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Cold Soak

Bombardier sends crack team to test jet


Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 28/02) - They call it a cold soak.

Sit a new jet for 10 hours in -40 C temperatures on the tarmac and then start it. The mother of all tests.

Nine people from Bombardier Aerospace cold- soaked a new regional jet at the Yellowknife airport last week.

Capt. Derek Campbell, production test pilot with the company, said they had been waiting since November for the right temperature to cold-soak the new jet.

"We had a short list of airports," said Campbell.

Campbell said they looked at Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit, Fairbanks, Alaska, Barrow, Alaska and Yellowknife.

And luckily, Yellowknife had the right sub meat-freezer temperatures necessary for the test.

"We needed ground temperatures of -40 C," said Campbell.

Bombardier sent up a crack team of pilots, engineers and mechanics from Montreal and Wichita, Kan., to run the tests, an indication of the importance of the operation.

Sam Gemar, ex-astronaut and test pilot for the company, said if the jet passes the tests it is ready to take on passengers.

"The captain and engineer's names are on the line," said Gemar.

"They are saying the airplane is safe to fly."

For this reason Bombardier has Gamer, a three-time space shuttle pilot, Ted Squelch, an engineer who worked on developing the Concorde from 1966 to 1976 and Campbell, an ex-bush pilot turned test pilot, running the tests along with the engineer who designed the jet.

Gamer's last mission into space kept him there for 14 days working on a space station. His previous trip was during the Gulf War on a classified mission.

This was his first trip to Yellowknife.

The North's winter temperatures brings a host of brand new aircrafts every year.

Gamer said the cold- soak test is based on a simple principle.

"When a car is running you expect it to run at almost any temperature. The tough part is starting it in cold temperatures. That's what we are doing here. Starting the jet and making sure all the systems work in these temperatures," said Gamer.

The temperature at flying altitude is a constant -56 C.

Companies chase weather all winter long until the temperature dips the right amount for the test.

Euro-copter is testing a new helicopter in Inuvik and an Airbus was scheduled to land in Yellowknife for its own soaking last week.

Campbell said they can get a jet ready to fly to the test in 24 hours.

The 70-seat, CRJ 700, was sold to American Airlines.