There was a fire at Pearson on November 28th. Specifically the Tower was evacuated for smoke and/or fire:

NAV CANADA ADVZY 003 CYYZ/CZY *** TORONTO TWR IMMEDIATE EVACUATION ***

EMERGENCY EVACUATION OF TORONTO CONTROL TOWER — SMOKE.

ALL AIR TRAFFIC UNITS SHALL IMMEDIATELY GROUND STOP ALL IFR

DEPARTURES INTO OR THROUGH THE TORONTO TOWER.

FSS ARE REQUESTED TO PASS THIS MESSAGE TO APPROPRIATE TOWERS AND

APPROACH CONTROL UNITS ASAP. YXU FIC PLS ADVISE TRENTON MTCU AT

613-965-2979.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

TORONTO TMU 905-676-3528 / 800-268-4831 / USA 800-387-3801

06/11/29 02:14 NOC

LiveATC.net has some interesting chatter on …

A little while back I noted that Toronto City Centre was getting a new lighting system. The explanation if such system is out in the latest AIC. I wonder if such enhancements were due to Porter Airlines flying out of YTZ now.

The visual alignment guidance system is made up of two light units placed symmetrically on each side of the runway threshold. It is indicated by the notation “AZ” in the CFS and CAP.

The lights provide unidirectional rotating beams, which create a flashing effect. Each light flashes once per second.

When …

I decided to take the day off work on Friday and attempt my long X-Country trip that I needed to do as a requirement for my PPL.

The forecast was not looking good for Friday morning the night before. Regardless, I decided to do the flight planning anyways in hopes that the forecast was incorrect.

I woke up early on Friday morning to get things ready and was delighted to see the weather was not anywhere near what was forecast the night before! Awesome! I tweaked some of the numbers (mainly the …

If only the Cessna 172 can do a short field take-off like this guy:

Today would be a perfect day for my necessary long x-country. Alas, work beckons me.

METAR CYKZ 211500Z 22006KT 12SM SCT220 BKN250 01/M05 A3051 RMK CI2CI2

CONTRAILS SLP340=

METAR CYQA 211400Z AUTO 16005KT 9SM CLR M03/M05 A3044 RMK SLP325=

METAR CYPQ 211500Z AUTO 21006KT 9SM CLR 01/M06 A3050 RMK SLP340=

Visibility is lower but still good enough. Damn.

The ceilings were too low yesterday to do the pre-flightest work. So I decided to do some circuits and practice various types landings and take-offs.

I’m trying to spend a few days each week going over my notes and keeping the information for the PPL exam fresh in my mind.

The weather this coming week is looking promising. Mostly cloudy skys and light winds. Thank god for high pressure systems.

Registration for next semester starts tomorrow. I will be taking only one class this winter: Economics. One of the two non aviation related …

You can buy aviation specific gps units for $500 and up. These can include features such as terrain alerts, weather radar overlay, and a database of air space, way points, intersections, etc..

There is an alternative though. You can spend $100 on a “cheaper” gps unit and pre-program it with your way points on a x-country trip, for example.

Some tools you will need:

- A GPS Unit (i’m using the Garmin eTrex Venture)

- GPX Aviation Waypoint Generator

- Ministry of Natural Resources Geographical Name lookup

- Latitude/Longitude Converter

- EasyGPS

Step 1: Get Your Waypoints

You can …

There are two main reasons why I cant get my arse out there to finish the last little bit of things I need to get for my licence.

Weather

This has had to have been the crappiest and wettest fall ever. October and November have been dominated by low ceilings and drizzle. The Weather Network’s forecast is calling for higher than normal precipitation until Winter.

I had so many opportunities to do the things I needed to do this month, but the weather hasn’t been co-operating at all. Normally I don’t get frustrated …

(This is all from memory, so apologies if I get anything wrong)

The tour of the Toronto ACC was awesome. Our tour guide was great, he was able to answer all of my questions. He’s a controller as well as a pilot, so he knows both sides of the story.

We started off with a presentation on Toronto’s airspace and why things are done a certain way. He was able to answer a lot of questions about why VFR pilot (which flight following) are vectored this way or that. He explained that …

My flight on the weekend was the worst. I hadn’t been flying in quite a while so I elected to make this flight a review and not the “mock test” flight.

I told my FI that I wanted to review forced approaches, precautionary landings, and steep turns. She through in some stalls and spiral dives for good measure.

I forgot what to do for the forced landing, screwed up my estimation of the length of the field, buggered up the mayday call. I would have made the field had the airplanes full …