Schefferville to Saguenay-Bagotville

As I head generally back in the Denver direction (southwest), my limited range takes me next to Saguenay-Bagotville airport, in Alouette, Quebec. Here are some fun things to do, in the Saguenay-Bagotville area.

Taxiing out for takeoff at Schefferville airport, I see that the ubiquitous L-5 Sentinel aircraft is taxiing out ahead of me. I often see this Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated aircraft moving semi-randomly around the ramps and runways, doing what appear to be ground-loops, at almost every airport I visit. On many occasions, I've had to wait awhile, sometimes several minutes, for ATC clearance to take off, while this AI aircraft repeatedly loops its way down the runway, until it's finally found its way to a place on the airport that doesn't interfere with a takeoff clearance. Sigh...

Climbing out from Schefferville, and turning left onto my flight planned southerly course toward Saguenay-Bagotville airport.

So once again, I'm passing over this interesting circular lake in Quebec province, with a huge island in the middle, named Manicougan Reservoir. I learned earlier, from researching it during a previous flight in this area, that this annular lake was formed 214 million years ago, by the impact of a 3 mile diameter meteorite. Also known as the Eye of Quebec, this lake can be seen from space.

There's so much water up here in Canada! Think of the boating, swimming, fishing! And the mosquitoes! In this snapshot, I'm passing over a beautiful lake, which I think is "Lac Pipmuacan," or Pipmuacan Reservoir, about 90 miles from my destination. At this point, I'm focusing my attention on beginning my descent into Bagotville.

Another snapshot, this time from inside the aircraft, while still over Lac Pipmuacan, about 2 nautical miles from the Top Of Descent (TOD) point depicted on the moving map display. I setup the G1000's Vertical Navigation (VNV) profile in this aircraft for a 2.5 degree descent slope, so it advises me when I need to start down, and gives me a recommended descent path all the way down to the altitude at the initial approach fix (IAF). Very cool stuff. In the past, none of the aircraft I used to fly a lot, had any of this avionics sophistication, so I would always have to make a mental calculation, based on the airport elevation, my calculated groundspeed (GS, by timing waypoint crossings along my route), my desired vertical speed (VS), and my cruising altitude, and estimate about where I would be along my route of flight, when I needed to start down. I occasionally miscalculated what my GS would be when descending, or didn't exactly achieve my planned descent VS, and ended up arriving near my destination, way too high, and needing to dive to the airport. The sooner I recognized what was happening, the less of a dive it needed to be. The G1000 VNV capability makes this descent process so much easier!

I like to fly the instrument approach when I can, even in clear weather, since it gives me more familiarity with the avionics, and especially at unfamiliar airports, it can reduce the number of surprises when nearing the airport. Coming into radio range of the airport, and picking up the Automated Weather Observation Service (AWOS), it becomes obvious that I guessed wrong, when setting up for the runway 11 approach at the airport, since the opposite-direction runway 29 is currently in use.

Now I've setup the G1000 for the ILS runway 29 approach. This approach is a little more complex than the runway 11 approach, which was basically straight-in after a left turn. This one requires a left turn away from the airport, to turn onto the final approach course outbound, then a procedure turn to reverse course, and then tracking straight-in to runway 29, intercepting the localizer and glideslope along the way.

Tracking the segment of the approach to intersect the outbound course, with the airport ahead and to the right.

Descending through 8,200 feet, with the moving map showing the airport off to the right, and the turn to the outbound course about 14 miles ahead, or about 3 minutes, at my current speed.

Peeking out the starboard-side cockpit window, to spot the airport off to the right.

Finishing up the procedure turn, and turning onto the final approach course, inbound to the airport.

Tracking the localizer and glideslope, with higher terrain depicted along both sides of the approach course, about 10-15 miles off either wing. Slightly high on the glideslope, as the aircraft initially balloons up, after applying full flaps.

On short final to Saguenay-Bagotville airport. I guess it's not all that surprising, that there is yet another stand of tall trees, off the approach end of the runway.

Parked on the ramp at Saguenay-Bagotville airport, with a collection of what appear to be rescue helicopters and some F-4 fighters, parked in the distance.