I took my girlfriend and her sister on a city tour last Sunday. Logged 0.8 hours in the book.

Sara has been up a few times with me already, but this was Kates first time. The flight was at 830 in the morning, so the air was still smooth and the visibility was decent. This was my first flight over the city since the airspace changes were made last month.

The only difference I noticed was that I was given a squawk code right away before taking off. I was advised to …

CAR 401.05(2)(b) outlines the currency requirements for your night rating:

(b) where a passenger other than a flight test examiner designated by the Minister is carried on board the aircraft, has completed, within the six months preceding the flight,

(i) in the case of an aircraft other than a glider or a balloon, in the same category and class of aircraft as the aircraft, or in a Level B, C or D simulator of the same category and class as the aircraft, at least

…

(B) five night take-offs and five night landings, if …

Well… the original plan was to head up to Sudbury with Matt. Scratch that! I backed my girlfriends car into a pole and now have to pay to get it fixed. boourns!

So, we headed up to Wiarton (CYVV) instead. Shorter flight, less $$!

Wiarton is famous for Wiarton Willie. The groundhog that predicts if we will have another 6 weeks of winter or not. We didn’t see any groundhogs scurry across the runway.

The airport is also home to an Environment Canada weather station and office. CYVV is a location where you …

From NavCanada:

NAV CANADA, the country’s provider of civil air navigation services, recently completed an aeronautical study of the airspace in the London, Ontario area. The study recommended a change to the airspace classification at the London Airport.

A Control Zone classification change from Class D to Class C transponder mode C required) will enable more effective and efficient provision of air traffic control (ATC) services at the London Airport.

This change will take effect March 12, 2009 at 09:01 Coordinated Time Universal Time (UTC). The appropriate aeronautical publications will be amended.

Official announcement …

Ever since I started flying, I’ve been hearing anecdotal evidence that the 200 hour mark is a pilots career is one of the most dangerous.

I’ve spent a few hours trying to find hard evidence of such and cant find any data that supports this claim.

Does anyone have any ideas where I can find information from reputable sources (NASA, TC, AOPA, COPA, etc..) that shows data and explains why 200 hours is such a precarious milestone in a pilots career? (I think there is another one at 1,500 hours too)

NavCanada has a ANS service improvements project underway to upgrade some of the aging Air Navigation Systems equipment.

AIC 47/08 and 48/08 outline the schedule for the upgrade of the DME and ILS equipment. One thing to note, is that the new ILS equipment will not provide back-course capabilities. Therefore ILS procedures involving the localizer back-course will be replaced with an RNAV approach instead.

As always, you can check out the AICs at the NavCanada website.

I also also thinking of implementing a service whereby you can “subscribe” for for AIC updates. You …

I hope everyone had a great holiday break! This was the first month in three years where I didn’t go flying once. I’m hoping that trend doesn’t continue.

As 2008 leaves us, its on to look ahead to 2009!

I’ve never been fond of the term “new years resolutions”, instead I use the term “goals”. So here are my aviation goals for 2009:

Finish up and get my CPL
Write the INRAT for my IFR Rating
(Finally) Go to Oshkosh
Fly an ultralight!

These are all pretty realistic. I’ve already got the necessary hours for the CPL, …

I’ve upgraded the site backend from MT 3.1 to MT 4.12. I’m pretty sure I’ve caught everything. However, if you notice any broken links or images, please let me know.

The commenting system has changed a bit. It now uses reCaptcha. You will have to type in two words instead of just one. As well, you can save your details so you don’t have to type in you name/email every time.

A holiday blog post will be forthcoming including my new years resolutions goals.

NavCanada is undergoing a program to refresh the weather systems/stations across Canada. The program is split into four different categories:

- AWOS

- Ice Resistant Anemometers

- Remote Digital Temperature Sensors and Displays

- Digital Weather Cameras

NavCanada will be replacing approx 82 AWOS stations across the country with new equipment. This new equipment will contain the latest hardware in weather detection and reporting. This includes new ice resistant anemometers, along with RVR information. It will also be able to detect ceilings as high as 25,000′ with new laser celiometers.

One of the more interesting additions, …

I was doing some research today and came across a device that will soon be used across Canada in the Aviation field.

A Measuring Device

I’m leaving it up to you to guess what this could be. I’ll post the answer, and the findings to my research in a few days.