Stories of a DC-3 who wants to see the World: Teterboro - Québec

Good morning everyone, this is the day we leave New York!

On the ramp at TEB

It was not so sure we would be able to enjoy the day in the air that much initially. In fact some big thunderstorms were arriving the night before and fortunately passed over quicker than planned so the next day a tad bit cooler air was flowing from the north east and clearer than planned sky welcomed us at Teterboro (TEB) Signature flight support. We also met Bob, an American gentleman who made his fortune in Treadmills and Bio food. I will not say his age here but to let you know, he was already a 10 years old child when the DC-3 first made his maiden flight. In shape he is!

It was a nice feeling to be back at the controls of HB-IRJ, was missing the traditional sound of its two Pratt 1830-92, each pulling us with 1200 horse power.

Loaded up and fuelled for our leg towards Québec Jean Lesage we departed TEB runway 01 for some beautiful landscape over the Appalaches range.

Overhead Albany

The approach at Québec was a reminder for both Francisco and I about our flying in Canada. Francisco did his licences here in the 90's and I had the chance to fly an International Air Rally back in 2004 with Samuel, who will be my best man for our wedding planned in February 2018. It is also with a good laugh that we listen to Québec airport ATIS (Automated Terminal Information Service) in french, stating the different clouds present within the Terminal Control Area of the airport. They have a translation for everything.

South side of the St-Lawrence river

Approaching the airport area, good memories

After a windy approach and a well deserved stop for lunch at nearby Archibald micro brewery, we went back to the airport and refuelled for what would be also a memorable trip along the St-Lawrence river direction Sept-Îles and then Goose Bay.

Goose Bay is a well know airport for the actual pilots who fly small airplane across the Atlantic as a well deserved and maintained airfield. It is a military base and therefore its runway and apron are free of snow year round and the supply of Avgas, oil, maintenance and hotel accommodation is plenty. Our flight time between Québec and Goose Bay was estimated to approximately 4h10 minutes. A fairly long flight finally. Weather was good, windy but fair and only upon approaching Goose Bay did we encounter some thunderstorms close to the approach course. We had to ask for radar vectors and fly and IFR approach to brake out of rain and clouds at 1500 feet/450 meters above the ground. By the time we landed it was completely dark outside and both the runway without center light and the dark apron was a surprise to us. We parked the airplane, went to the nearby shop to rent our dinghies and installed the small bladder tank for an extra 45 minutes of Avgas for our next day crossing. In Goose Bay Greg will leave us and fly back to his next adventure, it would be not before Reykjavik that we will meet him again.

Those pictures show the spirit of the flight.