Harbour Air is the big player in the Victoria floatplane business. Most of their airframes were in standard colors but one of them was painted up in a nice Canadian Flag color scheme. I first saw it moored up against the jetty but later, when walking down near the water, it taxied out for departure. The takeoff run is a bit far out but I got some shots of it as it went on its way.
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and so is home of the provincial legislative assembly. The building has all of the style and grandeur of a building of its era and it looks pretty impressive. Getting shots of it during the day was a bit problematic. The conditions were pretty overcast most of the time we were there and a grey stone building on a cloudy day lacks pop. Add to that a problem created by some building work meaning brightly colored fencing and equipment was in position for some of the better angles and things were a challenge.
Once the sun went down, though, things took a different turn. The building has an extensive collection of lights arrayed across it and, as the ambient light dims, the artificial light is ramped up. The lights come on before it is fully dark and they look pretty neat with the remains of the daylight still in play. Once it is fully dark then the view becomes a bit simpler with no depth to the structure to see but with that many lights, it is now just a drama of light. The views from many angles are slightly obscured but I did like the view across the harbor from one of the bridges quite a lot.
Yakutia is a Russian airline that has had a few problems recently and has been banned by the Russian authorities from some services until it can sort out its problems. Consequently, I am more pleased than I might otherwise be that I caught this Sukhoi Superjet at Narita in their colors as I might not get the chance again. We shall see if they get straightened out or whether some larger airline takes over their operations.
I posted already about our visit to the Amazon Spheres. I alluded to the variety of plants in that post but I didn’t really get close. This post is a chance to share a lot of images of the amazing types of plant that they have. No descriptions or thoughts on any of them. Just a lot of plant pictures.
As Bombardier has decided to remove itself from a number of its legacy aviation programs, Viking Aerospace has been willing to step in. It acquired the rights for a number of legacy de Havilland Canada products first and put the DHC-6 Twin Otter back into production. Since then it has acquired the CL215/415 amphibious waterbomber program and very recently the Dash-8/Q400 program. It has its headquarters at Victoria International so, after getting off the ferry and having a spot of lunch, we swung by to have a look. They have a very nice, modern headquarters building which stands out amongst the other airport buildings.
I took a look on the ramp. Their demonstrator Twin Otter was parked up along with a couple of clean airframes that looked like they were destined for new customers. A CL-215 was parked a bit further out. I discovered shortly afterwards that this one is about to undergo an upgrade program. There were plenty of people going in and out of the offices but the ramp was sadly quiet. No movements while I was there although we had places to be so I didn’t hang around for long.
When we lived in the Bay Area, I got used to the pelicans being around. Only when you move away do they suddenly become interesting again. I used to enjoy the formations of pelicans touring the bay and to see a bunch of them heading towards us at Fisherman’s Park was fun. They approached us head on before curving around the shoreline and away. Their low level flying is so effortless, I become jealous of their ability to float around the bay with freedom.
Despite its age, the Sikorsky S-76 is still a sleek and modern looking helicopter. It has undergone progressive updates throughout its life (the most recent of which took an inordinately long time to achieve certification) but the basic shape is pretty much unchanged. When I worked in London, I sued to regularly see the Royal Flight S-76s dropping in to the back garden at Buck House. I remember chatting with the pilot of one in the 80s as he sat on the sports fields of my high school in between shuttling people to the mainland from Cowes Week.
They have been a regular feature in British Columbia for years with Helijet running a service between Vancouver Harbour and Victoria. I understand that recent years have seen competition resulting in a bit of a reduced service but they are still operating a pretty busy schedule. I have seen them from a distance before but, as we walked out along the harbor, we made a detour to the heliport in Victoria so I could catch an arrival. One helicopter was parked on a pad. A groundcrew member came out to remove all of the covers but it didn’t show any further sign of moving while we were there. The scheduled arrival came in on time so I got some shots of it landing. The schedule is spaced out so no rapid turnaround. It was going to be on the ground for an hour so we continued on our way.
Drop over the North Cascades Highway and you come into Winthrop. This is the first significant town you come to after going through the passes and it is definitely picturesque. I had no idea what the town was so coming in to the center and seeing all of these western style buildings was quite a surprise. Time to park and go for a walk.
The old style of the town jars with the cars parked everywhere. However, while the cars would be better if they weren’t there, the town still has an old school feel to it. I wonder what their planning consent rules are in order to stop the place being transformed. Even the gas station fit in. It was old and the pumps were pretty old too – not as old as the town of course but still dated.
We wandered around the town and checked out the different shops, restaurants and bars. There was a brewpub that was really tempting to me but, since we were aiming to be back home by the end of the day, that was not going to be a good idea!
I caught this Gulf Air 787-9 as it returned from a test flight to Paine Field. It was at the end of the SkyFair event so the crew will have noticed that there were a lot of people on hand to witness their landing. Not a particular problem of course but probably one of the few landings of the Boeing production tests to get a large crowd.
While in Victoria we walked along the shoreline of the harbor and made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf. This are is a mix of houseboats, tour boats and commercial boats. It is clearly a real commercial port at one end but the houseboat end is a different story. The houseboats are real houses. The residents were in evidence while we were there but there is plenty of stuff for the tourists too. The houseboats are painted in a variety of striking colors and on a sunny day it looked pretty nice. The houseboats were quite small and I wonder whether they are a fun place to live, a bit inconvenient or a pain given the people wandering around every day.
