September 2009 Archives

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 00:13:53 ET

St. Pierre et Miquelon Airspace

Does anyone know if the airspace around LFVP is managed by NavCanada or Frances' Air Traffic Controllers?

For those of you who don't know. Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a French territory off the coast of Newfoundland.

The reason why I ask is because the airspace appears in the Transport Canada Designated Airspace Handbook. Even though it's technically a separate country, it is in Canadian Domestic Airspace and thus appears in the Handbook.

There are two pieces of airspace. First, the Class "D" control zone (in green) and then the Class "D" (inner ring) and Class "E" (outer ring) terminal control areas.

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Monday, September 28, 2009 - 12:38:45 ET

Q Codes Explained

Matthew Stibbe posted a comment asking about Q Codes:

Now if only someone could explain the origin of the Q-codes (e.g. QNH, QFE and the ever-mysterious QSY which means 'I'm changing frequency en route' but why?)

Q codes were developed in 1907 in order to facilitate communication with other nations for which there was no common language. This was primarily used in Morse Code in order to get some basic understanding of vital information. For example, if you wanted to know someone's true bearing, you could just send the "QRC" code.

Using Q codes provides two main benefits:

1. Frequency usage remained to a minimum as you only had to transmit three characters
2. The user on the other end didn't need to speak English to understand the question.

This was mainly used for shipping, however when aviation became popular it was being used by Aviators to communicate with one another. Back in the day a sample communication would look like the following, remember in morse code:

GJX GJX DE GADHL GADHL GADHL - GM - TEST - QRK - QSA - K

Translated means, "Eastleigh from G-ADHL - Good morning - Testing - Do you receive me well? - Are my signals good? What is the strength of my signals? - Please reply" The from and to call signs were repeated to ensure that users knew who the message was intended for.

Notice the QRK and QSA codes are used.

A reply would look like:

GHL GHL GHL DE GJX - GM - QRK - QSA 5 - K

Translated: "G-ADHL [abbreviated] from Eastleigh - Good morning - Receiving you well - The strength of your signal is 5 - Reply"

Once voice communication became prevelant and there were no need for Morse Code anymore the Q codes got dropped. Well, most of them did. There are some still in use today:

QNH - Known in North America as the altimeter setting. You could hear "QNH 1013.2" instead of "altimeter setting: 29.92".
QFE - Not used in North America at all. It is the altimeter setting at the station where the indicated altitude would show 0' ASL.

As far as I can tell, there are no order to Q codes and seem to be randomly generated for each phrase.

Question to Aussie/Brit pilots out there, other than QNH, QFE, and QNE, do you use any other ones?

For example would ATC say:

""callsign" QMI your current position".

For which you would reply:

"QMI is scattered at 4000' and broken at 8000'".

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Monday, September 21, 2009 - 13:25:48 ET

Airspace and Flying

I went flying on Saturday with a coworker. The weather was perfect! We headed up north to Barrie and could see the Toronto skyline. The visibility was at least 80kms. I guess that's what you get when you combine a cold front with a high pressure system.

I've been working hard on a project and would like some users who would be willing to beta test some of its features.

There are essentially two main parts to this project. The first is flight planning, and the second is visualizing this flight plan.

I'm going to need some people (hopefully across Canada) who will be able to sanity check some data and offer feedback to how the system can be improved.

For example, here is a screen shot of a map I put together for the airspace around Toronto. Click to view a larger version.

I'm soliciting feedback from pilots on how you would like to see the data presented. If you are interested in providing feedback and to be on the beta list of users please feel free to comment on this post with your request.

You must leave an e-mail address (don't worry, it wont be posted on the site) when you fill out the comment form to be eligible.

Comments (5) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Monday, September 14, 2009 - 17:01:02 ET

Why we call UTC, Zulu Time.

I always wondered why UTC was given the "Z" letter designation when dealing with all things flying.

I found my answer today, and it has to deal with a concept known as Nautical Time Zones.

Nautical Timezones are the idealized version of terrestrial time zones. That is, each zone is exactly 15° in size. As a ship crosses the Atlantic, for example, the Captain is to adjust the clocks as the ship passes through each 15° of latitude from its point of origin.

As the ship progresses and log lines are added to the ships log books, the captain has to indicate which time zone the log entry applies to by adding a UTC offset. For example, the Captain may use "+4" to indicate that the log item happened 4 hours before UTC. This means that UTC is "0", or Zero Time.

This system first made an appearance in the 1920s, but it wasn't until World War II did it become common practice to all mariners.

To facilitate the communication of these times over radios, in the 1950s letter suffixes were added to each zone. Using the example above, +4 would be "Delta" (or D). A-M (except J) was used for the east and N-Y to the west.

Because UTC was considered to be "Zero Time", the letter "Z" (or Zulu) was the designated letter to use.

You can see a map of these zones on the United States Naval Office website. Or you can read a more detailed article about Nautical Time on Wikipedia.

Comments (6) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 10:54:19 ET

Toooot! Porter to Serve Steam Whistle!

Porter announced that it will be adding Steam Whistle Pilsner as part if its complementary beverage service. I highly suggest you order one next time you're on a flight. As well, if you have time while in the city, go on a brewery tour! They are only minutes from the airport.

Porter is also adding a new destination starting October: St. John's, Newfoundland!

I finally get to fly Porter to Boston in December! Thanks Sara!

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 12:14:09 ET

Logging Time in Foreign Airplanes/Countries

I'm going to be heading to Australia in about a month and was going to see if I can take up an airplane around Sydney while I'm there.

I haven't done any research on the matter but I was under the impression that:

• You can log dual time in a foreign country/airplane
• You can only log PIC time in an aircraft for which the registration and the country of issue of your license is the same

Is this the case? If so, can you point me to supporting documentation?

Update: I've done some investigation. From what I can tell, you are not allowed to act as PIC of an Australian registered aircraft without an Australian License. You can get a Certificate of Validation which allows CASA to recognize your Canadian license as an Australian one. As for logging the time, I suspect you can do it in either case above, so long as the Dual time was with a foreign instructor.

Comments (8) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Thursday, September 3, 2009 - 12:12:19 ET

It's All About CYTZ

The Canadian International Air Show is on in Toronto this weekend. As such, the airspace in the city is now restricted (check the notams for date/times).

I've put together a quick google map of the affected area:

For those of you attending, with scanners: You can find the list of ATC Frequncies here.

As well, CBC is reporting that the Toronto Island Airport wants to change their name to Billy Bishop Airport. Uhmm.. Hello?! Owen Sound airport beat you to it. C'mon, there must be another name you can use? Anyone have any suggestions. What do you think the Tororonto Island Airport should be renamed to?

Comments (1) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things