The day started with consuming an industry standard Continental Breakfast served at most hotels. I chose the eggs of questionable composition and bacon that could have been better served to repair leather shoes. The coffee was decent, at least. After that, we went back up to our room and just as quickly as we had arrived, we packed up the few things needed for the overnight and proceeded to the airport.
A short drive latter, we arrived at YXJ, North Peace Regional Airport in Fort St. John. The getaway van was put into long term parking and we gathered up our luggage for the short walking trek to the terminal. Breezing through security, we sat and waited the obligatory one hour before boarding. The airport itself was fairly quite, with only the plane we would soon be taking, sitting in plain sight.
The aircraft was a Bombardier Q400, previously known as the de Havilland Canada Dash 8. A twin turboprop airliner that is popular with international regional carriers, such as WestJet, Horizon Air, QantasLink and Luxair, to name a few. Even the Canadian Armed Forces have a version....
The first boarding call was announced and through the gate we went. Once on the plane, I was able to find my seat with little difficulties, a starboard window view. Here is an idea how small the plane is, from the inside....
....and for those who want to know this plane's "stats", I took this picture, just for you....
With all of the passengers now boarded, the engines fired up. The plane gave off a little motion from this, the best way I can describe as a "torque wobble", the fuselage flexing and shimmying under the power of the increasingly faster spinning propellers, while still sitting on the ground. As we started to roll out, the usual safety briefing from the flight attendants began and I assumed a position that I use on most aircraft flights....
Yeah, don't mind my hair, the....wind caught it good. As we slowly taxied from the terminal, Fate would produce a very unexpected surprise for me....
If you can't make it out, here is a magnification of the object in question....
This one brief moment triggered a memory and answered an old question I had, at the same time.
Just before I started grade school, my family moved to a town called Dawson Creek, a mere hours drive south from Fort St. John. Shortly after the move, we drove by the airport there, saw this for the first and many times, for years to come....
For as long as I could remember, the plane never moved, sitting there like a sentinel of a bygone era. I was too young to fully understand what it was or what it did, but I always thought it was old and neat. Years would go by and the plane just sat there, as I grew up and lived life. When I became an adult, I moved away from Dawson Creek few times, but whenever I came back, the plane at the airport greeted me on my return. Then, one day, it was just gone.
I never bothered to stop in at the airport and ask around to what happened to it. Really, what good would the information do me? I never had intentions of trying to buy it, but my trivial curiosity of the plane's whereabouts did kinda bother me. Plus, until recently, I didn't know what kind of plane it was.
Flash forward to the present day. Sitting in front of my computer, looking at the picture I snapped as our vacation plane was taxing out, I knew it was a naval aircraft, since it had folding wings. I also had this strong feeling it was a Grumman, of some sort. So, I put "grumman wildcat dawson creek airport" into Google. Nothing I was looking for. Next, I went with "grumman hellcat dawson creek airport", another empty search. Finally, I put in "grumman fort st john airport" and found this page https://forestprotectiontbmavengers.wordpress.com/fafb-series-canada/fbqt-hicks-and-lawrence-21-bu-91171/ and this one too http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/C-FBQT.html
My old sentinel was a Grumman TBM-3E Avenger and in her prime, could have looked very much like this...
Sadly, at the time of this posting, there are no Grumman Avengers or any American ground attack/dive bombers in World of Warplanes, nor any word if/when they will be introduced.
Anyways, back to the ongoing events of the vacation.. The view from my window seat, for the most part, was this....
....which matched the rest of the flight, being uneventful. Textbook takeoff, smooth flight and an hour and one half later....
....a few bumps and we were on the ground at YYC, Calgary International Airport.
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