My trip to Wichita for the next phase of CSeries flight testing finally took place over last weekend. I flew down on Thursday, then drove up to Salina where the test aircraft had deployed (Salina is an old USAF Strategic Air Command base, with a long runway, so it is perfect for runway performance testing). We reviewed test results from the Bombardier testing on Friday morning. The winds in the afternoon were much lower than forecast - almost calm instead of the expected 10 kt, so we took advantage of the surprise opportunity to get our testing done. The winds stayed calm, so we were done by the end of the afternoon. We reviewed the data from our tests on Saturday morning to confirm that we hit the test conditions, and that the results were acceptable. Sunday we flew home. I had expected it would take a week or more, as it is very difficult to find light winds in Kansas in the spring.
The weather today was excellent, and I hadn’t gotten a day off last weekend, so I didn’t feel at all guilty about taking today to go flying. I zipped over to Lachute, Quebec (CSE4) to check out the small restaurant on the airfield, to see if it would be a good place to bring Terry for lunch someday. The food was perfectly adequate - I’ll let her make her own decision on the menu.
Casse Croute Des’Airs menu page 1