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…
“Hey! Wait! I got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice.” Screams Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Here is some priceless advice on how to coordinate special flights with Nav Canada. The pandemic has thrown a lot of wrenches in people’s Valentines Day plans. No longer are we able to spend hundreds of…
Checking into my AirBnB on Sunday night, I took the opportunity to do some more research about this potential purchase. It’s always best to do your due diligence when buying something as complex as an aircraft. The seller and I have been friends for a while, even business partners at one point. Still, that’s no…
Looking back at a post from over ten years ago has me reporting that my dream aircraft to buy was the Grumman Cheetah. A great low wing aircraft with a cool sliding canopy that allows you to fly with it open. A lot has changed in ten years, but the goal has remained the same:…
It’s great being back in the pilot’s seat again. I’ve started flying in San Francisco, and boy-oh-boy, it’s nothing like back in Toronto. Today’s flight started around 4pm. The weather was great, not a cloud in the sky (at least east of the Santa Cruz mountains). After a standard pre-flight briefing with the instructor, we…
During a bike tour of Portland, OR I noticed a helicopter landing on top of a nearby building. Our tour guide mentioned that this was Oregon’s only public use heliport. It’s located on top of a parking structure that was built in 1989. There is enough room for four rotorcraft to park. Talk about a…
Last Friday the Police caught someone shining a laser pointer at a police helicopter: On Friday, August 1, 2014, shortly after midnight, Air2 was in the area of Yonge Street and High Tech Road assisting uniform officers on the ground, who were conducting a traffic stop on an impaired driver. While assisting with the traffic…
Oh, I don’t use paper maps anymore. – Coworker. One of the advantages of flying the USA I guess! A co-worker recommended that I fly out of San Carlos airport (KSQL), so I decided to take a look at the surrounding airspace to get familiar with flying in San Francisco. It’s pretty complicated. So much…
I’ve started blogging again! This time from the west coast of San Francisco, California. I’m in the process of converting my TCCA licence to an FAA license (*nudge* see, American spelling now!). I’ll be blogging about that process when I’m done studying all the new material. In the mean time, the website has a brand…
9:44pm, June 22, 1924. Three minutes before dusk and still no sign of Pilot Russell Maughan. 50,000 people waited at Crissy Field outside of San Francisco for the first ever dawn to dusk transcontinental crossing of the United States. What nobody had known was that thunderstorms and heavy rain had caused poor take off conditions…