Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (Mar 21/01) - A new silver bird paid a visit to the Kivalliq region this past week to see how it takes to an Arctic nest.
The new version of the Cessna Citation Encore Ultra jet arrived for cold weather testing in Rankin Inlet this past Thursday.
Pilot Dave Bonifield is the manager of flight test engineering at the Cessna Co.
He says there's been a number of improvements to the new jet, including an anti-ice system, new landing gear, more powerful engines and cockpit avionics.
"We've had the plane at Churchill and it tested fine at -25 C, but we wanted to test it at even lower temps and that's what brought us to Rankin," says Bonifield.
"The object is to let the plane cold soak for at least 10 hours and then come out in the morning and basically see how everything works.
"We'll check out the heating system, engine, landing gear retraction and extension and emergency retraction and extension."
Although only in Rankin one night to conduct the tests, the five-person crew (pilot, co-pilot, instrumentation avionics technician, flight test engineer and mechanic) had more to adjust to than the weather.
The Cessna Co. is based in Wichita, Kansas, where, apparently, services are a little easier to come by, according to Jim Cameron of the Department of Community Government and Transportation.
Cameron received numerous calls from the crew seeking information about Rankin before they arrived.
And, they were more than a little taken back by some of the answers.
"The Americans have what are called fixed base operators at their airports who do everything for you when you're on the ground," says Cameron.
"You just let them know you're coming and they handle all the details."
Cameron says the crew was obviously not used to Northern services.
"They were amazed by the fact they couldn't come here, pull out an oil company credit card and pay for their fuel, that there's only one hotel in town that's booked solid right now, and that there's only one car rental agency that rents out a crew-cab truck.
"Apparently, things of this nature are really strange to the good folks of Wichita."
