Uncontrolled airports are just that. Airports that have no control tower or a tower that is closed. At least in Canada, we have no specific laws that tell you how you should approach an uncontrolled airport to land. Let’s take a look how Canadian Pilots land at an airport with no positive air traffic control….
One of the main advantages of flying is that you get to travel in straight lines. You know that saying: “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line”. Take, for example, this short flight from CNC3 to KERI. As the crow flies (over Lake Erie): 101nm or approx. 50 min of flying time….
Two airplanes are approaching an aerodrome at the same time. One is planning the straight in downwind for runway 33. The other, is planning on joining the mid-left downwind for 33. Both circuit entries are allowed by law (in Canada) in this situation as this is an uncontrolled airport. Both aircraft had made their required…
Making my way westward towards Lake Havasu, Nevada (KHII), I decide to stop for lunch in Dalhart, TX (KDHT). The next leg of my flight will involve scrutinizing the route on a full stomach. With my iPad and ForeFlight open, I’m interrupted by a fellow pilot inquiring if that’s my airplane on the ramp and…
Update: A 45 min presentation on this topic is now available on YouTube Flying General Aviation from Canada to the United States can be an elaborate process. This post will cover what you need to do in order to file all the necessary paperwork to land in the USA and clear customs and immigration with…
A recent discussion with a fellow pilot had me going down a rabbit hole to find an answer to a seemingly simple question. In Canada every IFR flight must be filed with an alternate airport, regardless of the weather forecast at your destination airport. This is not the same as in the United States with…
When you plan a flight, do you check the relevant NOTAMs? How do you know if they are important to you and your flight? Did you know that if you cause a danger, incident, or accident because you didn’t check the NOTAMS you can be “charged” under CAR 602.71? A NOTAM, or Notice To Airmen,…
A recent comment about flight plans by a reader has prompted me to write this post about flight itineraries. Pilots have the option of filing a flight plan or a flight itinerary. There are important differences between to the two. It’s important to know what these differences are so you don’t expect a certain 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…
A friend of mine mentioned that it would be cool to have “a million dollars” to have his own airport. I told him that all you need is space to land an airplane and you can do just that, legally. Without referencing anything, I told him that you are allowed to land on private property…