Planes are planes. Hours are hours. Money is money.

I'm 6'1"/185 cm and can pour myself in to a 152 if I put my mind to it. Fun little plane.

...laura

With no health or lifestyle flags my approach has been "Shrug. Whenever." Lots of people need it more than I do. When I signed up on the B.C. web site I wasn't expecting to hear anything until late summer. I got my Book Your Appointment email within the hour. So I did. My arm hurt and I felt achy an...

They certainly demand respect, keep in mind the passes in BC are not particularly high. Parts of the US....different story. That was part of my motivation for doing The Finer Points mountain flying course a couple of years ago. Our base was KTRK, field elevation 5900 feet. Much higher density altit...

Some of the things I've learned in mountain training: How does wind work around mountains? How do clouds work around mountains? How do you cross a ridge? How do you know you're high enough to clear terrain? And more. Flying in the mountains demands respect for the weather and terrain, but if you wan...

Basics first, terrain second. Once you know what you're doing in the cockpit it's not difficult to learn about mountains and stuff.

...laura

I rented for a while after I got my PPL. The people who taught me to fly were cool with me renting their planes - indeed, they encouraged it - but students had to come first. The only really long trips people did in the school's planes were CPL long cross-country. Taking a plane to go wander around ...

I see this as an extension of what we already do when we fly in to an MF airport and talk to an RCO, like at Tofino. Get the infrastructure right so it's safe and you have an efficient operation.

...laura

The Langley CADORs are starting to sound like Russian dashcam videos.

I learned to fly there and kept my own plane there for several years. It had its issues but was never the zoo it appears to have become.

...laura

At Kamloops I always plan more-or-less straight ahead until 2000 MSL (about 900 AGL) based on simulated engine failures at altitude. Crummy data is better than no data at all. Runway 09 departures at YKA don't leave you many options. A built-up residential area to the north, the river right under yo...

I don't care either way but would prefer to err on the side of free speech. We've gotten to the point where merely waiting one's turn and not breaking down the door for a vaccine somehow makes one a skeptic or a denier. Under B.C.'s "plan" I'm in the last Everybody Else group, not eligible until at ...

With the most vulnerable people now vaccinated the death rate is noise-level. Here in B.C., at least. Noise level plus 55% is still noise level. No further action required.

...laura

I've run the numbers and could fly trans-Atlantic with a modest ferry tank. I could also fly trans-Pacific (PAOM-UHMD), but it's a long way to Nome, and an even longer way from Provideniya to anywhere more interesting (e.g. Vladivostok, Sapporo). And other issues, of course. 100LL? What's Russian fo...

Most activity at Langley is flying school aircraft, which is why schools show up so frequently. But Boundary Bay and Pitt Meadows are also training-heavy and I've seen some crazy stuff at both airports. Just no CADORS. Let's not talk about Chilliwack, OK? :P Langley can be tricky, but, still, this i...

Here in Kamloops we don't have any (T) airspace, but the unofficial practice area is the west end of Kamloops Lake around Copper Creek. Stay north as much as possible, away from the extended centreline of 09/27. Stay on YKA's frequency. Nav Canada know about it: the first time I told FSS I was depar...

ITAR? International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Law that says (among other things) that GPS receivers that will work above specified speeds (1000 knots) or altitudes (FL600) are sensitive products that require export approval. The intent was to make it impossible for bad guys to use them in guided...

I've always wondered about Concorde in this respect, either the regulations were different or there were things we just didn't see on the flight deck.

They also would have had ITAR issues with GPS navigation, but GPS wasn't a big thing in planes until after they were retired.

...laura

I did my PPL spins in a Cherokee. Minimum entry altitude 4000 AGL, minimum recovery altitude 3000 AGL. They spin fine, but take aggressive (abusive?) control inputs to do so. My Musketeer is not certified for intentional spins (slow recovery plus a tendency to spiral). I got an incipient spin once o...

Here at Kamloops we routinely land long on 09 - coordinated with FSS, of course - since the taxiway to the Flying Club ramp means you'll be rolling to the end of an 8000 foot runway. Stabilized approach (always!), pick and hit your touchdown point, all the usual stuff. Pilot decision making and all ...

Sure, an IFR pilot will see things differently. But to a VFR pilot Class E is essentially uncontrolled airspace with controlled airspace weather minima. This is how it was taught to me as a PPL student. Kamloops Radio routinely help sort out traffic, VFR-VFR and VFR-IFR. They don't have to but they ...

Class E is uncontrolled airspace with the weather minima of controlled airspace. My home base (Kamloops CYKA) is such an airport. Keeps us VFR kiddies out of the way of Air Canada, WestJet and CMA doing grownup IFR stuff. The fact that Kamloops has an MF is secondary to the airspace being Class E. ....