Recent airplane ownership of a Piper tri-pacer afforded me the opportunity to invite some local neighbors along with family to explore one of our BC coastal gems.
With picnic lunches and eager families we took off and landed in less than 30 minutes on one of the small pristine Gulf Islands * just South of Nanaimo.
It was uninhabited in those days, the 70’s, with a cleared grass center right down the middle about 2500′ from shoreline to shoreline, a little rough but perfectly ok for my venerable ‘milking stool’ Piper, so nick-named due to its high landing gear.
It took a couple of flights to transport all of us from my Butler-Howroyd home airfield in North Saanich, but worth it. Kids fished off rocks at the Southern end, and we all enjoyed the brief outing away from city life.
When time came for a return flight, I found the battery weak on my yellow bird. Spinning the prop by hand to start the engine now became necessary. With throttle and brake set, I cranked until nearly exhausted without result! Likely a flooded fuel issue. Spinning the prop in reverse finally cleared it, and thankfully the faithful Lycoming engine roared to life. I’m not sure what we could have done if it hadn’t started!
Two round trips and a day on a tiny gulf island. It was a memorable experience for us all.
* Hudson Island, named after the Hudson’s Bay Company, (31 Acre Island) next to much larger Thetis Island.
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