Island Excursion, long layovers with changes of transportation.

Calgary was going to be a long wait, but it was going to be worth it. Shortly after disembarking from our Bombardier Q400, we entered the terminal and my wife dropped a little bombshell. The plane for our next leg of the trip was going to be a jet. My son was over the moon with this news.

Navigating through this airport for the first time, we found the gate we would be boarding from next. From the lobby window, my son laid his eyes on our soon-to-be chariot and could barely contain his excitement. Watching his outward display of emotions reminded me of the first time I climbed aboard a jet myself....

Pacific Western Airlines, long time ago now, had scheduled service from Dawson Creek to Vancouver (I remember landing in Prince George  a few times along the way, but I am not too sure if it was part of the regular route or not) for many years. I can clearly recall leaving the terminal, walking out and up the stairs. I can still hear the engines starting up and the plane maneuvering for the taxiway. Topping all of that off, the sensation of accelerating down the runway, the roar of the engines and the almost sickening feeling of getting airborne.

30 years later, my son would now experience all this and I hoped more, for his first time.

The layover in Calgary was going to be over two hours, so I wandered about, trying to find something to pass the time with. Low and behold, a video game of warplanes....

Don't let the title fool you, Strikers 1945 III has no content related to World War Two aircraft....

....just another vertically scrolling shoot'em up from the mid to late 90's. Anyone who has played 1942, 1943, Raiden and the type, knows what I am talking about here. Nevertheless, I plunked in a few dollars worth and killed off some time, having some good ole popcorn fun.

Finally, the first boarding calls for our flight came across the terminal speakers. My family quickly assembled at the airline gate, produced the necessary documentation and boarded. Once on the plane, I found my seat and snapped a quick picture of the interior....

  ....quite a difference from the Q400. Plus, when did they add TV's to the back of the seats? Well, I guess the Pacific Western Boeing 737-200 of my youth has gone through a few revisions and upgrades to become the WestJet Boeing 737-700 we were about to leave in. Perhaps, I should take some time to read up on the changes....

Soon, the engines started and that familiar and recent feeling of movement returned. The plane backed out from the terminal and started down the taxiway. My son, sitting across the row from me, was giddy with excitement. I smiled and mentally combined this experience with the memories of my younger days. Turning onto the runway, the engines were throttled up and we accelerated down the blacktop. Up, up and away.

From the seatback in front of me, I played a new kind of game with the monitor. I watched our progress, as tracked by the all seeing eye in space. I tried to time my picture taking skills when the maximum speed and altitude that were going to be displayed.

My rock steady hands and lightning reflexes paid off, captured both in one shot. The monitor was was a lot more entertaining then the view being offered from my window....

 My son was disappointed with his jet experience, to this point. He was expecting there to be a lot more drama then what the previous propeller aircraft had presented. I told him not to worry, all of the good stuff happens when we come in for a landing. No sooner was that said, the announcement from the speakers was the Captain informing us we were on final approach to YRV,
Vancouver International Airport.

I could feel the aircraft make it's descent, the shuttering as it lost altitude, the engines adjusting to the changes in air density and temperature. I could both hear and feel the landing gear coming down and locking. My son was now sitting beside me as the plane was touching down. I told him to have a look out my window and watch what happened to the wing. Bump, the wheels make contact with the ground. The engines roared as the reverse thrust kicked in. Much to the surprise of my boy, the wing appeared to explode in a controlled manner, flaps and slats deploying up and out, slowing the aircraft down. The engines screaming like a wounded dragon.

Then, things quieted down as we taxied to the terminal. We left the plane and walked up the jet bridge into the terminal interior. My son said the landing events made up for some of his disappointment of being on a jet, but I could tell he had expected more from the episode. My wife and I agreed to make a purchase, so he could act out his own drama, in his own way....

....but, he would get that later, after one last airplane hop.

The temptation for celebration.

It's funny how some old habits die hard. Take this, for an example.

Back on March 01, I free experienced my way into the cockpit of the first tech tree German Attack Aircraft, the tier IV Focke-Wulf Fw 189 C, and put one in my hangar. When time permitted, I would load the game up and try to finish at least the Daily Doubles (and/or other first win modifiers) for this plane. Sometimes the wins came easy, other times, I had my work cut out for me.

I chose this slower pace for many reasons. First, I didn't want to spend an absurd amount of time just grinding away, turning something that is supposed to be fun and entertaining into an arduous chore. Second, I didn't want to race up the tech line, I want to take my time and learn this aircraft, more so than I have done with others in the past. I wanted to enjoy the experience, no matter the results.

Since coming back from my recent ten day break that was my southern vacation, I have logged in and collected my Dailies with a surprise, three days of first time wins for the Eule. Then, a closer look at a certain number, experience earned, allowed me to finally cross over to the Stuka. I loaded up my ingame service record to see if I needed to keep the 189 C a little longer, to fix any "bad numbers", this is what I saw....

No false bravado nor modesty, I was shocked. Honestly, I didn't think I would see numbers even close to these. Firstly, I didn't keep track of anything, just loaded and played, so seeing only 26 battles? Secondly, almost an Ace, with a maximum of four enemy aircraft destroyed in one battle. Thirdly, for playing mostly in an air-to-air role, I was rather surprised to see the near tie between aircraft and ground targets destroyed. Overall, for an aircraft I didn't like at first, I am impressed with how I performed with it and the results it generated.

All of this, I was about to post on the forums, onto my cold, but still viewed "blog". My moment of triumph on finally obtaining a Stuka and a little pride with my progress in the Eule. But, I didn't and won't.

I will stick to my guns and carry on here, just as I said I would.

Island Excursion, taking to the air and a minor mystery solved.

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.

Island Excursion, packing up and rolling out.

The wife informs me that she thinks now is a good time to get out of town. It has been a while since we had anything that could be described as a vacation and escaping from this isolated "outpost of the north" was the sales pitch. As I cautiously agree, she books plane tickets for the family to Vancouver Island. I'm a little excited about this as well, leaving behind the cold, but slowly warming northern climate behind, if only for a little while. Plus, there was a particular place I wanted to visit there, if time permitted.

Despite the last day flurry of activity around the house, myself, my wife and son load one carry on bag each and stow them aboard our family getaway van. After a final walk through of the house and topping off of the pet dishes, we began our three and a half hour trip south to Fort St. John, which has the major airport for the area. Through intermittent cellular service, we find and book a hotel room there, since our flight didn't leave until the following day. The drive down was very much an uneventful journey, a scenery of  snow capped mountains, brown grass and bare leafy trees.

The excitement of where we were going to was starting to wear off, slightly. A long, boring road trip can do that to a person and made worse when you get a small group together, suffering from a touch of "travel fatigue". Nevertheless, we arrived at our first destination and checked in, ending the initial leg of the trip. To end the day, we ate a forgettable meal and without hesitation, we settled into our beds for a good night's sleep.

Absent, but for a purpose.

So, for those of you who have started to follow my postings over here, there has been a noticeable absence from me over the last ten days. Well, over the next while, I will tell you all about my real life adventures that just happen to correspond with my gaming life, in my own unique way.

Here is a bit of a sneak peek at where I went....

....and one of the things I saw....

Now, I don't want to give away too much, so come on back and see what happened.

A long vacation, or a more permanent departure?

 After a lot of thought, I will discontinue posting on the official forums. My reasoning behind this decision is a bit complicated and long winded, but if you humor me and take a few minutes to continue reading, I will try to explain things from my perspective.

When I first came to World of Warplanes, I started something that took on a life of it's own, my little "blogs". "From Tanker to Airman" all the way to my current "From the hangar to the heavens", I have become a fixture within General Discussion. Whatever I was doing, got me noticed by the Community Manager of the time and I was offered the title of Community Ace. Believing it was something truly special, I accepted.

A short time after that, I was invited to a messaging program where I had direct contact with WarGaming NA staff and other CA's. From then until a while ago now, I voiced my feelings, concerns and ideas about the game and for the playerbase. I felt no fear in expressing my passion for what Planes meant to me and tried to talk about things that didn't seem right at all with the game. Although I was misinterpreted on how I was trying to say certain things, my message of what I was saying got through.

Sadly, not only do I feel most of it fell on deaf ears, but certain important people to say it to were not around as much, with increasingly longer intervals of their reappearance. Then, I was starting to sound like a broken record on ideas and concerns, not only to those who would listen to me, but I wasn't liking the way I was sounding to myself either. It's been a long time since I logged into that program, but I have this feeling I haven't missed much, probably the same old recycled topics of discussion, with only newer timestamps.

I am getting myself off track here. My "blogs" turned out to be pretty much me, talking about what I was doing in the game, my thoughts and feelings of what was going on, with very little feedback from others. A forum is supposed to be an environment of active discussion, not just one person doing all of the talking, in my opinion. While the viewcounts on what I was producing impressed me, the low number of responses to my posts was disheartening. I do appreciate the brief conversations with some of my "regulars" and don't get me wrong about not giving due credit to those who did comments.

Another surprise I never gave much thought to, until just recently, the moderators and/or WarGaming staff never moved my "blogs" to Off Topic, or some other obscure location. Perhaps they knew, what I had going on was drawing people to the forums, specifically to that section. Then again, I could just be imagining things, to make myself be more than I truly am.

So, as of right now, for an indeterminate amount of time, I will abstain from the forums and allow my latest "blog" there to go cold and carry on here, full time. Time to allow some more room for those who want to have an ongoing conversation, not somebody with this habit of preaching from the soapbox. Being here carries no expectation of a response from anyone who reads this, unlike the forums over there. Unless there is an overwhelming outcry over this decision, or a fair number of people can make a case that my continuing presence there is absolutely needed or wanted, I feel this is the right move. 

However, you are welcome to leave a comment or two here.

And who knows, perhaps somebody will fill the void that I leave behind....

April Fools news and comments.

It's that silly time of year, again. Last year, World of Warplanes had German flying saucers floating about, zapping everything and everyone. This time, things are much more toned down.

No special, limited time use aircraft, that has been replaced with earnable paintjobs and emblems. While I was originally disappointed with the omission of flying something a little more quirky, a fact I didn't hide when creating this video....

 ....but, after playing for a bit, I came to the conclusion this will do, in it's own way. No need to either rehash last year or, try to top it in some way, this year.

The hangar is just the right amount of silly and the flying penguin in the plane that trails musical notes, is a comical touch. The floating Moose head hot air balloons fill the sky, not really serving much purpose other than just being there.

The emblems themselves are the Moose, performing a variety of posses, depending on which nation of aircraft you complete the task to acquire them. They will come in handy for those, who take the time to even look at them on the planes in the future, to possibly ask the question of where they came from.

The earnable paintjobs for the planes just don't do much for me. It appears more like, as one player commented, Red Bull racing livery for warplanes. I have to agree there. However, some in the playerbase are going through the effort to receive them, for that I tip my hat for attempting that goal.

The normal gameplay itself isn't affected, much. There are subtle changes to the usual written warnings if one performs certain tasks. For example, you hear "Excessive dive angle", as you race towards the ground, but see "Stay calm and pitch up". Little things like that are everywhere.

The big question is this; will it be enough to draw the curious back? Or, when they do return and based on what they see ingame and read on the forums, feel "fooled" again?

I will sit back, relax and find out, in due time.