Only short flights

"We can't fly anywhere!" Chris complains, meaning that this year we've been thwarted from undertaking a trip by air to stay overnight in a place that's new to us, or to land somewhere like Ithaca, say, in New York State, to revisit its attractions on the ground. Instead, we've only been for short flights, "round the block", usually up above the Gatineau River to the Wakefield area and back, which we can do in under an hour. Once, at the end of October, we extended that loop and overflew the dam at Low. We have memories of the "log-driver" canoeing trips that used to be offered by Aventures Radisson in the 1990s, on that stretch of the river, through spectacular scenery. 

Scenery near Low, QC

Nostalgia trips. On another afternoon, at the end of May, flying through bands of rain visibly falling from grey clouds as we approached them, where squalls of wind blew into us, we had a there-and-back outing by air to Whitewater Village on the banks of the Ottawa River, via the Luskville and Shawville areas, so that I could take aerial shots of Barbara's cottage where we'd stayed last November (in 2019). Barbara was there at the time of our flight, and came out on her deck to wave to us, even. Chris repeated that ride with Chuck, later, who takes better photos than I.

Whitewater Village

A similar ride was the one when, during the pumpkin harvest season in mid-October, we took the plane (without stopping) down to Cornwall airport (CYCC) and back, one Saturday afternoon, doing a "touch-and-go" landing on the runway and getting fine views of the St. Lawrence from the circuit there, with the international border very close. On the way there and back we overflew the farm where I'd been for a wagon ride through the pumpkin fields the previous day, with people in the Diplomatic Hospitality Group.

Pumpkin farm from the air

St. Lawrence River, near CYCC

Twice this year, we did land somewhere else and got out for a walk, again just repeating short trips we'd had many times in the past. It's almost exactly an hour between Rockcliffe airport and Kingston (CYGK), so that's a popular excursion for members of the Rockcliffe aviation fraternity; it's traditionally one's first solo cross-country flight when working towards one's Private Pilot Licence. Chris and I walked through the conservation area to the edge of Lake Ontario, that day. Another walk in the woods that we relished was on the day we flew north in September, also for about an hour, to Mont-Laurier airport (CSD4), our walk after lunch at the nearby roadside café following the ATV trails part way around the airport fence, on the outside, that is, through some wild-looking shrubland.

All worth doing, and we appreciate how extraordinarily lucky we are to have those experiences, and to be able to afford what it costs to use our little private plane, but none of the above is the same as a real flying adventure, such as we've boasted of in most previous years.