February 2010 Archives

Friday, February 26, 2010 - 21:58:48 ET

Operation Yellow Ribbon

Operation Yellow Ribbon is the name of the operation that Transport Canada created to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

As a result of Operation Yellow Ribbon, 255 aircraft were diverted to 17 different airports across the country. - Wikipedia

NBC will be airing a documentary of the same name, this Sunday at 7pm as part of the Olympic coverage. It is scheduled to air before the closing ceremonies.

There was a sneak peak of the video on You Tube, but it has since been removed.

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Friday, February 26, 2010 - 17:37:46 ET

Continental Flight 3407

I was going to do a write up about the Dash 8 Crash that happened a year ago. The NTSB has released their final report on the accident.

However, Sylvia at Fear of Landing beat me to it, and did a superb job and summarizing the report.

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Monday, February 22, 2010 - 21:22:30 ET

Feb 23: National Aviation Day

National Aviation Day was declared in 2009 by the Honourable John Baird, MP, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

This yearly celebration will allow us to remember our past achievements and help chart the course of Canada's aviation and aerospace futures.

To celebrate this day a Career Day and Job Fair at the Canada Aviation Museum is being held tomorrow.

This is a good opportunity to listen to presenters from Air Canada, Transport Canada, Bombardier and others!

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Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 19:58:09 ET

Canadian IFR Approach Plates

I just discovered this online today. The Canadian Air Pilot are approach plates from Nav Canada for all airports in Canada with IFR approaches.

The country is divided up into 6 sections, each section has their own plate booklet (two for Quebec, one in English and the other in French). You can find PDF copies of the latest versions in the Nav Canada AIP section.

UPDATE: Since the files have been removed from Nav Canada's website, I have included a copy of them on my server. Please don't use these for navigation as they are expired.

CAP 01 English
CAP 02 English
CAP 03 English
CAP 04 English
CAP 05 English
CAP 06 French
CAP 07 English

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Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 00:00:00 ET

Flying Or Love?

You might have heard the about who the latest Bachelor is on the current season of The Bachelor. This season is called "on the wings of love" because the Bachelor is a pilot.

I scoffed at Jake when he said:"love is bigger than flying". I blurted: "If he was a true pilot, he would pick flying over love". This ensued into a debate with my girlfriend.

I know of people who have picked their careers over marriage and love. My position was that if he touts himself as a true pilot, then he would pick flying over love. This is because flying is his love and passion and nothing else.

"Don't be so logical!" my girlfriend rebutted.

Some pilots choose to be single because they don't want to be tied down. They like to be free! (Why else do they fly?). It takes a very special man or women to be able to put up with someone who flys for a living. The work schedules, pay, and danger (some people feel flying is risky) can all play havoc on your relationship.

"You like to fly, but you didn't pick that over me!" she continues.

That's because I don't truly love to fly. I like to pilot aircraft because it's fun, exciting, and challenging all at the same time. It's a good way to keep my mind active by learning new things. It's also a great way to share some unique experiences with other people. There are people who are a thousand times more "in love" with flying than I am.

The only thing I will truly love is Sara, but flying comes a close second!

For something fun, plop this route into your flight planner:

CPG7 YMS CPM5 ZDH CZBA CYFD CNM4 CPD2 CPC6 CNH3 CPG7

Happy Valentines Day!

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Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 14:04:24 ET

A Typical Flight With Blake

I had the pleasure of flying Jim and my co-worker Massimo this past September around the city.

Great times had by all, Jim captured it for posterity and posted it on You Tube. Check out the video! (your RSS reader might not display it properly)

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Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 10:26:58 ET

Want to Work for NavCanada?

NavCanada will be at the The National Job Fair and Training Expo in Toronto. Wednesday March 24th, 2010.

You will be able to find them in Booth # 912, in the Employment Pavillion. At the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

I might swing by that day since I literally work across the street.

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Monday, February 1, 2010 - 18:34:57 ET

Do You Monitor 121.5?

It's been a year since the cospas-sarsat program stopped monitoring 121.5Mhz for distress signals. However, Transport Canada has provided a grace period for aircraft owners to move to the new 406Mhz ELTs.

This means that potentially nobody is listening on 121.5Mhz for the ELT signal.

The new system offers way more advantages to the old one. Mainly the ability to encode your GPS location in the distress signal so that Search and Rescue can come to your aid more quickly.

To be honest, whenever I've flown an aircraft with dual radios, I've never tuned to 121.5Mhz on the secondary radio. I mostly used the secondary radio to listen to traffic/calls for the area that I would be entering in the future.

The new 407Mhz ELTs still broadcast on 121.5Mhz along with distress calls and communications by intercepting aircraft. So my question to you is, do you still monitor 121.5?

[Note: I updated to correct the article. Thanks Richard!]

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