Who's on First?

The famous Abott & Costello baseball routine

One of the funniest comedy routines ever performed was with Lou Costello and William "Bud" Abbott. Originally, a vaudeville team that surged into radio and then television as their careers matured with a sprinkling of movie gigs along the way. Their classic 8 minute exchange "Who's on First" has been viewed almost 6 million times on YouTube alone.

Who, What, and I Don't Know really sums up these three flights to get to Cambridge Bay in Nunavut. The first two are with Westjet and the third the next day is with Canadian North.

Flight WJA427's path to YEG with the waypoints shown

I'm beginning the journey at 6:50 a.m. with Flight #WJA427 on a Boeing 737 model 800 series. It's a twin engine jet having arrived the night before around 8:30 p.m. from Bermuda. Flight time to Edmonton is usually about 4 hours flying at 356 knots over a distance of some 2700 kilometers. It seems this Saturday's flight schedule info adds almost a half hour....a late gate departure or headwinds?? ...Only time will tell.

It usually flies at 36,000 feet and has been arriving in Edmonton a few minutes early in the past week despite a few minutes delay getting off the ground at YYZ Toronto Pearson. With two time changes along the way we will arrive in Edmonton around 9:15 local time. We will be into the Mountain Standard Time Zone from this point forward during the next few weeks until we are back to Toronto in february. 

Flight details of the first leg

If all goes well with my check in at Pearson, my luggage will have been checked through to Yellowknife so I will have only myself and cabin cargo (one carry on and a "personal" bag) to attend to while transferring in Edmonton. Just time enough for a quick breakfast (or early lunch) as I have a two hour layover at YEG, Edmonton International Airport. The weather is scheduled to be sunny clear and a high of -6C but I shouldn't be outside at all. Hopefully I'll be able to stay behind security and not have to go through it twice in one day. 

For those of you who've never been to Edmonton (me included), YEG is a hub for cargo and passengers serving northern Alberta and the far north regions of Canada, the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut Territories. YEG is Canada's largest airport in total land mass and the 5th busiest in the entire country. My guess is that the top three would be Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

While it's a vital link to the mining and oil fields of the north and cargo is an extremely important component of its functionality, I depart a couple of hours after I've landed on Westjet flight 108 at 11:15.  That plane is also a 737 but the 600 series and would have arrived about 70 minutes earlier from Vancouver in the west.

The second leg north to Yellowknife

Flying straight north, this time, a little faster at 450 knots and a little higher at 38,000 feet, we begin this one and a half hour trek to Yellowknife. We should be on the ground around 2:30 p.m. at YZF. Yellowknife will be our designated overnight rest stop for this leg of the race and it is a non-elimination leg.

The weather in Yellowknife is forecast sunny and minus 11C. Saturday they will be getting another 2.5 minutes of daylight..so I should be able to get some photos taken around town before the sun sets at 3:15...maybe even some sunset ones!!! It will be my only opportunity to see Yellowknife in the daylight as my arrival from Cambridge Bay at the beginning of February takes place after the sun has set and I depart for Calgary the next morning at 6 a.m...long before the sun has risen.

So to start over...
Who's on first? Me on flight WJA427...
What's on second? Me and cargo on WJA108...  
I Don't Know about the third flight...and it's just a couple of days away.