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Vancouver seaplane terminal viewing info

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andygolfer
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Vancouver seaplane terminal viewing info

Post by andygolfer » 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' :D

here's a map of the location
Imagevancouver 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
Andygolfer (or at least I was once), now just plane crazy

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Mike
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Re: Vancouver seaplane terminal viewing info

Post by Mike » Wed Oct 17, 2018 1:39 pm

That's a great guide Andy, it's just been added to my bucket list. :thumb:
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andygolfer
Administrator, POTM, SPOTM & FC POTM winner
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:51 am
Location: Rayne Essex - 12 miles east of Stansted

Re: Vancouver seaplane terminal viewing info

Post by andygolfer » Sat Oct 27, 2018 4:49 pm

Philip Kemp (Air-Britain) has told me that the area of Stanley Park Drive between the Nine O'clock Gun and Brockton Point Light House in Stanley Park offers excellent views of the landings and take offs, here's a map to show the location, and a photo that Phil took from there. The seaplane terminal itself is roughly due south of this point.

seems I was there just a couple of days after Phil and we were actually in Victoria at the same time!

Imagevancouver seaplanes photo location stanley park drive by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Image20180917 Vancouver Harbour C-FODH DHC3 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

thanks Phil
andrew
Andygolfer (or at least I was once), now just plane crazy

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please support our photo competitions by entering and/or voting!
Proud winner of 2019 Air-Britain photo competition!

co-owner of UK Light Aviation Enthusiasts google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uklae
and Stansted Aviation Enthusiasts google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stnae

my photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545@N07/

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