Comments 1,801 to 1,850 of 1,852
Up on a hill
This airport is up on a hill, several hundred feet above the city below and Lake Nippising. That's both a good and bad thing -- once, I was able to depart VFR when the city was completely fogged in, because the hill was above the top of the fog with blue skies above. On the other hand, if there's a low ceiling, it will be lower here than in the city.
Permission required
I came in here in 2005 for a Hope Air flight. There is a civilian terminal, but because it's a military airport, you need prior permission to land. I called the operations and got a special authorization code to provide on first contact with ATC (they never asked for it, because they were expecting me).
Chicoutimi airport is nearby for regular civilian traffic, along with several other, smaller airports in the Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean area.
My Home Base
Boundary Bay is home base to my little Piper Archer. It's a very busy GA airport about a 30 minute drive south of Downtown Vancouver.
Runway 07-25 was recently restored back to it's original 5000' length. There is no proper FBO here, just a managment company that runs the field and sells the fuel and acts as landlord to the many flying schools and other aviation related businesses. Services are minimal and the fuel price tends to be one of the highest in the region, no self serve, truck only.
Still, this is a reasonable option if you are flying yourself in to Vancouver. No landing fees and it's the closest airport to downtown other than YVR itself. It's a Canpass airport if you are coming from the US, but note that the Canpass hours are limited, typically 10:00PM is the latest you can arrive.
Transit here is poor, a few buses a day, so plan on arranging a rental car to be delivered or take a taxi. Be warned the taxi fare will be well over $50 and in rush hour there can be significant traffic.
There's a Nav Canada PIK (pilot information kiosk) in the main terminal building, and if you hang out near the Pacific Flying Club building you can usually log in to their WiFi.
Because of the intense flight school traffic and the proximity of this field in and under the airspace for Vancouver International, you need to study arrival and departure procedures in the CFS with great care, and if possible enter the VFR reporting points in to your GPS. The tower expects you to know these procedures and fly them accurately. Pay special attention to the various airspace ceiling heights, they are a bit unusual.
Awesome downtown airport!
This is a great airport if you are visiting Toronto. You land on the island, right next to downtown. The approach gives you a dramatic view of the CN Tower, the baseball stadium, and the downtown core. A quick ferry ride takes you to the mainland. Hop public transit, or grab a cab, and you're in the core in a matter of minutes. The city is quite walkable and has fabulous public transit. No need to rent a car to visit the main sites in Canada's largest city.
Pearson (Toronto's major Int'l airport) is way out in the west end - there is no efficient public transit into the downtown core, and a car/cab ride is going to take at least 45 minutes, if the highways aren't jammed with traffic. The smaller airports (Buttonville, etc.) are great if you're visiting the 'burbs, but not so great for downtown.
Very busy airport
For a small airport, it certainly is busy. Very active flight school, with lots of people training.
Aviation Museum as well
I should also have mentioned the Aviation Museum which is right behind the airport.
re: Free aircraft parking
I was thinking about flying my family from Ottawa to Quebec City in my Warrior for a couple of nights -- the free parking is excellent news.
Victoria Flying Club
The folks at the local flight school, Victoria Flying Club, are nice and competent and their aircraft are very well kept. Very nice area to fly around if you're visiting.
Visiting pilots
Dorval Aviation, a flight school located on the field, can rent you a C172 to fly around the area following a short rental checkout with an instructor. A C172 floatplane is also available on the river northeast of Montreal.
Great beach within 5 minutes walk
If you park on the western ramp, there is a path that takes you through a campground and then accross the road to a beautiful footpath through the woods and a fantastic beach. Beautiful place. I'm jealous of all these west coast folks.
Free aircraft parking
The local pilot's club "Les Ailes Québécoises" welcomes transient aircraft to stay for free on their ramp for up to two nights.
Trudeau's legacy
Flew out of Mirabel once, on my way to Italy (via Amsterdam). Huge beautiful terminal. It has since been closed to passenger planes, now strictly used for freight (UPS, FedEX, etc.), I believe.
Canada's PM at the time, Pierre Elliot Trudeau decided that Montreal was going to be the largest city in Canada some day (Toronto ended up winning that title), so confiscated farmland north-west of Montreal to build the airport. It never had the anticipated traffic, and was closed a number of years ago to passenger traffic.
Ironically, the power's that be decided to re-name Montreal's commercial airport, Dorval, to Pierre Elliot Trudeau, after Trudeau died.
My favourite airport!!!
This is truly my favourite airport. Not only can one consider it the gateway to beautiful Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, but I had the best reception ever, walking into the "terminal". This is a very small operation ... but a number of the local men (airplane enthusiasts all) were just hanging out there, chatting away, happy to talk to me about our plane, the flight, their planes and so on. We really had to tear ourselves away, as I think they would have chatted with us well into the night ...
A foggy place
Landed here in our four-seat plane. Very cool to be in line in between huge jets, some landing after a trans-Atlantic flight. Halifax proper is very foggy, and even at the airport, the early morning can be a bit iffy. There is a Tim Horton's (coffee/donut shop) just outside the terminal, maybe a 5-minute walk, tops.
The best way to get to Gaspe!
Gaspe is a beautiful part of Canada, but it's so far away!!! Flying over the interior, all one sees are a few logging roads ... most of the settlement is on the shores of the peninsula. The airport staff were helpful ... the place was not busy at all. Car rental at the airport was no problem.
Scary take off
As a reluctant small plane flyer, I found the landing, but particularly the take off a bit scary at this airport. There is a very tall rock formation (cliff?) at one end of the runway, and one has to climb quickly, and navigate past it. Coming in to land, we executed a number of steep turns to position ourselves, and I really hate that tilty feeling ... Still, when you land, you're in Canadian Shield topography, with a beautiful view all around. Don't miss the ice cream at the Dairy on the far side of town!!!
Decent food
Linday has a small restaraunt on the airfield that has decent food and seems to attract a fair amount of locals from town. One of the better on airport restaraunts in southern Ontario
Ferry is free
The new ferry is free, at least so far. If you fly in with four people, that's a significant saving at $5.50/person.
Porter FBO
I tried out the Porter FBO yesterday. The fuel was expensive, but they waived the ramp fee because I was a COPA member (I think that the offer's good only for summer 2007). It's not a bad FBO, aside from the cost ($35/night tie-down, etc.).
Upper Canada Village
Upper Canada Village, a reenacted 1867 village, is located right across the highway within walking distance. There is also a golf course near the airport. Note that there's no fence or security of any kind, and your plane will be in clear view of the highway.
No civilian traffic
I called a couple of times when a relative lived in Trenton, and the base does not allow any non-emergency civilian traffic (unless on military business). It's too bad, because Trenton's the only decent-sized airport along the 401 between Kingston and Oshawa, unless you count Peterborough a fair bit to the north.
Good fuel stop
This airport is a very useful fuel stop for flying between Ontario/Quebec and the Maritimes, since it's not far west of the Maine border.
Skydiving
There is a lot of skydiving at Gananoque, so it's important to keep a sharp eye out if you're landing here.
Fuel stop?
I'm thinking of using Killarney as a fuel stop between Ottawa and Sault Ste. Marie.
Vehicles on runway
This airport has a long grass runway sloping towards the lake. When I was back-taxiing a few years back, I came face-to-face with a pickup truck using it as a shortcut (luckily, I wasn't in my takeoff roll).
No landing fee
No landing fee, and reasonably-priced fuel.
Dining
This is a nice little Quebec city, with a lot of good restaurants downtown by the Richelieu River -- well worth the cab ride from the airport.
Very nice airport
This is a nice airport to visit, though I miss being able to get fuel at TransCapital.
Aircraft parking update
I landed at CYAM today, and two of the (already limited) tie-down spots behind the old firehall are now reserved for Soo Aviation, the new flight school at the airport, leaving only, I think, three for transient aircraft. That means you'll almost certainly have to chock your plane on the apron near Maratech, the FBO.
On the bright side, ATC was as friendly and helpful as usual.
Aircraft parking
There are a few tie-down spots for light aircraft on the far side of the old firehall. Otherwise, you can have the plane chocked on the apron near the FBO.
Car rental
The only car rental companies actually at the airport are Enterprise and Budget -- the others are in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, a long way away.
Fuel
There is a 24-hour, self-service fuel pump, as at CYRP. It was NOTAM'd O/S for a long time, but the NOTAM's gone now, so presumably the pump is back in operation.
Approaches
The NDB approach is to 06, but the GPS approach is to 24 -- watch for the risk of head-on, opposite-direction traffic over the runway when people are practicing simulated approaches.
Runway lighting
Note that the runway lighting ARCAL is *not* on the same frequency as the ATF. Use 122.7 MHz for the ATF, but 122.9 MHz to activate the lights.
Nice FBO
The FBO here is extremely friendly -- they lent me a crew car even though I didn't need gas (I left a donation for the airport anyway).
Poor food
Montreal's a great city for food, but don't bother with the airport -- there's not much there, especially once you're through security. Bring something with you.
Intl/domestic transfers
They make you go out into the public area and then line up for security again when transferring from an international to a domestic flight -- it can be pretty frustrating when the security lineup is long and you have a tight connection.
Landing fees
Unfortunately, CYUL has brought in landing fees for private planes as of 2007. I think it's around $40 or so even for a light single (!!!).
Good fuel stop
This airport is a good fuel stop for private planes -- there's no landing fee, and no ramp fee if you're staying only a short time. There's an ILS and a *very* long runway (an old NORAD runway) for bad weather, and Sudbury is close by as an alternate.
Tie-downs
The tie-downs for private aircraft are behind the old firehall, but there are only a few. You can also chock the plane on the ramp in front of the FBO. There's no landing fee for light aircraft if you buy gas, but they do charge around $13 or so/night for parking no matter where you park.
Free tie-downs for visitors
The last time I was in Kingston, they still weren't charging visitors for overnight tie-down. There are cables you can tie to on the apron in front of the Kingston Flying Club.
Nice airport
This is one of the nicest airports in Canada for flying to a big city, either commercially or in a private plane. It's unbelievably quiet considering how close it is Toronto freeways, and you can actually walk downtown after taking the little ferry across.
Wind turbines
If you're a pilot, watch for the wind turbines on the hills to your right on departure from 30. I've had to refuse a right turn after departure because I wasn't climbing fast enough for obstacle clearance (a left turn towards the U.S. is much easier, if you need to head east).
Cafeteria open again
There is an airport cafeteria operating again. It also sells magazines, including flying pubs.
Night landings
When the wind is light, most pilots land on runway 09 at night instead of 27 -- that way, they can land on the lit part, and overrun onto the unlit part if necessary.
BBQ
There's a BBQ going most of the time in the summer with hamburgers (and veggie burgers, I think).
Ground transportation
The OCTranspo 97 bus is a fast bus to downtown, and then on to the Bayshore Shopping Centre in the west end, mostly on a dedicated express Transitway (about a 25 minute ride). The schedule varies from every 9 minutes or so at peak times to every 30 minutes in the wee hours of the morning, and the adult fare is $3.00 cash or $1.90 if you buy tickets. You can transfer to the 95 for the train station.
Landing fees
For private single-engine light aircraft, CAD $15/landing or a flat fee of CAD $30/month. Nav Canada will also introduce a fee for each takeoff, starting in 2008.
Electrical outlets
The new terminal has lots of electrical outlets for laptops, etc. in the waiting areas -- they're on the pillars at the ends of some rows.
Special landing/takeoff procedures
🔗 Sat, 21 Jul 2007
— @david at Bancroft Community Airport, Canada
Because there's a high ridge just east of the airport, the normal procedure for landing on runway 12 is to do a wide left downwind, then follow the river valley through the town on a slant left base. Because of a hill SE of the airport, you won't see the runway until you're almost lined up on final. For departure from runway 30, just reverse the procedure (unless your plane has a very good climb angle) -- instead of trying to outclimb the ridge, make a gentle right turn after takeoff and follow the river valley southeastwards until you're high enough to get over the hills. Note also that there are trees off both ends of the runway. If you're in a low-powered plane like a Cherokee or Cessna 172, it might be a good idea to take off when the air is cool (e.g. not midafternoon on a summer day), and to be a fair bit under maximum gross weight (you can top up your fuel at Pembroke [YTA] and Peterborough [YPQ], which are both only 62 nm away and have long paved runways), though the gravel runway is a good length at 2,200 ft. It's a fun airport for a pilot, but note the previous comment for a passenger's perspective.