October 2009 Archives

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 15:26:49 ET

Fears

Normally I'm not a fearful person. As long as I feel like I've prepared the best I can, there really is no reason for me be worried or scared of everything.

When it comes to flying my biggest fear is running out of fuel. There has been times when my flight instructors would question why I would get the tanks filled up when there is enough fuel for the lesson. Is there any harm in having 5 hours of fuel even though your flight is only going to be an hour? Of course not!

I always take on more fuel then I need. I always depart on full tanks.

When it comes to flying, what are you most afraid of?

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 12:00:00 ET

Where Can You Land on a Highway In Canada?

When I'm bored, I pop open the CFS to a random page and read up on a particular airport.

Today it happened to be Wiley Airport (CAJ2), a small strip in the Yukon.

What caught my eye was the "Caution" section in the CFS which reads:

Rwy forms part of Dempster hwy (mile 244)

So this aerodrome's runway is actually the highway itself! According to the CFS entry, there is a little "apron" to park your plane and a windsock.

This is one airport where a precautionary style landing is definitely in order. "no cars? check!"

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Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 00:00:00 ET

Low Level Airspace Change

Back in August, I reported that NavCanada was making some changes to the Low Level IFR airspace on Ontario.

They have an implementation date! October 22!

The full details can be found at NavCanada.

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - 14:00:00 ET

Are There Any VOTs Left?

NavCanada turned off all VOR receiver test facilities (VOT) in Canada (I believe).

This means there is no longer a way for you to test your VOR on the ground before you depart.

I've never used one before, and I suspect most people nowadays don't use them either.

The full list of VOTs that are decommissioned can be found at NavCanada.

VOTs were handy in that you could determine the error rate of your VOR receiver on the ground. For example, you'd tune up the VOT frequency and turn the OBS to 180°. You should see the "to" flag with the needle centred. If not, then you know how many "dots" your VOR is off by. Similarly, you can also tune the receiver to 000° and see a "from" flag.

Are VOTs still used elsewhere in the world?

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - 08:45:33 ET

Air Canada Confusion?

When I originally booked my flight, using Aeroplan, the itinerary showed that my flight to Sydney would be a non-stop flight:

However every source I look at (including a friend I have who works for Jazz) says that the flight will be stopping in Vancouver.

This lead me to fully understand the different between a "direct" flight and a "non-stop" flight.

A "direct flight" is one whereby the flight is using 1 flight number, and passengers are not required to disembark between stops. For example, my flight to Sydney AC33, which stops in YVR. Same flight number, and I will be staying on the plane while passengers from YVR board.

A "non-stop" flight is just that. 1 flight number that goes straight to their destination without stopping.

So as you can see, on my Aeroplan itinerary it says "Stops: 0". As well, the PDF itinerary that was emailed to me does not show a stop in YVR.

According to my itineraries, this is a "non stop" flight. According to Air Canada, and Flight Aware it's a "direct" flight.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - 20:58:13 ET

Real World Encounters with ATC

We've all heard the "atc jokes" that have been floating around the Internet. You know, the ones like this:

ATC: He's at your 3 o'clock
Pilot: Sorry, we only have digital watches.

*groan*

So here some "real world" ones reported by either controllers or pilots on frequency:

Several planes were running up and waiting to take off, many Cessna's including a 337. With all the students and several similar call signs, the controllers were getting a tad confused. The controller finally asked: "Cessna 123YZ, are you the Skymaster?"

A slightly confused voice with an indeterminate accent replied, after a moment, "Well, my instructor says that I am very good, but I do not think that I would yet be considered the 'Skymaster.'

This one actually made me laugh out loud:

A C152 pilot was asked to report his height prior to clearance to enter the zone, replied: "Flight Level Three Thousand, Seven Hundred", upon which the Controller very smartly replied, "Roger, prepare to fire retro-rockets and re-enter the atmosphere!"

This one is good too:

Pilot "ground, this is challenger N1234 for taxi"
ATC "N1234 taxi delta, bravo call tower holding short RWY 06"
Pilot "tower N1234 ready for take off"
ATC " N1234 backtrack to position RWY 24"
Pilot after recognizing same voice on both freqs says "you sound like a woman I once knew...she worked all positions"
ATC without skipping a beat replies " N1234 If she sounded like me, with a deep voice and all, I'd leave the lights on a little longer, you're clear for take off"
Pilot mic clicks but cojo is laughing too hard to say another word.

Whoops:

ATC: "Delta 1234, say air speed."
Delta: "Air speed"
ATC: "Delta 1234, say altitude"
Delta: "Altitude"
ATC: "Delta 1234, say Cancel IFR"
Delta: "240 kts, 14000 ft"

The Brits always have a good sense of humour:

"Speedbird (British Airways for those who don't know) 123 traffic your twelve o'clock, 20 miles, 1000' above is a Boeing 747, 1000' below is a Airbus 340 both Air France"
(To this day no-one can figure out why he said the airline, just as a point of interest I suppose)

"Ahh Speedbird123 roger traffic in sight.... center is this what you call a frog sandwich?"

Thankfully I haven't done this before:

I once heard another student getting furious calling ATIS for a current weather update, couldn't firgure out why they weren't responding. They sat in the office listening on the scanner for a good 20 minutes laughing before somebody told him.

Squawk? What's that?

Tower: ABC, Squawk Ident
ABC: Say again
Tower: ABC... Squawk... Ident
ABC: tower, I don't know what that means.
Tower: Do you know where your transponder is?
ABC: Yes
Tower: is there a button on there that says "ident"?
ABC: Yes
Tower: PRESS IT
ABC: Not until you tell me what it does.
Tower: It ejects the wings, now press it.

Do you have a funny ATC encounter to share?

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Friday, October 2, 2009 - 17:00:23 ET

Vacation Time! (Sorta)

So, I will be heading off on a month long vacation to the pacific next week. Specifically, Australia, New Zealand, and Samoa.

Well, the Samoan visit is still up in the air as they suffered a large earthquake and tsunami this week. I had booked a flight on a Polynesian Airlines between the islands of Savai'i and Upolu. The flight is only 20 minutes long, but would have been a great way to see the islands from the air. To top it all off, it only cost me $15CAD and would be on a Twin Otter!

Hopefully the country will be back into a normal state by the time I'm planning on being there, in November.

I'm flying to Australia via Air Canada, a non-stop flight on their 777-LR aircraft. Although their site still shows AC33 as going to SYD via YVR, my ticket shows "non-stop" straight to SYD. So we'll see.

Once I'm in the Pacific, I plan on getting around using Virgin Pacific. Flight from Sydney to Auckland, NZ, then on to Samoa. Return flight from Samoa is direct to Sydney.

I'm going to have some posts queued up to automatically publish while I'm gone. This means that the e-mail updates will not automatically be sent out. So for those of you on the e-mail list, you will need to check the site manually every few days for new posts.

Also, for those of you who are on twitter, I gave in and signed up for an account. Feel free to follow me.

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