Best location for aerobatics in Canada?

[pilotdreams]

Im going to be on a 2 week on/off work schedule soon and I would like to relocate to a location that has low living costs and an excellent airfield to fly out of. Anyone know a few good places?

[cgzro]

Gatineau/Quebec.

We have a 6000' runway kept in good shape year round, some fantastic aircrat on the field (www.vintagewings.ca) and an active aerobatic box right smack over the runway. Its in an MF and the folks in the tower have access to the ottawa radar feed and can give all kinds of heads up including geese. Hanger space and mechanics available on the field. Only down side is the damn fuel costs in which are about 10% more than in Ontario (but box over the runway saves travel to/from costs) and sometimes its hard to get more than 4-5 minutes in the box uninterrupted due to active sky dive operations.

[looproll]

Rocky Mountain House, AB

[. ._]

Windsor, Ont. has dirt cheap housing right now and an aerobatic box at the airport. There's nowhere to rent an aerobatic plane though.

My $0.02.

-istp

[AEROBAT]

Check the CARS, you can do acro anywhere other than over a town or built up area, off airways, as long as you are 2000' AGL. I should add out of controled airspace. That's 99% of Canada.

[cgzro]

Yes, we incorrectly refer to a box in Canada when there is no such thing. Its a US/FAA term used to designate airspace that has been set aside for low (below 1500') acro. There was a long debate on this a while back in some other thread.

Oh, you most certainly can do ACRO in controlled airpsace in Canada. There has been a waiver for that for nearly 10 years now. All you have to do is ask. Typically asking for a block say 3k to 6k or something like that is all that is required. Nice thing about a block in controlled airpsace is a degree of positive separation that makes aerobatics much less stressful.

At Gatineau it is not uncommon in the summer to have a Pitts or small plane over the runway below 2000' doing acro on a personal SFOC while a Harvard, P51, Spit etc. is above 3k in controlled arispace over the airport also doing acro on the airspace waiver.

[Hedley]

Deleted.

[mag check]

Not trying to be critical, or trying to start an argument, but I gotta ask, why the yawing on take off Hedley? Was there a strong crosswind?

[Hedley]

Deleted.

[mag check]

Thanks Hedley, I understand the difficulties with vis, as I fly mostly taildraggers, and agree that there are some pilots out there that seem to have a problem with airmanship, and struggle to see the problems that they cause around them.
With your vid, I wasn't sure if it was a vis thing, or if you were too aggressive with the tail raise, and got caught by the gyro.
Sweet video though.

[Hedley]

Deleted.

[bmc]

I was in Ottawa on the weekend. I kick myself for not going to Gatineau. Had lunch at the Wakefield train station.

damn
damn
damn

[5x5]

this is a tumble of my own design ... I do them a bit differently than most people do,

Geez Hedley, you actually do know how to fly an airplane.

Seriously though, it's cool to see vids like that. I have been thinking of taking some aero lessons myself - just have to figure out where and when. Hopefully next summer will work.

[Hedley]

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[pilotdreams]

Looks like Im going with chapter 8 this spring.

[Brewguy]

The (summer) season for aerobatics in Canada is pretty short. It's a bit like riding a motorcycle in that regard...

Not true. I know a guy who does year-round aerobatics in his open cockpit Skybolt!
That obviously requires a warm jacket ... but still.

[Hedley]

Deleted.