The numbers SierraPoppa quoted are magnetic variation, which is the amount of degreees that separates true north from magnetic north for a given location. I was talking about the amount that magnetic north moves each year relative to true north, and the change that causes in a runway's numbering due...

I'm getting very tired of people who come on here and blast CYYC for not functioning as well as CY__ or K___. Comparing it to CYYZ is especially ignorant; you don't need to be particularly knowledgeable about aviation to know that 2 intersecting runways can never have the capacity of 2 or 3 parallel...

Magnetic drift is .2 degrees per year (I think). If a runway was built with a departure heading of exactly 100 degrees, it would be named Runway 10; after 25 years it would have a departure heading of 105 degrees, necessitating a renaming to Runway 11. You wouldn't notice a change in runway heading ...

SII: CYMM is a real tower, with real live controllers, not "fictishious" as you say. The virtual, or remote tower technology was researched, but found to be not ready for application; the decision to not use it had nothing to do with any incident. No one at CYMM FSS or Tower (and I would go so far a...

And here's another, best of all time I think. Sorry, I should have planned a little better and made this one post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmR-A-yJ ... ata_player

Whoops, sorry, here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dr2ZB36 ... ata_player

If you like low passes, here's a great video. Some of these have been around for a while, but still a great watch. Enjoy

If they did change the name to Lanny McDonald Int'l, there's gotta be a way to get that and "moustache ride" on the same t-shirt!

Just because it is IMC does not mean you will not encounter VFR aircraft; special VFR can be granted for VFR aircraft to operate in IMC. As for the issue of separation: the fact that separation is not being provided between VFR and IFR aircraft does not mean that we are just passing traffic and clos...

I cross trained earlier this year. I did not keep my seniority; I did, however keep my years of service, meaning I have the appropriate amount of leave for someone with my amount of time with the company. I received my annual raise during the classroom and simulator portion of the course, but my sal...

I agree that Nav Canada should not charge for testing; I do, however, agree with charging for training. It is a fairly nominal amount compared with obtaining a university degree, and in my opinion, the bang for your buck is a lot higher. In my time with the company, I have heard too many stories of ...

To everyone who took the wind out of Jimbo12's sails with helpful comments along the lines of 'you're not that special' and 'just be cool about it': maybe you've forgotten what it's like to be 14 and/or experience the thrill of your first solo. At 30, I'm still plodding along to my first solo, so I ...

I'm supposed be training on the new voice recognition sim at NCTI in a couple of weeks, so I hope it works! Will let you all know if it rocks/sucks.

While some may argue that the money Nav Canada puts into contingency funds is profit, it isn't money that will eventually end up in someone's pocket (except in the user's in the form of savings). There is no Kenneth Lay-type figure taking millions of dollars in bonuses, and there are no stockholders...

Here in Fort McMurray a lot of charter aircraft like to do an oilsands tour after departure (20-30 NM NW) then pick up the IFR directly from center. In those situations they usually file an IFR plan, and the FSS gets them approval for a VFR departure with instructions to contact center when their to...

Just a note on layout. Clearing has begun for a parallel runway to be completed in 2009. How does that affect the complexity as it relates to what grade of tower it is? Also, anyone know what grade Whitehorse is (slowest tower at 30-ish thousand movements) and what grade CYZF and CYYT are? (at 70 00...

Not sure what grade of tower it will be, as I don't know how they are classified (I'm not on the ATC side of things). CYMM did about 69,000 movements last year, I believe split at about 2/3 VFR 1/3 IFR. Busiest days were around 450 movements, busiest month around 8100 movements. What would that work...

I didn't want to post anything until Nav Canada made it all official, but since the press conference is going to be tomorrow, I thought I would kill the virtual tower rumor before it has a chance to gain traction. Virtual tower technology has been deemed to be not ready for practical application yet...