Victoria BC floatplanes, 27th & 28th September

[andygolfer]

I'm back! (sorry ). Our long awaited amazing holiday to the Canadian rockies, Vancouver and Victoria is over but some amazing memories and experiences. One of the highlights was a seaplane flight from Victoria over Vancouver island and the surrounding sea and that necessitated being right at the harbour edge within touching distance of the aircraft at the start and finish so it seemed irresponsible to ignore their proximity vis a vis my camera - I fill my boots as they say (well memory card anyway) and here are some taken on and around the harbour (some from the inside of others taxiing).
Some were taken on the day of our flight and some the next afternoon from the whale watching boat as we set off in search of orcas etc. Note - the dates on the photo titles are the correct ones not those in the exif data - I forgot to adjust the time on my camera so anything taken post 4pm showed as the next day

I haven't got round to the ones from the air yet (only got back at 2pm yesterday) but I'm sure these will be more interesting in this environment.....

our 'mount'.....
C-GOPP (305) DHC.3T Turbine Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4421 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-FDOH (307) DHC.3T Turbine Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 3964 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-FHAJ (314) & G-FHJA (318) DHC.3T Turbine Otters and C-FGQH (604) DH.3 Twin Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 28-09-2018 4489 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-FHAJ (314) DHC.3T Turbine Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 28-09-2018 4495 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-GOPP (305) & G-FHJA (318) DHC.3T Turbine Otters and C-FGQH (604) DH.3 Twin Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 28-09-2018 4498 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-GQKN (606) DHC.6 Twin Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 28-09-2018 4505 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-GVNL (304) DHC.3T Turbine Otter Harbour Air 'Fairmont' scheme, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4428 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

N50KA DHC.3T Turbine Otter Kenmore Air, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4426 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

N87KA DHC.3T Turbine Otter Kenmore Air, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4424 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

N9009KA DHC.2 Beaver Kenmore Air, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4400 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr


and a couple taken in the evening.....

C-GVNL (304) DHC.3T Turbine Otter Harbour Air 'Fairmont' scheme, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4454 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-FIUZ (306) DHC.3T Turbine Otter Harbour Air, Victoria BC 27-09-2018 4447 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

several more here in my flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545 ... 377106124/

thanks for looking C&C welcome
Andy

[wiggy]

Great set.

Must be quite a different experience taking off and landing on the water. Would like to give it a go some time.

All the best

Denis.

[PorkScratching]

That must have been a wonderful experience Andy. Love the shots. It's a shame the Otters' lines are a little ruined by the turboprop conversion, but the Twin Otters look great on floats, and the Beaver looks fabulous with the radial up front.

[andygolfer]

thanks guys and yes it was amazing, if ever you get the chance then DO IT!

Agree Nick - the Beaver looks superb and the Twin Otter looks nice on the water. The Turbine Otter does look a bit of a beast (and it was noisy- we were given ear plugs which I didn't use ) but I still liked it.

I've got lots from Vancouver seaplane air(?)port to follow in due course as I explained on the FB group.
Andy

[Paul Zietsman]

Andy, looks like you had a great time and your post is brilliant. How many photos did you take on the trip and were there any restrictions on aircraft photography?

[LondonEye]

Lovely pictures. Victoria and Vancouver are nice settings, and you can get close to the action.
Glad you had a good time. Where else did you get to visit ?

I have done the one seaplane trip Victoria to Coal Harbour. I was expecting it to be a bumpy landing on water, but it was gentler than most of the airliner flights experienced. For us in the UK, great fun, a special experience yet in Canada it's such a common thing.

Looking forward to seeing more.
Pete.

[andygolfer]

I took about 5700 in all - actually less than I expected but the weather in the Rockies was poor for the first two days so that restricted me a bit. We had about 4" of snow in Banff the second night and rain and light snow on the first full day. I did take plenty of duplicates as insurance though.
aircraft wise I took a few at Heathrow on departure and Calgary on arrival then a few from the coach as we passed various airfields so from L.E. - no idea what restrictions would have been in place had I actually visited them) the seaplanes were easily visible from the shore even if you're not actually flying, especially at Vancouver where the waterfront path is elevated above the dock but right close to it. Then I took about 50 at Vancouver airport whilst waiting to board and some as we taxied out (I was surprised by the Kelowna Flightcraft Cv.340s as we were about to depart but got a couple half decent ones in the near darkness) and then at LHR we were held on the taxiway for about 30 minutes until out stand was ready so had taxiing aircraft and take offs passing the aircraft window so I had to do something to relieve the boredom! c.50 more but got a few nice ones for my BA fleet collection effort 2 project after my external hard drive failed last month.

I think it may be a while before I get through them all as I'm off to Old Warden on sunday then Italy the following weekend for grand daughter's birthday! busy times on the PC and frightened to delete anything until it's backed up in triplicate!

thank goodness we decided to come home directly rather than go on to DC to visit our friends there as we had thought about flying home to STN on Primera from Dulles around this coming weekend!

[Mike]

Lovely set Andy, that's one thing I've always wanted to do but will probably never get round to doing. Great shots in perfect conditions and can I also say that that is the nicest looking Beaver that I've seen in a long time?

[andygolfer]

here's three more that I found after editing the first ones.......
seaplane flight Victoria BC, 27-08-2018 4017 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

C-GFHA (610) DHC.6 Harbour Air Victoria BC, 27-08-2018 3996 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

seaplane flight Victoria BC, 27-08-2018 4036 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

andrew