Rattlesnakes and Beavers

Penticton regional airport is probably nearly twice as busy and in terms of land area a 1/4 the size of Newquay airport. But, Newquay is an ex RAF station with one of the longest runways in the UK rumoured to have been built to accommodate any emergency or mid air scare experienced by the very first Concordes headed out across the Atlantic or by the space shuttle program having been found short and needing a convenient port in a storm. 

The daily business at Penticton is the perfectly on time Air Canada and Westjet turboprops and the usual executive jets bearing mostly US registration marks with the occasional bland unmarked Gulfstream jet. 

A lot of helicopter training gives the place the feel of a Mash station back in the 50s which is brought up to date by the random arrival of a military specimen such as an F18 or the C117 heavy lift monster.

This week we had an ex Cityjet Avro RJ 85 now employed as an heroic fire bomber joining the ranks of our fire fighting fleet. Nicknamed the Whisper Jet and built at Hatfield, north London she looks pretty slick lined up next to the chunky heavy and rather dated looking Convairs.

Today, however, we had an unusual arrival in the form of a de Havilland Beaver floatplane which landed on the lake and taxied right onto the beach. Strange how a plane can "land" on water?

Anyway, went down to the beach at dusk to speak with the pilot who told me many things. The plane is the same age as me, built in December 1954 and has flown for over 30,000 hours! It has eaten 12 engines and goodness knows how many miles flown. But tonight it had been sold again to a company in Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic circle and was on the beach to collect its cargo and an awful lot of fuel which I witnessed being carried down the beach in big red cans.

The pilot also told me he would be leaving at about 04.30 - 05.00 and heading north for a very long time. I agreed to be on the beach to see him off at the dawn.

Alarm set for 03.50, coffee machine loaded I went to bed....oh, on the way back we called into the beach bar for a sundowner.....or two.

The alarm sounded and I trickled out of bed, reset the alarm and treasured the allowance of 10 minutes in slumber until the recall......which I did not hear, but I did hear the sound of the Beaver struggling to lift too much fuel off the lake and very close to my trailers roof headed north. Darn it!

The day after was another stifling hot day so once more onto the beach to cool in the clear warm lake, only to be met by a rattlesnake!  Lyn, her training kicking in, sped off to find Terry the maintenance man who reluctantly put down his coffee, his cigar, his girlfriend and raced his beach buggy to face the venomous reptile. "Stand back" he told the children taking selfies in turn and promptly and if I may endorse, heroically,  captured the snake on his shovel and removed to a more conducive environment. 

I never heard of anything like this happening down Portreath beach?

And what of that bland unmarked Gulfstream?  Thats another story!