Flying the Oil Run With Central Mountain Air

Today I thought I would do a review on one of the smaller airlines that I frequently travel on out here in the west. Central Mountain Air (CMA) is a small airline based of out Smithers, British Columbia and flies to numerous towns and cities throughout Alberta and British Columbia using their fleet of Beechcraft 1900's and Dornier 328's. In previous years, CMA had a contract with Air Canada to operate select flights throughout the west here using their own aircraft and crew. Some of the routes included Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Cranbrook out of Calgary and several other low density routes out of Vancouver. This past year however CMA cut ties with Air Canada to focus more on charters and its own operations. Air Georgian now provides services on these routes for Air Canada operating under the name "Air Canada Express".

A Central Mountain Air Beechcraft 1900 on Taxi at YYC

Central Mountain Air is also the only airline to provide scheduled air service to several small communities in Northern Alberta including High Level and Rainbow Lake. However, one of the more popular routes that CMA operates is the Calgary-Lloydminster corridor and the main reason its popular is due to the presence of numerous oil refineries and their offices so many executives and workers travel back and forth between these two communities. The route initially started as a twice a day service except on weekends with 1 flight early in the morning and one early in the evening but due to its popularity a third flight was added late in the morning to add extra capacity on the route. Because CMA is the only airline to fly up to Lloydminster, they would be my choice of airline for my flight up north.

Booked on CMA 785, my flight was due to leave at 4:35pm and because these flights typically don't have many passengers, it makes for a very easy check in, so I was able to arrive at the airport an hour before departure. Because CMA only has 3 flights a day out of Calgary, they only have one check-in counter and can be quite difficult to find if you aren't paying attention, especially in the afternoon when passengers are checking in for the 2 international flights that are right next door to the CMA counters. Upon arriving at the check-in counters I was informed that the flight would be delayed due to a mechanical issue with the aircraft. Even though it was just a small delay, the agent provided all the passengers with free vouchers for coffee and snacks; quite a nice touch for a small airline like CMA. Thanks to the delay, our scheduled departure time would be pushed back to 6:00pm. In the end, the gate agent informed us that the issue was a little bigger than anticipated, so the aircraft ended up being swapped out for another one, another benefit of travelling out of a city where an airline is based. Because of CMA`s all Turboprop fleet, they use the Prop gates that Air Canada Jazz uses (The A01 Gates) for all their flights. Boarding commenced for CMA 785 and it's 18 passengers at 5:50pm and would soon be rolling out for Lloydminster.

The Beechcraft 1900 may be small, but it packs a powerful punch flying at over 330 miles/hour making it a perfect aircraft for these short haul missions. Boarding was completed very quickly and soon the pilots fired up the twin Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67D Turboprop engines and began the taxi out to Runway 28. It was a very blustery day in Calgary and from my previous experiences of flying in small aircraft in turbulent weather, it was going to be one bumpy ride out. With the strobe lights turned on, the pilots lined up on the runway and gave full power to her mighty engines as CMA 785 began its 1 hour journey north to Lloydminster. Because the Beechcraft 1900 only carries 18 passengers, a flight attendant is not required on these flights, the pilots do all the work from greeting the passengers to flying the plane. Other than the first 10 minutes of the flight being turbulent, it overall was very smooth and thanks to a bit of a tailwind, we were able to make up for a little bit of lost time. By the time we had reached our cruising altitude of 15,000 feet, it was already time to make the decent into Lloydminster. Because of the strong west winds, we would have to fly over the city and make a sharp left hand turn to line up with Runway 26. But thanks to some skilled maneuvering by the pilots, they brought our plane down smoothly and with Reverse Thrust fully engaged brought her to a stop well within the 4,500 foot runway. Taxi was super quick thanks to the size of the airport, 1 runway, 1 taxiway and 1 main terminal. In 2 minutes we landed, taxied, parked and had the engines shut down. Baggage was promptly delivered and I was well on my way within 10 minutes of landing, not many airports in the world can claim that.

My overall impression with Central Mountain Air was amazing, despite the mechanical delay in Calgary, the gate agents there kept as well informed and very happy with free snacks and coffee. The agents both in Calgary and Lloydminster as well as the flight crew were super friendly and even though it was only a 1 hour flight, they left me super impressed with their level of service. Kudos to Central Mountain Air and its employees, keep up the great work!

An Update from the Flight Deck

Good Morning from the Flight deck. First off, I want to apologize for the lack of updates recently, I've been quite busy over the last couple of week between preparing for exams, writing those exams and taking a road trip out to British Columbia. But now with school all finished, I'll have a little more time to write here. But I do start my new job on Saturday so if the lack of posts starts to show again, that's the reason why.

So last week I wrote all my final exams and on Monday got all the results back and I have to say I'm pretty happy with them. Guess we'll see what the second year has to bring us. But for now, I won't have to worry about school for another 4 months.

The Osprey 2000, one of 2 ferries that sail the waters of
Kootenay Lake

Last Friday I left on a road trip out to British Columbia on a 5 day tour of the interior, passing through Creston and the Kootenay Lake region. I even took the lake road north of Creston and took the Kootenay Lake Ferry (One of my favorite things to do out there) across the lake to Ainsworth Hot Springs and Nelson. I highly recommend visiting the Hot Springs if you are ever out there, it was so cool to swim through the caves they have there and just sit in the nice relaxing pool and just listen to sound of the waterfalls that run through the caves. I will have to admit that it is quite a long drive out there, especially if its just one person doing it and the weather isn't the greatest.

So we've been out of school for a week now and as much as everyone is probably happy to be out of school, I for one am not. I was so sad on the last day of school not only because the classes I loved were done, but also because all my friends in class would be heading off for the summer. They would off doing their new jobs or taking trips to exotic locations around the world. I know that I'll everyone back in class again in the fall (I sure hope that everyone does come back for Round 2), but now that everyone is gone for the summer, it feels like its the end of the good times. All the fun things that we did together of the past year, I feel like we won't have chance to get together since we'll all be too busy with work and everything else.

But I hope everyone is having a good start to their summer vacation so far, even though its only been one week. I'm quite happy that I'm living here in Calgary for the summer. I will be honest, I know I'm not much of a party person, but I do want to have another one of those epic nights that one will never forget, kind of like the one back in November we all had. Only problem is I'm not sure what to do so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to pretty much anything.

Anyways, have a wonderful day everybody! :)