Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 22:43:21 ET

Aviation Document Booklet

Now that all of the CPL and APTL pilots have the new licence, Transport Canada is asking everyone else to apply.

In order to maintain a valid licence, holders must apply for the new booklet format before December 31, 2009 (6 months from now).

Applying is similar to a passport. You need to provide a notarized photograph. It can be signed by someone who can also sign passport photos. In addition there is a one page application form that needs to be filled out.

I'm sending mine in tomorrow. I should get the new licence in 4-6 weeks.

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 16:06:31 ET

99% Of Earths Surface Topographically Mapped

The BBC is reporting that NASA and the Japanese Trade ministry has completed topographically mapping 99% of the earths surface.

The awesome thing? The sample rate is 30m! Let's do some math.

Surface area of earth: 5.10072 × 10^14 m^2
99% of earths surface area: 5.0497128 × 10^14 m^2

If there is a sample taken every 30 meters, than there should be approx 1.6832376 × 10^15 samples.

That's a pretty huge database! Granted, you can make some assumptions. For example, that the majority of the earth is covered in water and thus has an elevation of 0m. So no need to keep track of the elevation of every point on the ocean.

The great thing about this new data is that aviation databases for terrain avoidance can be increased in accuracy!

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Monday, June 22, 2009 - 13:40:51 ET

Flying During The 2010 Olympics

NavCanada has released an Olympic Website that contains all the information a pilot needs to know while flying around Vancouver during the Olympics.

You can expect to have a lot of restricted airspace and "unusual" procedures during the games. To stay up to date, keep an eye on the AICs and the NavCanada website.

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - 22:04:32 ET

Rental Rates, Vacation, City Tours

I'm taking up another couple for a city tour tomorrow. It's his wifes birthday and he wants to take her on a sunset flight of the city. I will be sure to post some photos before the weekend.

I am heading off on vacation next week overseas. I'm going to bring along my scanner on the airplane. My plan is to pick up some Air to Air comms while over the ocean. They usually use 123.45 Mhz, right?

I also got a copy of the Toronto Airways Rental Rates as well as Aircraft Weights. For those of you who rent at TAL and want a copy, please feel free to download.

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Friday, June 5, 2009 - 18:55:36 ET

Wedding Anniversary Flight

Last Sunday I took a co-worker and her wife on a flight around the city for their 1st wedding anniversary. The visibility was great, the winds not so much. It was gusty and bumpy. We still had a great time though. My passenger took some video of me landing. It's hard to tell but I was crabbing into the wind the entire time down as it was (if I recall correctly) 12 knots gusting 20. The tower also warned of a -10KT wind shear on short final. Since we were landing on 33, this was most likely due to mechanical turbulence from the hangers and buildings that are just south of the runway (the CFS warns about them).



Notice the stall warning horn going off, not once, but twice.. thats what I get for trying to grease 'er down ;)

It was a great time by all. No matter what I'm doing, even if it's the 100th city tour, I still love being up in the air.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 - 10:48:36 ET

VFR Flight Itineraries

A recent comment about flight plans by a reader has prompted me to write this post about flight itineraries.

Pilots have the option of filing a flight plan or a flight itinerary. There are important differences between to the two. It's important to know what these differences are so you don't expect a certain level of service that may be available when in fact it is not.

When do you need to file a plan or itinerary?

CAR 602.73(2) lets us know:

(2) No pilot-in-command shall operate an aircraft in VFR flight unless a VFR flight plan or a VFR flight itinerary has been filed, except where the flight is conducted within 25 nautical miles of the departure aerodrome.

There may be that rare case (bonus points if you can tell me when this would apply) where you may be flying from a Canadian airport to a US one, where the distance is less than 25nm. CAR 602.73(4) covers this:

(4) Notwithstanding anything in this Division, no pilot-in-command shall, unless a flight plan has been filed, operate an aircraft between Canada and a foreign state.

If you are doing circuits or airwork, sightseeing, etc.. near your airport, you do not need to file a plan or itinerary unless you will be leaving that 25nm boundary.

Although I cant seem to find it in the CARs, I'm pretty sure you need to file a flight plan if you are entering an ADIZ.

So you've determined that you need to file a plan or itinerary. So which one do you use?

The main difference between a flight plan and itinerary is where the responsibility is for letting the authorities know when you are missing or overdue.

A flight itinerary gives you the option of "filing" the plan with a responsible person. This person should be someone you trust to notify the authorities if you have not arrived at your destination.

A flight itinerary does not preclude you to do proper flight planning. You still need to provide them with your planned route of travel, speeds, altitudes, ETA, etc...

It is important to note that unlike with a flight plan, search and rescue is not automatically initiated by NavCanada if you are over due. The responsible person must contact the proper authorities to initiate SAR.

I would suggest that you give clear instructions to your responsible person on when and how to contact the authorities to initiate search and rescue. You can't expect your responsible person to understand how to read a flight itinerary form. Something similar might work well:

If I don't arrive at Anypoint Airport by 12:00pm, please contact the RCMP at: xxx-xxxx.

CAR 602.79 outlines what the responsible person must due when an aircraft is overdue.

Another big difference between flight plans and itineraries can be illustrated by the following scenario:

Lets say you've filed a flight itinerary with your responsible person. It outlines that you will arrive at your destination at 13:00. You depart on time and head towards your destination. About half way there, you notice that your engine is running a little rough. You decide to divert to the closest airport. This airport would take you 30nm north of your course. During your diversion, your engine quits and you are forced to land 2nm short of the airport.

Your responsible person calls the authorities at 14:00 because you are over an hour late. SAR is launched and they are looking for you along your planned route. Nobody was made aware that you diverted to another airport.

Granted, I'm sure you could tell FSS that you are diverting, but they know nothing of your itinerary because it was filed with someone else.

Flight plans on the other hand contain the same information as a flight itinerary. The difference is that the "responsible person" is now NavCanada. They will automatically notify the authorities when you are overdue.

Do you use a flight itinerary? If so, why? Personally I don't see why I wouldn't file a plan 100% of the time.

Mr. Buckley from CASARA had this to add:

Assuming ATC, FSS, CARS or JRCC is notified you are overdue (as above), the first thing they will do is a communications search, which will include looking for contacts from the aircraft in question to ATC, FSS, CARSs etc. So notifying FSS about a diversion when on a Flight Itinerary is every bit as good, useful and recommended as when on a Flight Plan. In fact giving regular position updates to FSS when possible is a very good idea as each position report removes a good chunk of the country behind you from the area that needs to be searched in the event the worst happens.

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Thursday, May 21, 2009 - 10:57:28 ET

New YKZ Controlllers?

Has anyone noticed any new voices on tower/ground at Buttonville? I know one of the controllers retired a while ago.

As always you can listen to YKZ tower/ground at Liveatc.net.

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