DGP

Buddy of mine who is retired has all kinds of winter gear to give away ...just pay the shipping...its on fb...Ian Mitchel is the guy.The gear is in Florida.

I have went to at least 10 or more shows going back to 1996 in Dallas...the year the 407 was first shown. Back in those days you could actually get a ride in most of the new ships. I got a ride in a 407 with an engineer friend of mine...I told the pilot when we got back that he better have maintenance check out that ship as the vibs in the back seat were so bad I thought we might not make it back to the rooftop helipad. I went to Bell in Texas for my 407 pilot/eng course in 2000 and mentioned this to our maintenance instructor...he actually knew of this and said the oil cooler bearings were going in that ship...unreal...anyways the show is fun...you see all the new stuff that will get to Canada in 20 years...just kidding...you may meet some friends and get offered a job...which I did in Dallas in 2000 but turned it down...met up with 412 driver at one show...good times. I never had to pay to get into the shows...if you know people in the business...ie... Bell.EuroCopter, Standard Aero...they all hand out free tickets at the show. My buddy George worked for Composite Tech...always got me in free. You will find it very hard to get a ride anymore due to 911...you have to pre reg to set it up with lots of checks and paperwork. Haven't been at one now since the one in Louisville KN...not a good place for the show if you want warm weather in Feb...it snowed when I was there...I went to a couple in Orlando, at least 3 in Dallas, Vegas once...LA once...I would go to Orlando again...LA is too far to go for me and the traffic there is nuts...too crowded.

Never met Mark ....worked on many fires with Linc.

Last job with Dave was a fire in Ontario...he was flying a 204 as usual...we had been put up in some attco trailers...I was sent to town to ...pick up the mail...still remember Dave when I handed him his ...mail....Mr Potts...you old repribate..some great times working with Dave..missed by lots!!!

Met Dave on a job in Snow Lk...same time RonnyRotor was there...we had some good times!!!

Had some good times with Bret...nice guy...sorry he has gone!!!

I had to go do some work on Bob ship up in Coppermine after Bob got stuck out in the boonies for several days...he finally ran out of gas from starting the ship to keep it from freezing up...anyways...Bob and I flew from Coppermine to Norman Wells together...and Bob being the gentleman said ...you can fly her Doug...I don't need the hours!

That old wagon of Als had a bad lean to the left!!!

I also flew out of Canada thru the US without landing and back into Canada...you better be on a flight plan with a discreet code and calling up US FSS...I usually talk with Boston Center!

As mentioned you have to tell FSS on departure to activate your flight plan...coming and going...several times they didn't do it and I never got wrote up.

I flew into the US hundreds of times...You first have to get on a computer and do an eapis report...then you call up border protection and talk with them...then you have to file a flight plan...on route you have to call the nearest US fss and tell them you are crossing the board and tell them where...you will have a discreet transponder code...you have to tell them your altitude and exact position when crossing .You have to call BPS at least an hour before...coming back to Canada you have to do the eapis outbound from the US...file with CanPass at least 2 hrs before departure...file a flight plan...use 1200 for your code.

Buddy of mine died in a mid air on a fire..2 ships bucketing a fire..RIP buddy!

Close calls...I gave up counting.

Part of my di on 407 or 206 was to give the tailboom a light push to see if that boom was attached properly. If you are having disc packs break you better start digging deeper...imho!

Not sure how much weight of snow was in the tailboom but it might have been a nasty surprise for my buddy Ray if he had gone flying! It took 4 hrs to clean all the snow out of that ship!