Aviation Appreciation Station v2

[FLAME ENVY]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Found myself stuck in YWG for an extra night when WestJet cancelled my flight home Friday afternoon. Made the most of being rebooked to Saturday by checking out the new location of the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. They moved pretty much right next to the terminal. Great new facility, and lots of awesome bush flying aircraft on display. Plus some real neat aircraft like the JU-52, Air Canada Viscount turboprop, CF-104 and TCA Lockheed 10 still in flying form.

Very cool! A friends Extra 330SC is on display at RAMWC for the winter months.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by timun

I still haven't been on a 737 since all those shenanigans went down.

Since the Canadian return to service, I've flown the 737 exactly 24 times. Never MAX 9, but once on a -900ER.

For better or worse, I'm still alive.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by FLAME ENVY

Very cool! A friends Extra 330SC is on display at RAMWC for the winter months.

I believe that is it behind the helicopter on my 3rd shot. I was wondering if that one was in flyable condition too.

[Bigtime]

WestJet announces that it will lease 5 737-8's starting in 2025.

https://airwaysmag.com/westjet-is-se...ax-8-aircraft/

[rayne008]

Helpful bunch you pilots are.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1749835450804576370

[FLAME ENVY]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I believe that is it behind the helicopter on my 3rd shot. I was wondering if that one was in flyable condition too.

There's the Extra, I totally missed it! 100% in flyable condition, Luke just got it about a year ago (2008 build) and represented Canada at WAAC 2023 in October/November. It is his competition machine, he also owns an Extra 300L. He provided the 330SC to the museum for display during the winter months.

[Bigtime]

Oh boy Boeing:

Boeing Whistleblower: Renton Mechanics Mis-installed Flight 1282 Plug

https://airwaysmag.com/boeing-renton...nstalled-plug/

[btimbit]

Northwestern BAE Jetstream went down at Fort Smith this week. Some fatalities

https://globalnews.ca/news/10245028/...ort-smith-nwt/

[stazzy33]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1750254912494268891

Bigtime, since I assume this is your twitter account, any idea why this Porter plane went halfway to Toronto and came all the way back?

[KelVarnsen]

Pilot forget his phone in Toronto

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by stazzy33

https://twitter.com/user/status/1750254912494268891

Bigtime, since I assume this is your twitter account, any idea why this Porter plane went halfway to Toronto and came all the way back?

That is a lot more than halfway to Toronto. I'm surprised they would have enough fuel onboard to go all the way back to Calgary.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by stazzy33

https://twitter.com/user/status/1750254912494268891

Bigtime, since I assume this is your twitter account, any idea why this Porter plane went halfway to Toronto and came all the way back?

I read online that they turned around because of fog in Toronto. Why they didn't just go to Winnipeg has something to do with having the crew where they'd want them the following day. I didn't totally understand this portion of the explanation so, hopefully, Bigtime or someone else can elucidate further.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by D as in David

I read online that they turned around because of fog in Toronto. Why they didn't just go to Winnipeg has something to do with having the crew where they'd want them the following day. I didn't totally understand this portion of the explanation so, hopefully, Bigtime or someone else can elucidate further.

They could have probably gone anywhere else in Ontario like Sault St Marie, Sudbury, Windsor, Ottawa or even over to Montreal.

Sitting on planes for ~6 hours to go no where must really suck.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by D as in David

I read online that they turned around because of fog in Toronto. Why they didn't just go to Winnipeg has something to do with having the crew where they'd want them the following day. I didn't totally understand this portion of the explanation so, hopefully, Bigtime or someone else can elucidate further.

Yeah it was weather in YYZ, and the having crew in the right place afterwards was apparently the reason to go all the way back to Calgary. But hey, at least on Porter you wouldn't have been stuck in a middle seat!

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Yeah it was weather in YYZ, and the having crew in the right place afterwards was apparently the reason to go all the way back to Calgary. But hey, at least on Porter you wouldn't have been stuck in a middle seat!

And you don't have to worry about loose bolts on a Embraer

[Bill Bumface]

I had a similar experience when WestJet was leasing the Thomas Cook 757s. We were on the way to Hawaii, well over the Pacific when they started to lose cabin pressure.

We dropped down to a low altitude, and flew at a crawl right over Vancouver and all the way back to Calgary. They could fly their own 737s out of YVR, so the only maintenance operation for the leased 757s was at YYC. Then our crew timed out. That suuuucked.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

They could have probably gone anywhere else in Ontario like Sault St Marie, Sudbury, Windsor

Where there are no bridges, far inferior accomdoations, no ground handling, no fuel contract, no maintenance. Weather was also bad at YOW and YUL. There are some limitations for the Embraer in terms of low visibliity approaches, they can't do what Air Canada/Jazz planes are capable of doing. Some of the Porter crews are so junior they're quite restricted on approaches as well.

It's part of the risk that comes with flying the clown car that is Porter at the moment.

[sa226]

In this case the weather definitely wouldn't have been a surprise. Based on where they turned around, I'm sure they carried additional fuel for exactly this possibility. I don't think a typical IFR fuel load would have allowed a turn back that far into the flight plan. I'm not sure what alternates were being used out east, but it very well could have been a commercial decision that they would rather have them turn back to Calgary and try again the next day rather than end up at their alternate, taking fuel, potentially running into duty day issues, and any other thing that could come up.

Sitting on the airplane for an extra couple hours is probably the least inconvienient thing that could have\would have happened.

Having said all of that it is kind of rare to have a turn back that far into the flight plan between two cities like Calgary and Toronto. I also have no idea how Porter's operation runs, so there could be other factors as well.

[Acey]

YYC was not the orginally filed alternate, but Porter ops said a decision was to be made somewhere around Thunder Bay.

[D as in David]

This was what one person on a FB group speculated. It was too far out of my understanding to try and de-cipher what they were saying. YMMV.

The RON PD359 would’ve been operated by T911 which was DIV to YOW inbound from MIA. As of right now that tail remains in YOW and therefore PD359 is cancelled tonight.
The HS PD352/Jan 25 would have had no equipment at this point due to the DIV on T911 so rather than cancelling the HS, they had T909 returned to YYC so the schedule won’t be out of sync and those pax on todays 352 won’t be stranded in out-station.