He said hot air balloon accidents are so rare that investigators looking at the crash are learning the basics of hot air ballooning before the investigation can really begin.

– CBC News

Thats right! The TSB has to start from square one, by learning how hot air balloons operate before they can continue their investigation.

This is the first hot air balloon accident that I’ve ever heard of. It’s a shame that two people died in this incident. I’m confident that the TSB will find a cause and prevent this from ever …

Last nights flight was the most fun I’ve had doing circuits in a long time.

I arrived at the airport at around 2030 to a mostly clear sky with a full moon. The temperature was in the mid 20s, and the windsock looked like a limp noodle. Perfect flying weather.

After figuring out which is the best plane to take up (GDQG, by the way) my FI and I climbed in and headed to local north. This is the first time I’ve flown out of Buttonvilles control zone at night.Our destination was …

If you happen to be one of the eager people to grab the new VTA that was made available this week you may have to return it.

After being delayed 3 months (the original release date was supposed to be May 2007) the VTA contains an error and has been rescinded according to Nav Canada:

070923 CZYZ TORONTO FIR

CZYZ TORONTO VFR TML AREA CHART AIR 1900, 34TH EDITION, JUNE 2007

RESCINDED. CURRENT AUTH TORONTO VFR TML AREA CHART AIR 1900 IS

33RD EDITION, MARCH 2006

Although the charts never technically expire and you can fly …

The whole idea of flying to Burlington last weekend was to experience flying in Class C airspace with flight following.

ATC no diced me.

I ended up going under YYZs class C shelf at 1600′ both ways. Aww well.

The good news is that I was able to take my dad up during the flight. The weather was great with good visibility, light winds, and no bumps for the majority of the flight. My dad was able to spot the airport before me, about 4 miles away, so we entered the straight in …

I just read this story from CBC about the cause of the death of a Snowbird last May. Turns out that his seatbelt failed while he was inverted which caused him to fall out of his seat and lose control of the airplane.

Something that is there to save you life, fails and kills you. What a crappy way to go.

He was a young pilot who was going to get married three weeks after the accident.

Don’t know when this happened, but looks like Toronto Airways has much needed new look to their website.

It includes a new section for the Prop Shop where you can buy stuff online.

Check it out at www.torontoairways.com

I have yet to venture into YYZs class C airspace in the 1.5 years I’ve been flying out of Buttonville. There has been no need for me to, until now.

I want to head over to Guelph (CNC4) via Brampton (CNC3). The quickest route takes me just north of Pearsons control zone. I highly doubt I can fly through there at 4500′ and I really don’t want to fly under the class C shelf at 1600′.

I suspect that my only option would be to plan for something higher, like 8500′. I …

My first lesson for my night rating was last night. It went well! I got to meet my new FI when I showed up at dispatch at 8:30, she’s extremely nice.

Since legal night didn’t start until 8:57, I took my time doing the walk around and reviewing the necessary documents. This also gave my FI some time to have something to eat before we headed up.

As we walked to the airplane, the FI quizzed me an a few things:

FI: What colour are taxiway lights?

Me: Blue

FI: What colour are runway lights?

Me: …

Nav Canada is upgrading Buttonville’s ILS system. No new functionality is being added, just installing a new localizer.

In order to accommodate this two month outage, Nav Canada is producing a GNSS approach for 21.

The planned outage is from August 20 to October 15th. Keep an eye out on the NOTAMs for the exact dates.

More information is available on the Nav Canada website.

My second flight as a licenced pilot took me to Stanhope/Haliburton airport (CND4) with a friend who has a cottage up there.

Departing Runway 15

We departed Buttonville at about 8:45 and headed up the 404 to Newmarket (my set heading point) direct to Haliburton. The weather was great, light winds and great visibility.

The flight up was uneventful and we enjoyed the smooth ride. The winds at CND4 were coming out of the south/south west according to the Unicom guy so I planned for runway 27.

This is where things got interesting. …