windscreen, thus causing them to shear off when the plane gets to 30,000 ft.. OR, the loose Adel clamp on the wiring, which goes THROUGH the fuel tank ( what’s that all about??), chaffs, and then shorts, blowing the wing off! All in all, you can see that this has set me up for my fear, and, that I should maybe stop watching this stuff.
That all being said, I have always wanted to go for a glider flight. Every summer, when we come back from one of our club drives, just past Hope, I look up to see if any of the sail planes are gliding around. I have continually wondered how quiet it must be, with no engine roaring away if front of you, feeling the subtleties of the air currents.
Jumping ahead now, to this past March, my kids gave me an hour glider flight for my birthday, over the glacier, above Pemberton meadows. For those of you not familiar with Pemberton, it is a flat river valley, north of Whistler, and, it is the start of the mountain climb for the Duffy Lake road. It is also home to Pemberton Soaring Centre, where I am to fly out of.
We waited till the end of July, so the weather would be at its finest, and coordinated a trip on the Whistler train, to stay in Whistler. The flight was scheduled for 11:00 am on the Sunday, conditions permitting.
Sunday dawned, with as perfect a summer day as one could imagine, calm and steel blue sky. What we did not anticipate was the smoke that was starting to drift into the Pemberton Valley, from a huge forest fire north of Pemberton. It was leaving a thin layer, which was hard to tell at what elevation it was sitting at. Driving into the glider placer found us at this wonderful little shed, covered in vines, out of the hot sun. We were greeted by very friendly owner, who asked me to sign the usual waiver. You know how many waivers I have signed in my life time, what with my car racing, go-carts, and other stuff……over a thousand I bet!
I have to say I was not even nervous, but, I was sure excited. I figured that this thing is DESIGNED to fly without a motor, which to me, took away that fear. I watched the glider I was to fly in, do a few slow circles as it lost altitude, to do its final landing approach, all in dead silence. The pilot touched down very smoothly, and came to a perfect stop, right across from the office. MY TURN!
Getting into the front seat of the glider so reminded me of when I drove a Formula Ford. The cockpit is just like it, just narrow enough to get into, with all the monocoque structure exposed. A small instrument panel was in front of me, with a yellow “T” shaped handle coming out of the top. I had a good idea what that was. The younger pilot, who was likely in his 30’s, started asking me if I had flown before. What he was actually doing was getting a “feel”, for how his passenger was going to react to the motions of flight. The previous passenger was a woman, who ended up coming back early, as she did not handle the ups and downs very well. Now, to step back a second, my son had asked me if I wanted an AEROBATIC component to my flight. It only took a second for me to decline that! Having spent some serious time both in the air, and out on the open ocean…..I know full well what it is like….”TO FIGHT THE GREEN!” We had a funny conversation about motion sickness, both with some of the things he encounters on flights, and what I had experienced in my life time. We both agreed that it is not fun, and why wreck what should be a good time.
Upon trying to do up the so called seat belt, I made a comment that he needed something more like my race car belts, than these silly things. They were like a bobby pin for the connector, very narrow, and the shoulder part seemed like I could NOT get it over my shoulder properly. I was ever more glad that I did not opt for the acrobatic thing, as I could see myself popping out of the belts, and landing on the canopy, UPSIDE down, and that very small latch going….”I’m out of here!” He asked me of course, what kind of car I had, which then let me comment on the fact that my car club drives over the Duffy Lake road occasionally. Upon hearing this, he asked if instead of going over the glacier, would I like to fly over the Duffy Lake. Wow, I thought that would very cool, so said “SURE!” he got on the radio, to the fellow in the tow plane, who was some 150 feet ahead of us.
So, here I am, sitting in the front of this thing, pretty much dead quiet, other than a slight sound of the tow planes engine. My pilot tells the tow plane to “hit it!”, and away we go.
Being used to the sound of an engine roaring, be it car, boat, or plane, it was very weird to suddenly just start accelerating. The tow plane lifted off, and in a blink we lifted off, with only a slight rushing of air as we sped up. The direction we took off at was the heading for Duffy Lake Road, way off in the distance, a slight blue in the smoke haze. Slowly climbing, we broke through the layer of haze, somewhere around 3,500 feet. Down below I followed the highway, through Mount Currie, then through the Reservation land, to the north end of Lillooet Lake, which is the start of that huge climb up to Duffy Lake. All this time we were able to carry on a normal conversation. We cut across the valley, and headed right at the mountain ridge, which would be to the left of the highway. I am watching the rate of climb gauge in front of me, at the same time I am watching the tow plane. I must admit, that was the only time I got concerned. I can see the rock wall coming at us, and it did not seem we were going UP, faster than we were going FORWARD. I know how passengers have felt in my 510 at times right then!
At this time, for whatever reason, my mechanical mind I guess, I asked, “Was there much turbulence from the plane?” He says,”I will show you!” He immediately dropped DOWN, from his position behind the plane, placing us right into VERY turbulent air. Right then I thought I was smart to have passed on the acrobatics, as the sudden up and down gave my stomach that early signal of impending DOOM. He pulled the stick back and up we went into the calmer air. That was good, as I was about to do the same!
As the rock wall was now to our left, the tow pilot having turned at the last moment, we broke out over some of the most beautiful mountain vistas you can imagine, with the Duffy Lake road some 6,000 feet below us. What can one say, this is where this type of experience, has to be EXPERIENCED, as one cannot describe adequately what was above, below, and all around me. The pilot says we will cross over the Duffy Lake, to the south east side, and, at about 7,000 feet, leave the tow plane.
Below, I can see the Duffy winding its way. Ahead, I can watch this incredible peak coming towards us, speckled with summer snow. All this time, there is only the slight sound of rushing air, as I have a small window port open to my left, both to cool down inside the plane, and, so I can take pictures out of it.
Finally crossing over the valley, above a mountain top, we turn to due east, at 7,000 feet, and the pilot says……”Pull the yellow lever.”
With hardly any force required, I pull the lever, the tow plane banks left, and we go right, now truly dancing the skies on the air currents. As soon as the tether was released the feeling of being pulled stopped, and the true sense of flying began, an undefined sense of floating. I am in awe at this point, both overwhelmed by the beauty before and below me, with the sense of total freedom in the air. We banked back left, heading just over the peak, following the Duffy road. He asked if I was ok for a steep bank, I said I was fine with that. Looking out the side window, straight down, was a spectacle to behold, the real majesty of B.C.’s mountains spread out before me. We did some steep turns, the rocks seeming right before us, soaring like eagles above the crags. After doing some big sweeping turns, and losing some altitude, he headed for a very sharp edge on a peak. Upon just going over the edge, I could both feel, and watch the rate of climb go up, as he hit a nice thermal updraft. It was a bit bumpy for a minute, but, nothing uncomfortable. All this time we have been chatting about this and that, I asked him about flying, he asked about racing. We had at this point been in the air for about 40 minutes, time to head back. He played with some thermals on the ridges, ever so slowly losing altitude. This brought us back over the open valley, and he asked if I would like to take the stick. Oh yah, I can do this. I’ve “flown” my brother’s plane a few times, and taken the stick in a helicopter a couple of times, how hard can this be?!
RATS, like my brothers plane and the helicopter, there is a certain sensitivity that is required. I watched the string on the canopy, and the bank indicator, and as hard as I tried, I just seemed to drift. It is another one of those skills that has to be learned by practice. First time I got to take the controls of a helicopter, was over Burns Bog. Bill had given me the 1 minute instruction, do this, this and this. Hah, how hard could this be? Holy cow, we started to rotate so fast…….
With the airport approaching, he pointed out the next glider flight coming up, and said we would sneak up underneath it. That was kind of fun, looking down at someone coming up, their grinning face looking up at my grinning face, looking down. As it passed though our altitude, he pulled up a bit and came right up under the sail plane, very cool. Then, with a big bank to the left, we headed back over the airport, did one pass, looped back again, and made our final approach, touching down with hardly a bump, coming to a smooth stop…right across from the office.
What can I say, the hour seemed long, yet went by in a blink, a lifelong dream full filled, one more thing scratched off of the bucket list. I would do this again in a heartbeat, being one of those life experiences that do stay seared in ones brain, bringing a big smile to my face, when I think of dancing the skies, on those laughter silvered wings!

Keith Law
February 6, 2011

here are some pictures to hopefully give you a sense of what I experienced

more...