Two flights in one day

Today's first flight was on a seaplane. It was a quick sightseeing trip round Victoria, although to be honest the main reason for going was the experience of taking off from and landing on water. Our plane was a De Haviland Beaver, operated by Harbour Air. Although there's a departure lounge in their building, they don't mind at all if you go and wait on the jetty in the sunshine.

There are two 'runways' in Victoria inner harbour, and we took off towards the south.

Once off the water, there were fantastic views of the Olympic mountains over in the USA, and of the coastline of Vancouver Island. But the best bit was undoubtedly the landing. It was steep, with a sharp turn, and finished with a splash. In fact, we had to go around the first time because the Victoria Clipper was in the way. When we came over the bridge on the left hand side of the picture below, we were at 500 feet. Then we turned right with the water, and landed roughly where the Clipper is. Then we had to wait while the big ferry to Port Angeles went past.

The second flight of the day was from Victoria Airport (the one on land), to Vancouver. This time, the plane was a Beechcraft 1900C, which looked reasonably sized on the outside, but very small on the inside. There were two seats across, and it was impossible to stand upright. The flying time was 12 minutes, so it was a pity that the taxi at each end took half an hour.