Vancouver seaplane terminal viewing info
Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 1:28 pm
I recently visited Vancouver and spent a morning on the waterfront including watching the movements at the seaplane terminal of which there are many! I thought a bit of a guide might be handy for anybody planning to visit that wonderful city................
The terminal is located on the waterfront just to the east of the exhibition and conference centre close to Canada Place. viewing is so easy it's ridiculously stupid not to spend a bit of time there.
There is a walkway all along the waterfront from Canada Place (worth a visit if only for the Canada flyover experience - it's amazing and excellent value) to the Harbour Green Park plus another at higher level on the eastern side of the conference centre. Both have unobstructed views with different elevations - the higher one enables you to see over the top of the nearest aircraft, and different angles especially from the lower walkway if you walk along the Harbour Green Park stretch.Everybody stops to photograph one or two as they pass so you won't feel like an embarrassed 'anorak'
here's a map of the location
vancouver seaplane terminal by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
the main operator is Harbour Air with mostly DHC.2 Beavers, DHC.3 Turbine Otters and DHC.6 Twin Otters but there are others as well with similar types.
Lens-wise you don't need anything extortionate, I only took my Sigma 18-250 as I was expecting to do quite a bit of walking that morning (wife's instructions!) and that was sufficient for everything - for the aircraft on the jetties even a 100mm lens would be ample. A lens larger than 250mm would only be necessary for really distant departure / arrival shots but there's not much to gain really so travel light.
You're facing north so the sun is behind you virtually all day - ideal unless of course, you fancy sunset shots.
Here a link to some of my photos that I took:
http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum ... 69&t=31387
I found this info on the internet ( https://www.airport6.com/en/a/CYHC/) :
Communication Frequencies
Clearance Delivery (CLNC DEL) Vancouver Harbour 125.35 all dep acft ctc clnc del dur twr oprg hours
Control Tower (TWR) Vancouver Harbour 118.4 (V) 15-02Z‡ or til half hour after SS, whichever is later. (Emergency only 604-688-9254)
Aerodrome Traffic Frequency (ATF) traffic 118.4 when twr closed within Vancouver Harbour CZ shape irregular 2500 ASL.
Terminal (TML) 125.2
Finally I also visited Victoria BC on Vancouver Island (I'll do a brief guide to that as well) and of the two Vancouver has the better and easier views unless you actually go onto the dockside at Victoria.
Hope that's useful
Andrew
The terminal is located on the waterfront just to the east of the exhibition and conference centre close to Canada Place. viewing is so easy it's ridiculously stupid not to spend a bit of time there.
There is a walkway all along the waterfront from Canada Place (worth a visit if only for the Canada flyover experience - it's amazing and excellent value) to the Harbour Green Park plus another at higher level on the eastern side of the conference centre. Both have unobstructed views with different elevations - the higher one enables you to see over the top of the nearest aircraft, and different angles especially from the lower walkway if you walk along the Harbour Green Park stretch.Everybody stops to photograph one or two as they pass so you won't feel like an embarrassed 'anorak'
here's a map of the location
vancouver seaplane terminal by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
the main operator is Harbour Air with mostly DHC.2 Beavers, DHC.3 Turbine Otters and DHC.6 Twin Otters but there are others as well with similar types.
Lens-wise you don't need anything extortionate, I only took my Sigma 18-250 as I was expecting to do quite a bit of walking that morning (wife's instructions!) and that was sufficient for everything - for the aircraft on the jetties even a 100mm lens would be ample. A lens larger than 250mm would only be necessary for really distant departure / arrival shots but there's not much to gain really so travel light.
You're facing north so the sun is behind you virtually all day - ideal unless of course, you fancy sunset shots.
Here a link to some of my photos that I took:
http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum ... 69&t=31387
I found this info on the internet ( https://www.airport6.com/en/a/CYHC/) :
Communication Frequencies
Clearance Delivery (CLNC DEL) Vancouver Harbour 125.35 all dep acft ctc clnc del dur twr oprg hours
Control Tower (TWR) Vancouver Harbour 118.4 (V) 15-02Z‡ or til half hour after SS, whichever is later. (Emergency only 604-688-9254)
Aerodrome Traffic Frequency (ATF) traffic 118.4 when twr closed within Vancouver Harbour CZ shape irregular 2500 ASL.
Terminal (TML) 125.2
Finally I also visited Victoria BC on Vancouver Island (I'll do a brief guide to that as well) and of the two Vancouver has the better and easier views unless you actually go onto the dockside at Victoria.
Hope that's useful
Andrew