Our family has been making many great trips in the RV10 this summer. The hours are quickly getting racked up with all trouble-free operation. The biggest trip we made was out to the Maritimes. Canada has been experiencing some really crappy weather across the entire country. We knew the flight was not going to be easy; the plan was set to leave at the end of July as the entire Maritimes area had been experiencing lots of rain for very long periods of time. The question was, if we could get in, were we going to be able to get out? The nice part about traveling east is you are going with the weather. You can fly up to the bad weather, and the next day will usually be good. That was our plan of attack in getting there, and we hoped it would work.

We have friends and family across the country that we had not seen in a long time. Many of them had never met our kids. Getting to visit them is very difficult or costly if you fly commercially due to where they live. We figured the routing down would allow us to visit these people. The first day was Red Lake to visit a friend from high school. He, his wife, and son moved to Red Lake for work in the gold mines. Red Lake is known for its bush flying as well, so that was another plus for visiting. The chosen departure day was looking good. There was a big high pressure moving east, and if the forecast was right, we should be able to squeak into Red Lake under the tail end of a big low going through the area. We were in no rush to get away the day of departure as the sooner we got there, the worse the weather would be.

We got to the airport around 9 am and finished packing the plane. It was loaded up as much as we could. We still had plenty of weight that could be added; we just had nowhere to put it. We did get everything in that we wanted. We then got all four tanks filled up and got ready for the first leg. The plan was Regina for lunch. The weather was mostly clear skies until close to Regina, where we got a few spits of rain on the window. It was a pleasant two-hour flight. We got the plane filled up and went in for lunch. I think Regina had the highest lunch bill from anywhere we stopped. The food must have been made of gold. With full bellies, lighter wallets, and sleepy kids, we filed for a direct route to Red Lake, Ontario.

We climbed out of the heat into cooler air and let the autopilot do the work. By the time we got to Lake Manitoba, the bush country started, and the clouds began to form below. The cloud cover remained scattered until the east side of Lake Winnipeg, and we knew we had to get down before too long. 2000’ AGL under the clouds feels like scud running after spending so much time up high. The XM was showing some scattered showers in the area, and the Red Lake airport remained good VFR. The problem was there were several cells between our position and the airport. We got pushed down to about 1000’ AGL as we dodged our way around them and made our way into the airport. I always found seeing your destination airport in the middle of the bush and water quite relieving. Running at 1000’ AGL over trees and lakes plays on your mind as you do not have much time if you have engine trouble. Up high makes you feel better, but all it really does is give you more time to tell someone you are going into the trees. You are never in glide of anything landable out there no matter how high you get. Thank you, Lycoming. We landed 2.5 hours from Regina and needed our coats on.

We were greeted at the airport by our friends, and it was time to have a few cold ones. We lost track of time and BBQ’d supper at 11:00 that night. The kids played until midnight; it was a fun evening. The next day the sun was out, and we toured around town looking at the float planes and small shops. I took our friends for a local flight so they could see their place from the air. The lakes are sure beautiful. I bet they would look even better if I had floats under us.

We checked the weather for the next day’s departure, and it looked like getting into Sudbury could give us some trouble. The route to Marathon looked great, so we knew the first half was going to be trouble-free. We did not have a planned departure time; we would leave when we got the plane packed, whatever time that was. We ended up getting away around 10:00. We had a smooth ride all the way to Marathon over a scattered layer.

The lakes were reflecting in the clouds below; it was a perfect flying day. We landed in Marathon in gusty crosswind conditions to fill up the four tanks. We also had a picnic in the terminal building. One of the locals was getting things finished up for the group arrival of the Cross Canada Flight. Fuel prices were the lowest here than anywhere else. There was an RV-9A on the ramp as well. The owners arrived from lunch, and we all had a great chat. They were on their way to the COPA Convention but got stuck in Kenora for five days due to weather. They decided to just turn around when the weather cleared.

We got our flight plan filed and a good weather brief before departure. There were several storms building on our route of flight that made it tough to know if we would get into Sudbury. The briefer mentioned that there were several mini tornadoes spotted on our route of flight yesterday, and the weather looked the same today. Yikes! We took off out of Marathon for a look-see above the scattered layer and made our way east. I zoomed out on the XM weather to confirm that the storms were ahead. As the flight went on, I kept watching the storms build and took note of which way they were moving. The scattered layer started to fill in, so it was time to get down. We dodged our way around the cells and, at times, flew cloud-like roads as the clouds had large separations with clear skies above us. As we got closer to Sudbury, we had to get down lower to stay clear of the cloud. The XM was showing a small gap in two cells to the south, and the weather remained good VFR at the airport. If I had not had XM, I would have gone north since the visibility looked better in that direction. I would have later found out that the airport was closed on the north side and I would not have gotten in. The visibility gets pretty bad in the east due to all the moisture. The storms are very hard to see out the window, so XM is a huge benefit to flying in unstable weather.

By this time, I was in contact with Sudbury Radio, which was nice to confirm that all my in-flight information was correct. The track of the storms was slow enough that I knew we could race them in. I diverted more south to get between the cells and ran the plane at a high power setting to speed things up. When I rounded the corner of the cell, the airport was still in the clear, and we did a straight-in approach. There were hardly any bumps, got a little rain on the window, and the wind was calm at the airport on touchdown. There was no lightning in the storms we were flying around, so they were not that intense. Jody woke up when the wheels touched and asked where we were, as I had mentioned that we might not get in and have to divert due to weather. My cousin was there to greet us, and we started to unload the plane. The heavy but warm rain started as we got everything unpacked. Total time from Red Lake to Sudbury was 3.7 hours.

My cousin took us over to his mom and dad’s house (Frank and Mary Jean). We stayed with them for a few days when they lived on the lake during our road trip out west 12 years ago. We had not seen them since, and Frank is now in his 90s. We pulled up to the driveway, and Frank was dancing with excitement just as he did 12 plus years ago. They are both in great shape and full of energy. He still works doing odd jobs around town, delivering building supplies and such in his truck because he loves it. He was asked as to why he was still working, as you can’t take all that money with you; his answer was, “I don’t plan to go!!” What a man. I hope to have his energy at that age. A large supper was served, and the whole family was over. We had a great time telling stories and catching up. Midnight came too soon, and we all turned in.

The next morning, I checked the long-range forecast to see if staying an extra day was a good choice. Another system was moving in from the south, so we had to get away that day to make it into Bathurst. We all went up to the airport after lunch and got away around 2 PM. There was a large portion of military activity airspace that was on our route of flight. The NOTAM did not say it was restricted, and they really did not have much information about what was going on. We opted to fly the victor over Algonquin Park, which kept us clear of the area but over unlandable terrain for much of the flight. There was a lot of towering cumulonimbus that was more broken than scattered. We flew under the bumpy cloud deck dodging storms for most of the way. We got clearance from Ottawa for a downtown overflight to get a look at the city. We kept flight following through Montreal and onto Trois-Rivières, which was our suppertime stop—2.5 hours from Sudbury.

The weather had improved a great deal at our stop and kept improving all the way to Bathurst. There was no rush to get away as it was less than two hours to home. We got to use our French again, as most of the people could not speak a word of English. With full bellies and a loosened jaw from the tongue-twisting language, we were on our way. We were soon over Quebec City on flight following and on a direct path for Bathurst. We climbed to 9,500’ above the scattered clouds and had a ground speed of 200 knots for most of the flight. I was a little off when I filed this leg, as I did not know we were going to get those ground speeds. All we saw on the trip was 10 knots maximum, and most of it was only 5 knots on the tail. Full throttle and 175 knots true airspeed helped too. We were excited to get there, and I did not worry about the gas the plane was drinking.

My parents were watching us get closer on the internet through the SPOT Tracker. When we hit the New Brunswick border, they drove the ten minutes to get to the airport. We landed right after that, even though we had extended our flight to take a tour of home before we landed. As we taxied up, we could not believe how many people were there waiting for us. There were more people at the airport for us than when an Air Canada Jazz flight comes in. We unloaded and unloaded. Everyone asked where it all came from. We filled up the trunk of my mom’s car, and my sister took the rest. What to do next? The weather was so nice we would be crazy not to… we went flying. I was asked if I was too tired to go. Nope, the autopilot took us here, so I was fresh to fly. I loaded up my father, father-in-law, and my niece, and off we went. The sun was getting low, and the shadows being cast made the scenery just beautiful. It was great to have a nice look around home, and everyone enjoyed the ride in the RV-10.

The next day I had an interview with the local news regarding the construction of the plane and our trip. I took them flying as well. The show aired twice a day for six days. It was kind of neat as people in Moncton and Charlottetown asked if I was that famous guy on TV. We had a good laugh, and everyone was very nice.

We spent about five days in Bathurst with my family and five days in Moncton with Jody’s family. Every second day was flyable, and then the weather got bad. It was looking like we might have to drive to Moncton. We got down a day later than planned, and the weather seemed to improve some. We got to fly to Charlottetown, Summerside, and Halifax. As the departure day neared, I watched the weather closely. During our entire stay, Ontario was getting hammered with storms. There were going to be many challenges in finding our way back home.

There was a one-day break in the weather that looked like it would allow us to get out. The system was moving up the eastern seaboard, and the cold front stretched almost to Toronto. I figured if we were fast enough, we could make our way through the leading edge and work our way around the north side all the way to London, Ontario. Northern Ontario was under a big low, and a cold front was stretching down from Winnipeg all the way to Texas. It was time to have XM help me out again. We departed Moncton around 11 AM on Friday on a direct flight over Maine into Trois-Rivières for lunch.

Soon after crossing the border, the weather started to get worse. The ceiling was good, but the visibility kept going down. Based on the XM, I was just going to be skirting the first of it, and the weather in the St. Lawrence was looking quite good. I always had an out to the east. There were guys ahead of me that were much lower, and they kept losing radar contact with Boston Centre.

They kept asking for PIREPs and weather updates as they got deeper and deeper into the bad weather. With XM, we never needed to make such calls and deviated about ten degrees off course to remain clear of the bad stuff that XM was showing. We plugged along in the rain for most of the way over Maine. The heavier rain always matched the radar on the XM. One thing to remember is that the XM radar does not always tell you the same thing for every storm. Yellow might be okay to fly through in rain, and the next storm yellow could mean very poor visibility. You have to look at the METARs and the radar to get a real picture of what is going on. The color of the radar says nothing about what the ceiling might be. Each storm required different decision-making. I like to compare what I am in at the time to the radar and make decisions from there. You have to find your comfort level as to what weather you want to deal with. You can always land or turn around. The rain stopped just before the St. Lawrence, just like the XM said, and we made a slow descent into Trois-Rivières for a late lunch.

The next leg was direct to London, Ontario. We planned to fly north of Montreal and then pick up the north shore of Lake Ontario to fly the Toronto waterfront. As we neared Montreal, we had to divert right over Mirabel to stay clear of cloud. We then descended to get underneath and bounced around in the afternoon hazy air. The weather gradually improved as we headed west. The lake came into view, and we were not long before we were on frequency with Toronto terminal. We followed the shoreline as instructed and overtook several sightseeing airplanes along the way. We got a nice view of downtown, the CN Tower, and Island Airport, which we were instructed to overfly. We had to fly the shoreline for several miles before we were allowed to turn back on course.

The weather ahead again began to deteriorate. There were cells that were building just south of the London Airport. The XM was showing lightning strikes, and it sure was dark ahead. On the next region of the XM, the storm had grown at least four times in size. I was very amazed at how fast the storm was developing. The nice part about the XM is that it shows which way the storms are tracking. It was clear that the storm was going to stay clear of the airport for our arrival. London Tower was so busy during our arrival that we were instructed to stay clear of their zone until instructed to enter. Once we were cleared to enter, the controller asked for my intentions. This was strange as only MF airspace asks for that, and this was towered. So I blabbed of how I was going to overfly the field for the downwind of 34. All he was after was whether I was landing or not because he then told me what to do. Still can’t figure out the question as my flight plan showed London as my destination, and he just had to read. Oh well, it was an uneventful landing, and a good friend from back home that we had not seen in years greeted us at the airport. We were soon loaded up in his car and were off to his house. We had a great evening with him and his wife before we called it a day.

The next morning was planning time for the border crossing north of Detroit. With everything in order, we were on a specific schedule for our arrival in St. Clair County Airport, Michigan. The plan was to arrive for 11:00 am. We loaded up the plane with time to spare and then made our way for takeoff. We climbed out over the city and made our way on course. We soon were talking to Detroit Center and were advised of the radar being out, so no radar contact could be made. We kept having to call in the different reporting points that he requested as we overflew them. We felt the bump when we crossed the line and were instructed to switch to the traffic frequency. An uneventful landing, and we waited for customs to allow us out of the plane. It was quite hot, and the kids wanted out. After about 15 minutes, we were cleared to stand on US soil, and the kids were excited to get out. Once all the paperwork was finished, we filled all four tanks up to have lots of fuel for options when we closed in on the cold front near Chicago.

We bounced along under the cloud deck as we were out of oxygen and watched the scenery go by. As we approached the Chicago area, the weather started to close in above. We switched from center to center as we flew along on flight following. There sure is no shortage of airports in Michigan! The EFIS display was cluttered with them. The rain started to hit the windscreen, and we soon had to descend. We still maintained a 3000’ AGL, but the visibility was down a fair bit. Center asked if we had weather on board. I replied yes. He then knew that I saw what he saw, and he replied with “That is good because it is sure coming this way.” After one more weather report to center, I was switched to Chicago. A couple of aircraft were just coming through from Oshkosh, and they made it through, so I figured we had a chance. The XM looked worse northwest of Chicago, so I opted to stay farther south. This worked well as the controller wanted all aircraft clear of the Class B airspace. I could have stayed in tighter by descending, but I opted to stay high and further south.

Flight following was soon cancelled, and shortly after that, we had to descend to stay clear of cloud. The rain had stopped, and we had flown through about 75% of the front. We ducked under the cloud and got to the lowest altitude the pilot report gave. The pilot said that he had to stay down for only a short period of time. Visibility was great under the deck as the rain had stopped. It was not long before clouds started to gradually get lower. There are no mountains out that way, but there sure are towers. Seeing how there were so many airports in the US, I had no concerns as to finding a place. I made a decision to call it quits and wait out the weather.

I hit the nearest button on the GPS and overflew the nearest strip. It was a grass runway in the middle of nowhere, so we opted for a better location. As we headed to the nearest paved runway, the weather was just not allowing me a comfortable height at the speed the RV flies at in unknown areas. Instead of wasting time, I opted to land at the grass runway. I did a precautionary over the runway for a look-see to make sure it was good. The grass looked beautiful in the middle of the tall corn. We lined up, and I worked the stick through the bumps for a challenging crosswind landing. The wheels touched down on the smooth grass. About then, you could tell that the runway was not perfectly flat, so the plane made a launch after rolling nicely on the flat part for 200 ft. I kept the stick back and hammered on the brakes to get us stopped as soon as possible. The runway was well-kept, and we shut down next to the hangars.

I got out and ran to the house to see if anyone was home. The only ones there were the dog and cats. Well, at least it gave the kids something to do. After about an hour, the rain started, and the only place to go was the airplane. We huddled in there, and I checked all the weather at the surrounding airports. They all had 1200 ft broken or better, so we were in the bad spot, I guess. What luck, no civilized airport and low ceilings. I then called FSS and got a brief from them. They figured in about an hour the weather would improve greatly. We watched the sky brighten to the west, and the rain stopped. We filed out of there and planned for a look-see. If the weather was still low, we would just make it a circuit and land. Once airborne, the visibility was great, and the ceiling had improved. About five miles to the west was bright sunshine coming through the clouds. We headed for the sun and soon climbed to far better ceilings. Minutes later, the clouds were scattered, and we were plugging along under the deck with several thousand feet of altitude. The next stop was Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Flight following took us right into the airport, and I shot the ILS, just to have fun with the instruments. It makes long approaches much easier than just looking out the window.

We taxied up to the FBO, and we got our first taste of the great service many US airports provide. The plan was to call it quits for the day as the rest of the family had enough of looking at corn. The plane got filled up, with gas and oxygen, rooms booked, and a shuttle service was all provided by the FBO. All we did was unpack the plane. They even offered to tie the plane down, which I said no to. We were soon whizzing our way down the freeway in a shuttle bus to the hotel. The kids enjoyed the bus as much as flying. Downtown Cedar Rapids seemed deserted. There were very few people around and not much traffic. It kind of felt spooky. We went by our gut feel and did not walk around very far downtown. The room felt much safer.

Once the kids settled in, I spent time studying the weather. By the way things were looking, we had to make it all the way back to Calgary the next day. If we didn’t, we could be stuck somewhere close to home for a week. We made a plan to get moving as fast as possible in the morning. Room service brought the breakfast up, and we all wolfed it down so we could catch the shuttle for 8:00. Yes, I know much of the day had passed, but that is the best we can do with kids. Once at the airport, we got the plane packed and launched by 9:30, 8:30 Calgary time. The flight was direct to Rapid City, South Dakota. We bucked 20 to 30 KTS headwinds for much of the flight with a flight time of 3.5 hours. The last ½ hour was quite turbulent, and the heat sure started on the descent. With the vent opened, it felt like the cabin heat was on with the 35° C temps. We soon touched down in Rapid City with a very strong and gusty crosswind. We taxied in the extreme heat for fuel. Once the plane was fueled, we rushed in for air-conditioning and got a ride over to the terminal for more air conditioning and a quick lunch.

The next stop was to be Great Falls for border crossing planning and fuel. We all boarded into the oven and had the ultimate hot start test. The engine fired up after several blades. I was sure glad I figured out the hot starts on this engine before the trip! We did the long taxi to the other end of the airport, and everyone was roasting. No matter how much wind blew on you, it just did not matter. We hauled out of there with an 8,000’ density altitude on the ground and climbed our way to 10,500’ for cooler air. The temperature had dropped to 10° C, and we had to shut the vents. It was welcomed by everyone.

We bounced our way through the afternoon bumps and made our way into Great Falls, Montana in good time. We had to deviate east of Billings to stay clear of some big storms. Everyone on flight following was asking to get vectors to stay clear of the storms in the area. The 496 kept them clearly identified for us, and we kept our distance. Just out of Great Falls, we began our descent into the hot air once again. The tower asked us to keep the base in tight, and we made a quick uneventful landing. We taxied in for fuel and to find the nearest computer.

The first item on the list was to call Canpass to book an arrival time. With that done, we got the plane filled and got to work on the computer in the FBO. It is a fair bit of work when you have to fill out forms for four people. The easiest would be to have them all as crew, but they don’t always fly with me across the border. Everything was set for a 7:15 arrival in Lethbridge. We had a bit of time to relax before we headed out and let the kids burn off some energy. We soon loaded up and departed Great Falls. We did not climb very high as the flight was not much over an hour. Just high enough to cool off a bit. The ride was very smooth, and we were getting quite excited to be so close to home. We touched down after an uneventful flight and went to the customs phone as there was no one there. We got our code and then departed. It was less than 15 min on the ground.

The last 20-minute flight was in familiar skies. The weather was great where we were, but just north of Calgary was getting pounded with storms. This was a good time to let Emma have the controls for the first time. She could not see out the front, so I had her watch the EFIS screen. She was very excited to feel what she was doing. After a few minutes of that, Mom had enough in the back seat. Emma was all smiles. We sailed into High River with a continuously building tailwind. The first for the entire trip westbound. Garrett was on the ground frequency to greet us, and we were sure to make a high-speed overfly for the left hand downwind of 06. We touched down around 8:00 to finish off the trip. It was quite a day for everyone as we put so many hours in the plane. It was a choice we had to make as the weather for the rest of the week was IFR. On the drive home, the big cell and gust front had hit. We were glad to be on the ground and soon to be in our own beds once again. The RV-10 was once again alone in a safe hangar until it could bring us on our next adventure.