Canada’s Energy Independence – Reducing Reliance on the U.S. Market This post delves into the global demand for Alberta’s heavy oil and the strategic importance of diversifying Canada’s energy markets. It highlights how various countries, including the United States, Europe, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, have refineries capable of processing heavy crude oil...
Pipeline Route Options within Canadian Borders Canada has explored the possibility of building a west-to-east oil pipeline entirely on Canadian soil. The most prominent proposal was Energy East, a 4,500+ km pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick. As shown in the map below, it would have linked Alberta’s oil sands (Hardisty) to the Atlantic...
Alberta Needs the Keystone XL Pipeline – But Not for the Reasons You Think! My first cousin, who worked in Fort McMurray, asked a legitimate question on Facebook. Why does Canada still buy oil from Saudi Arabia instead of Alberta? An angry Albertan offered a knee-jerk answer. That’s easy. Because of Trudeau, of course!...
Landing a Seaplane inside the Rinjani Volcano is equivalent to Indonesia landing a Man on the Moon. Mount Rinjani is an active volcano that built the island of Lombok. That is a realistic way of looking at a volcano’s role. When anyone mentions Mount Rinjani, they say it is on the island of Lombok....
An Alternative to Crowded Airports How do you cope as an ad-hoc charter operator when faced with long delays at a crowded airport with limited take-off and landing slots that must be booked days in advance? You need someone who can think outside the traffic pattern to answer this question. I was asked to...
Introduction to Life as a Seaplane Pilot – In the world of aviation, pilots rely on strict procedures, detailed flight plans, and sophisticated technology to ensure each journey is completed safely and efficiently. When you’re in the cockpit of a seaplane, for instance, the combination of flight plans, checklists, and real-time analysis of wind,...
High inside the Arctic Circle. 1966. The captain taxied the immense, majestic Canso flying boat into the frigid Foxe Basin arctic waters. We were leaving Igloolic, a fragile-looking settlement perched tenuously, like a tern’s egg, on a rocky island between the giant Baffin Island and the mainland Melville Peninsula. I would most likely never...
Seaplanes, Pilots and the Golden South Seas Pearls. Gold, silver, diamonds, precious stones, and pearls have been at the top of man’s list of the most sought-after and cherished valuables since man learned to forge these raw elements into jewellery. Pearls, however, have been the moonlight glint in man’s eyes since the beginning. “The...
A Good Neighbour – In Memory of Douglas John Silvester. For you, after you die, there is nothing. A void. A blackness. For the still-living, when you die, you still exist. The memory of who you were lives on. Who you were (a good guy, an ‘A’-hole, a craftsman, an artist) depends on what memories you impressed on...
The Potential of Seaplanes: Reaching Out to Remote Regions. One of the more questionable quotes I hear seaplane promoters use is that 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, suggesting that we need more seaplanes to fly to more places. While there’s a certain appeal to the notion that our planet’s vast...
