I've spent the last 40 years watching the float planes land and take off from Vancouver's Coal Harbour wishing that one day I could be up there watching the Lions Gate Bridge slip beneath the wings. Yesterday I finally got to realize that dream, thanks to a chance meeting in a Starbucks.

 

Last year I was sitting in my local Starbucks working on my laptop. A guy came and sat at the next table also with a laptop. He opened it and started to do some work, then appeared to be getting frustrated. He called someone to help him which only seemed to irritate him more, the end result was he needed to bring the laptop into the office the next morning. He looked at me and mumbled something disparaging about computers and IT guys. Being an IT guy myself, I like seeing happy users, so I casually asked what was wrong and if I could help him out. Ten minutes later he was happy as a clam, and I had a fresh hot Americano. His Outlook was fixed and he could open PDF files without the computer crashing. He said his IT guy at work hadn't been able to fix his issues for two weeks. We exchanged business cards, turns out Mike is the Chief Mechanic for Harbour Air, the largest all float plane airline in the world. I mentioned how I

 

Two weeks later an envelope arrived for me with 4 Harbour Air buddy passes (2 return trips) and a $10 Starbucks card. So this is how I got to finally fly on a single Otter from Vancouver to Victoria on a beautiful sunny day. On the way back, I even got to ride in the co-pilots seat as the flight was full and we were on stand by. What an amazing experience! The water landings were smoother than anything I'd felt on land, and the view from 1,000 ft over the gulf islands was incredible. Those pilots have the best job in the world!

 

Since then, I helped him with his personal laptop, which resulted in 4 more buddy passes.

Here's a video the HA guys made. Seems like a fun company to work for. The guy yelling into the phone is Mike the Mechanic.

 

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIi2g6FNEKU[/media]

Very nice video !

Id better go to Starbucks more often!

 

What an awsome reward!! Awsome video, Thanks for sharing! B)

Very cool. I flew on a Beaver in San Fran a couple years back

 

 

And this spring I did a Twin Otter flight into St. Barts

 

 

DHC planes are the coolest things to ever get a set of wings....

I was hoping the get a ride on the Twin Otter for one of the trips, but no such luck. I've been on an Air Moorea twotter, but theirs are land based, I'd like to experience the float version. Definitely my new favorite aircraft. Since I started flying RC aircraft I've been looking for a nice scale model I can put on floats, and I think I found it!

Awesome!