Viking Air Tour & Enroute Adventure

By: David Safarik

​Weather changes everything in aviation and it can have a massive influence on the outcome of a day. We were off to the Viking Air tour organised by BCGA which is kind of a big deal for aviation nerds. If the weather crapped out like we’d gotten so used to over the past 6 months, our day would have been bookended by a long boring drive, a marginally more interesting long ferry ride and another car ride to Viking’s factory at Victoria Airport. But instead we were gifted with a big beautiful high pressure system off the coast and that boring 8 hour commute from Squamish turned into one of my best flying days. 

Knowing not to squander a sunny flying day, we hatched a plan the night before to make the most of it. We departed Squamish in the morning to the west through one of my favourite routes through the Ashlu Canyon. We popped up over the cloud base to reveal unlimited visibility over the inversion layer to the mountains on Vancouver Island. No wind and sunny skies called for some ridge surfing enroute

Our first stop was Vargas Island. I’ve landed on the beach there many years ago as a passenger but never PIC. All the recent posts on BCGA Facebook page got the stoke factor high and I decided to give my first beach landing a try. The tides were perfect with low tide coinciding with our arrival along with a light breeze of about 3-5kts. The sand was visibly damp the entire 300’ width of the beach and most of it had a thin shiny layer of water over the top. I cringed at the idea of bathing the plane with salt and sand but this is the kind of thing we got into flying for right? The beach surface was perfect. No debris, perfectly flat and the sand held solid. At first we had the beach to ourselves but shortly after landing we were joined by a home built PA-14 with 4 people onboard and we got buzzed by two other planes. After a chat with the other party who were Tofino locals, we took off for a touch and go followed by a departure south towards Tofino looking for whales
No whales but before long we were at Bamfield. Bamfield is a tiny coastal town with a small gravel strip. I’d heard reports that it was in good shape so we decided to give it a go. The strip looks around 1600’ long. The east side of the runway is being used as a junk yard so watch out for random items stored close to the runway. A low pass confirmed that the runway was in great shape so we came back around for a tight circuit to land south towards the beach. The trees around the strip would keep things sporty on a windy day. We had no problem getting the 172 in and out with two onboard, half fuel and light wind. There’s a little hump mid-field which results in a jump right at rotation speed that shot us up off the deck nicely both times. The field has a paved runup pad at the north end and a decaying terminal building and tie-down area on the west side
Our plan from there was to follow the coast around to YYJ via Victoria Harbour but time was getting tight to make the Viking Tour so we decided to shortcut our plan and head direct to YYJ from Port Renfrew. The valley set us up nicely for a Shawnigan Lake arrival for 09. As if the day wasn’t perfect enough already, we had to slow down on final to get a front row seat to three departing Yaks ahead of us and a Sea King off our right wing. We tied down at the flying club and made it just in time for the 1PM Viking Tour.

Viking Air owns the type certificates for all the de Havilland planes including the legendary Beaver and Otter. The Twin Turbo Otter is the only plane in production and that is what we came to see.

Viking Air started the tour with a video presentation and a talk in one of their classrooms. At the end of the classroom session, we negotiated a BCGA group buy discount on the $6.9 million Otter in case anyone is in the market.

Viking builds most of the Otter from scratch in Victoria, assembles them in Calgary and paints them over the border in Washington State. Fun fact – it takes longer to paint an Otter than it does a 737 due to the older design and rivets. The Viking factory was quiet that day as they run a 4 day work week and Fridays is mostly admin staff, cleaners and the odd worker catching up.

We started the factory tour in the area where raw sheet metal gets bent and shaped into various parts. It takes about 20,000 parts to build an Otter. Viking has the most amazing mix of both modern and old school machines and tools. The rubber press alone is a massive 100 tonne vintage work of art. Everywhere you looked there was well organized parts, tools and machines of various vintages. We couldn’t take any photos inside the facility unfortunately.

We toured the factory in the same order a sheet of raw aluminium does until we got towards the end where we saw wings and fuselage parts in various states of completion. The tour ended outside with a brand new Twin Otter sitting outside in the sun.

We regrouped at the Victoria Flying Club for a chat over a coffee and a cookie before a couple of us made the short walk to the highly recommended Mary’s Bleue Moon Cafe for a late lunch. With bellies and fuel tanks full, we crossed the Georgia Strait for Howe Sound and home to Squamish to be welcomed home by the first lumpy air we encountered all day. Squamish never disappoints. 

Thanks to Rob Anderson and BCGA for being the catalyst to a perfect flying day.