Hi

anyone know any fun airports to land in Ontario? I have my 300 nautical mile cross country coming up and want to land places that are fun and challenging.

I mean like maybe short runways, certain VFR procedures, in interesting places like surrounded by mountains. Airports that well would look good in a job interview and airports that really are a great learning experience. :\

Thanks!

Brampton. But hey,I guess you know that already!

You really want to cheat death before you even start flying commercially? I'd also seriously avoid putting any "airports landed at" stuff on your resume, trust me when I say that won't go over particularly well with anyone in charge of hiring at any flying company.

Okay, here goes...

1. Try landing at Goderich on runway 13 with a good crosswind, that'll get your blood pumping.
2. You could always ask for a PAR approach (if they do those any more) at Trenton, just don't forget to not actually land.
3. How about landing at Pearson around 4pm? That's assuming you can afford the absolutely outrageous landing fees.
4. Hamilton is nice because it's got the Cat II ILS system, and you can ask the controllers to put the lights up to 5 for your approach - it'll seem like you're landing on a lit-up nightclub floor.
5. Huntsville is a relatively short strip with a lot of things going on in the area in summer, so that might be fun.
6. Tremblant in Quebec is pretty, and you'll certainly get lots of mechanical turbulence of the hills. As an added bonus, there's a prison literally on the airport grounds, so don't pick up any hitchhikers if you land there...

One caveat: Don't actually try any of this (except for maybe Hamilton) before you get your CPL and a few years of flying under your belt.

I really don't think you should be ramping up your level of difficulty any time soon, I'd prefer you accumulate 20,000 incident-free hours in your career rather than scare the hell out of yourself at this stage - trust me, if/when you fly commercially, you'll quickly find out the airports that are less forgiving than others, and trust me again when I say you won't always be overjoyed at being assigned those trips. I think a better idea might be concentrating on making absolutely perfect approaches at the airports you routinely operate in/out of - that's just as challenging.

Hmm not sure if my last post got deleted or what happened to it but I will type it again.

I am a bit embarrassed to say that I have not landed at Brampton yet lol. Next week I go to St.Catherine's but I do plan on doing a touch and go on Brampton before following the shore to St.Catherine's just to see how it is.

Sulako wrote:You really want to cheat death before you even start flying commercially? I'd also seriously avoid putting any "airports landed at" stuff on your resume, trust me when I say that won't go over particularly well with anyone in charge of hiring at any flying company.

Okay, here goes...

1. Try landing at Goderich on runway 13 with a good crosswind, that'll get your blood pumping.
2. You could always ask for a PAR approach (if they do those any more) at Trenton, just don't forget to not actually land.
3. How about landing at Pearson around 4pm? That's assuming you can afford the absolutely outrageous landing fees.
4. Hamilton is nice because it's got the Cat II ILS system, and you can ask the controllers to put the lights up to 5 for your approach - it'll seem like you're landing on a lit-up nightclub floor.
5. Huntsville is a relatively short strip with a lot of things going on in the area in summer, so that might be fun.
6. Tremblant in Quebec is pretty, and you'll certainly get lots of mechanical turbulence of the hills. As an added bonus, there's a prison literally on the airport grounds, so don't pick up any hitchhikers if you land there...

Having said all that - I really don't think you should be ramping up your level of difficulty any time soon, I'd prefer you accumulate 20,000 incident-free hours in your career rather than scare the hell out of yourself at this stage - trust me, if/when you fly commercially, you'll quickly find out the airports that are less forgiving than others, and trust me again when I say you won't always be overjoyed at being assigned those trips. I think a better idea might be concentrating on making absolutely perfect approaches at the airports you routinely operate in/out of - that's just as challenging.

My instructors kind of say the same thing that when you work for a commercial airline you really will just fly from point A to B almost always.

For the suggestions you gave me I really want to give Goderich a try because for 1 reason it is quite a distance from where I am and I could use work on my crosswind landings. I have been around Trenton a few times and they have a nice runway and yeah I would love to land or just overfly it but I am not sure what a PAR approach is. Pearson would be a hell of an airport to land at with my Cessna 150 but yeah that will remain a dream lol. As for Hamilton, we have never really been taught about the Cat II ILS system so I don't think that will workout, but I still want to land there. Never heard of Tremblant but it sounds interesting and will definitely check it out.

Thanks!

Why would you purposely go out looking for trouble?

cessna 150 wrote:I really want to give Goderich a try because for 1 reason it is quite a distance from where I am and I could use work on my crosswind landings.

This has to be the worst idea posted today.

If you need work on your X-Wind landings why wouldn't you just stay local and go up and practice with your instructor?

The last thing you need to be doing after a long flight by yourself into a strange airport and then challenge yourself with a landing you aren't good at to begin with. You don't need experience calling the owner and explaining why you broke the airplane, and then experience filling out an accident report. Most of us spend our whole careers trying very hard to avoid this, not going out and looking for it.

Please, you are going to have many occasions in your future to scare yourself, just don't take off planning to do it, this is just poor PDM.

Lurch

I think Sully left a few sarcasm and "I'm joking" emoticons off his post?

-Stirling, north of Trenton.
-Bancroft
-Haliburton/Stanhope
-Southriver/Sundridge

Try Brampton on a sunny saturday.

+1 for Muskoka. Turn your GPS off for the leg and try to mapcrawl all the way in without referencing Hwy 11. That'll be a fun 'low timer' experience.

Kekabeka Falls near Thunder Bay during the fly in. You will have lots of fun and it's a great cross country.

Bede wrote:Kekabeka Falls near Thunder Bay during the fly in. You will have lots of fun and it's a great cross country.

Granted - beautiful but a little outside the "300 nautical mile cross country".

Ontario southerners, what makes Muskoka 'challenging'?

Cessna 150, like Sulako said - don't go looking for 'trouble' and don't worry about which airports you landed at for 'employment purposes', it means squat. What matters is hours. Anytime you do something new you tackle a 'challenge'. So fly smart, have fun and enjoy the scenery. The 3 + hours you're going to add help but are a drop in the bucket to what you're going to need. One step at a time and enjoy the journey.

Tottenham/Volk...Doglegging, downsloping runway with 50 foot trees right at the runway edge...lots of ultralight pilots who have ended up in those trees can attest to the challenge of this airport.

On second thought...maybe not suitable for a newly minted pilot...maybe convince your fearless instructor to take you in there?

Blue Side Down wrote:+1 for Muskoka. Turn your GPS off for the leg and try to mapcrawl all the way in without referencing Hwy 11. That'll be a fun 'low timer' experience.

we dont have GPS and I have done that one and not sure what is challenging about it :/, its a big and long runway and it is fun to land on!

HavaJava wrote:Tottenham/Volk...Doglegging, downsloping runway with 50 foot trees right at the runway edge...lots of ultralight pilots who have ended up in those trees can attest to the challenge of this airport.

On second thought...maybe not suitable for a newly minted pilot...maybe convince your fearless instructor to take you in there?

hmm have never heard of that but will check it out in the CFS and on the map. Thanks

Bede wrote:Kekabeka Falls near Thunder Bay during the fly in. You will have lots of fun and it's a great cross country.

OK I will look into that one as well, Thanks!

HAPPY EARTH HOUR!!

CPC6.
1800 ft turf. Power lines at the south end, tall trees on a hill at the North end. Maybe it's not such a good idea. A Cessna 150 will not clear the trees on takeoff! You have to fly beside them. Ask me how I know.

I have very limited flying experience in Canada (based in the UK), but I have landed at Toronto City (on Centre Island) - fantastic city views and one of the best 'city' airports I have been to for setting / scenery etc.

Steve H wrote:I have very limited flying experience in Canada (based in the UK), but I have landed at Toronto City (on Centre Island) - fantastic city views and one of the best 'city' airports I have been to for setting / scenery etc.

yeah I have flown over that airport numerous times and your right it would be a great airport to land on to go over and take a tour of the city.

why not get a float rating?

Weird little airports that are fun to fly into:

Iroquois, Ont: - IIRC 23 feet wide and not very long. Right on the St Lawrence river in a park in front of a bunch of houses. Go there for the fly-in breakfast!

Winchester, Ont: another incredibly narrow runway. More great training for pilots that think the centerline is just something that you cross occasionally

Morrisburg, Ont: wide and long, paved in the 70's. Used to be a nice grass strip, oh well. You can visit Pioneer Village or walk to the golf club restaurant for lunch.

Bancroft, Ont: neat!

Tomvale, Ont: another neat airport, with illusions for the low-timers

Old Rhinebeck, NY: grass strip with WWI airplanes. I know the chief pilot there. Great little place.


I really don't find big airports much fun to fly into. Something missing in me, I know. Some guys like really big airplanes, really big airports, and I guess really big women.

I can just imagine a bunch of four-bars sitting around a table in their white shirts drinking in a bar, their hats and coats still on, sitting bolt-upright, with their company haircuts:

One says proudly, "I had sex with a 300 pound woman last night".

The rest are impressed. That's a big one!

Another says slyly, "I had sex with a 400 pounder last week!"

They all look into their drinks, thinking fondly of the Big Ones they've had in the past.

Another says, in a low voice, "I once had sex with an 800 pounder. Burnt my ass on the bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling!"

The rest are in awe. This airline pilot is King because he has had the Biggest and Heaviest of them all.

I guess there's something wrong with me because I don't like them Big and Heavy (shrug)

Bancroft is a very neat little strip, just make sure that you aren't heavy and that the density altitude isn't too high. Volk (Just north of Brampton) is a really fun strip (at least the North/South runway is). It runs up hill. I used to land going uphill and take off going down hill. You might want to get some more grass strip time under your belt before trying that one. The grass strip at Burlington is a good for cutting your teeth on grass strips, and Guelph is good for cutting your teeth on narrow strips.

lol

You need to go further north and/or west for exciting

mr.jinks wrote:why not get a float rating?

ummm after I get my CPL that is what I am going to do

Hedley wrote:Weird little airports that are fun to fly into:

Iroquois, Ont: - IIRC 23 feet wide and not very long. Right on the St Lawrence river in a park in front of a bunch of houses. Go there for the fly-in breakfast!

Winchester, Ont: another incredibly narrow runway. More great training for pilots that think the centerline is just something that you cross occasionally

Morrisburg, Ont: wide and long, paved in the 70's. Used to be a nice grass strip, oh well. You can visit Pioneer Village or walk to the golf club restaurant for lunch.

Bancroft, Ont: neat!

Tomvale, Ont: another neat airport, with illusions for the low-timers

Old Rhinebeck, NY: grass strip with WWI airplanes. I know the chief pilot there. Great little place.


I really don't find big airports much fun to fly into. Something missing in me, I know. Some guys like really big airplanes, really big airports, and I guess really big women.

I can just imagine a bunch of four-bars sitting around a table in their white shirts drinking in a bar, their hats and coats still on, sitting bolt-upright, with their company haircuts:

One says proudly, "I had sex with a 300 pound woman last night".

The rest are impressed. That's a big one!

Another says slyly, "I had sex with a 400 pounder last week!"

They all look into their drinks, thinking fondly of the Big Ones they've had in the past.

Another says, in a low voice, "I once had sex with an 800 pounder. Burnt my ass on the bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling!"

The rest are in awe. This airline pilot is King because he has had the Biggest and Heaviest of them all.

I guess there's something wrong with me because I don't like them Big and Heavy (shrug)

Yeah Bancroft I have done twice and I remember the first time, I had such a hard time finding it and flew past it like 3 times! But your right it is a fun narrow runway.

Your not the first person to suggest Tomvale I am sure but yeah will look into that 1 for sure.!

Thanks

A neat destination would be Gananoque. It's just east of kingston Ont. Airport manager is Tom McCarthy, pretty interesting guy. The runways are pretty rough and would be challenging. There's an old Canso in the hangar to check out. The skydivers are usually around so keep your eyes open and don't fly over the field at 1000 AGL cuz. You just might see one real close.

The jumpers are a pretty good bunch and might even talk you into doing a tandem jump.

Don't knock it 'til ya tried it.

If I did my CPL build up time again, I would do 1 or 2 long giant cross countries and see every province in this country. Nothing will teach you airmanship and decision making like a wide variety of terrain, airports and airspace.

Don't be stupid, but always seek to challenge yourself.

There's always the fish and chips in Killarney!

Call first though.

http://www.rainbowcountry.worldweb.com/ ... FishChips/

You should do the float rating during your commercial and build as many float hours as possible! You need the hrs anyways for the license, make the most of your $ $.
Stanhope is a nice little field, nice area!
Take some resumes and head to YQT, YXL, YPL, YQK.
If you got to build time and do an x/c anyways, make it a good trip!