If you havn’t seen this bit yet, watch it. Extremely funny.

Contains some strong language.

I first started planning/worrying about my 300nm X-Country flight last September.

My original plan was to make the trip to Sherbrooke (CYSC), which is 341nm from Buttonville. My reasoning was as follows:

1. I get to overfly my (now ex) cottage near Magog, Quebec.

2. I get to fly in some American airspace.

3. Get some experience dealing with the French radio calls (I can speak French fluently).

I’ve started re-evaluating my decision based on the following:

1. I’m more confident with my flying now, so why not make the trip to the US?

2. To recoup …

Aviatrix over at Cockpit Conversation has a great idea for IFR students.

She speculates states that most examiners have a set routing/plan when they give IFR rides to students or pilots whose IFR currency has lapsed.

Her idea is to set up a database of possible flights that you will be tested on so that you can be better prepared for the flight.

I encourage you to send along your most recent flight details to her so that she can start compiling her database (and so that I may use it when it …

A stuck mike at JFK can be a serious thing. You’re blocking a really busy frequency.

However, when everyone is stuck on the ground due to weather and you make a PA announcement over the ground frequency instead of in the cabin, well.. You’re bound to get razzed.

The clip starts with a stuck mike. Intertwined in here is an aircraft with a potential engine fire.

I love it how everyone is keying their mikes while he’s making the PA announcement.

I get asked quite a few questions about my training. So I decided to put together a time line that outlines specific milestones/events over the course of learning how to fly.

The time line extends into the future, with goals/plans for the future. You can access it from this link, or on the left of the website under “by the numbers”.

This news is a little late. However, AIC 21/08 fills us in:

TORONTO/BUTTONVILLE, ONTARIO REDUCTION IN THE CONTROL TOWER HOURS OF OPERATIONS

NAV CANADA, the country’s provider of civil air navigation services, recently conducted an aeronautical study that reviewed the hours of operation of the control tower at the Toronto/Buttonville airport.

Taking into consideration the complexity, level, and nature of operations, NAV CANADA concluded that reducing the hours of the control tower by one hour would not adversely affect the safety or efficiency of flight operations.

Currently the hours of operation for the control …

I came across this post on avcanada.ca. I’m posting it here more as a “reminder” for me when it comes time to file my taxes as a full time pilot. I’m going to copy-and-paste it verbatim:

From http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=41875

Original Author: wallypilot

(spelling and links/html cleaned up a bit)

1.Did you have to move for your job? If yes, you can deduct moving expenses. The total goes into line 219.

2. Did you get paid per diems in your job? If no, you can claim up to $51 CDN per day in Canada, but you …

I was able to get in two x-country flights this week. The first flight was to Owen Sound.

During my flight planning, I noticed the NavCanada website was down. I thought to my self.. great, I’m going to be on hold for ever when I call up London FIC.

Had to wait maybe 10 seconds before I got a flight service specialist. I got a weather briefing, which included upper winds, and NOTAMs and started the planning process.

The FD for both Wiarton and Toronto were showing 25KT winds at the 3000′ level …

One thing you need to do that wasn’t really taught (to me) was how to calculate when you’re flying at night (or Legal Night as us pilots like to call it).

This is important for a few reasons:

- If you don’t have a night rating, you need to know when you need to be wheels down and engine off.

- If you do have a night rating, then you need to know when you can log your hours as night.

- I’m sure airport operators needs this information for when to turn various …

I came across this article in the latest issue of Wired Magazine (Jun 2008, Page 50). It describes how anyone can land an airplane in an emergency.

As a pilot, I was highly skeptical that these steps would work. It assumes that the person flying the airplane knows where to find the auto pilot, radios, flaps, etc. I’m sure most would be overwhelmed by all the buttons and knobs.

I’m curious to your thoughts on the article. You can click on the image to make it bigger.