Logged: 2.8 Hrs
Fuel: 41.2 litres
The first thing I had to do once I landed at Niagara for the next leg was to book Canadian customs. This is similar but easier than booking US customs. There is one number, 1-866-CANPASS. You call this, tell them where and when, then you must arrive 30 minutes either side of the quoted time. You can’t get out of the aircraft before the time, but after that if they haven’t shown up, call them again to get a clearance number and the inspectors badge number. You must give them between two and twenty-four hours notice.
So I called 1-866-CANPASS. They asked me about the where and when. I was planning to land at Toronto City airport (on centre island right in the heart of the city). I did this with the required two hours notice (one hour to turnaround at Niagara and one hour en-route). He asked if we bought anything in New York that we were now bringing back. I thought about this carefully and took him at his word – ‘anything’ – assuming he didn’t really mean ‘anything’. So I thought about it and asked Dan. Dan recalled that he bought three New York branded baseball hats for an extravagant $US4 each in Chinatown. As a laugh, I told the customs officer who to my surprise seemed to note this carefully and asked if we bought anything else. No that was it. I thought no more about it as he confirmed our slot was booked.
I finished flight planning using the wonderful 1-800-WX BRIEF. Dan had gone for light refreshment so I checked back at the counter. I couldn’t see anyone fuelling the aircraft, so asked them again explaining that I was on a quick turnaround. ‘Oh, it’s all done’ they said cheerfully. I explained that I was asking if it had been refuelled yet or not, as I couldn’t believe that it could be done so fast. ‘Oh yes, all done’ they replied. I could hardly believe it – so fast? I went outside to check and sure enough, fully fuelled. WOW!
I started arranging my kneeboard with the route plan and charts I would need for the next leg and filing the previous legs charts when Dan re-appeared with generous take-away sandwiches. So we both stood there on the apron cramming them in as I checked the plane for flight.
I went back to the handling service to settle the bill. The bill for handling and landing fee? $US3.00! They even apologised for charging this explaining that they were compelled to by the airport – I laughed and explained that I wished that was all I had to pay in the UK.
We mounted up at the appointed time and called ready for taxi. We were given the same runway for departure (runway 10R). I taxied but got confused by the taxiways and accidentally crossed the holding point as it was so near. I stopped and asked for confirmation of the holding point and had I crossed it? They simply asked me to do a 180 and line up at the board behind me. Well, I guess that was my mistake for this flight (I always seem to make one).
Power checks complete I called ready for departure and was given clearance for a left turnout climbing to 3500’ for the Niagara Falls sightseeing pattern. Off we went with a gradual climbing turn, aiming to reach 3500’ before reaching Navy Island in the Niagara River, one of the VRP’s acting as the start point to join the ‘racetrack’ pattern over Niagara Falls.
I changed frequency from the Tower to 122.05, the self-announcing frequency for the Niagara Falls pattern. I called at Navy Island as we followed the bearing for the railway marshalling yard which formed the SW end of the racetrack which then went clockwise behind and in front of the falls.
We made all of the appropriate position announcements and heard several helicopters doing the same, no other fixed wing traffic. We did spot one helicopter a couple of hundred feet below us, but the others seemed to be far below – quite what they knew that I didn’t about the ‘not below 3500 feet’ part of the restrictions baffled me and not for the first time did I conclude that published restrictions did not apply to helicopters (although 3500’ did seem extreme to me given that they are quite happy with you bumbling around downtown New York at 1100’!).
We did two trips around the pattern at Niagara Falls before self-announcing our departure on the NE leg direct to Niagara on the Lake for the border crossing into Canada.
I switched to the local St Catherine’s Airfield frequency and let them know I would be routing near their overhead at 3500’. Basically, the plan was to route clockwise around the shores of Lake Ontario to Toronto City airport. We could have gone straight across and I could see the other side, a mere 26 nm - farther than the 'short channel crossing', but not by much. But as we didn’t have either liferaft or lifejackets, I decided to stick with the shore.
Passed St Catherine’s, I switched to Toronto Centre on 133.40, advised them of our plan and got FIS from them. The weather was OK, not sunny now, but the broken cloud was thin and high and no constraint. The Toronto advised me of opposite direction traffic at my 11 o’clock at the same height and 4 miles. A quick glance and we couldn’t see it. So I announced that I was descending to 3000’ and turned on the landing lights. I heard the opposite direction traffic call visual, but we never saw him.
We carried on past the rather nice looking St Catherine’s to the rather unlovely Hamilton.
Again, opposite direction traffic at 12 o’clock, this time 500’ below. So check altitude and sharp lookout. Again, we didn’t see them. About 40 miles to run I asked for descent to 2500’ and Toronto Centre agreed. I asked if they wanted me to continue descending to remain clear of their steeped descending airspace, but they said no, to continue at 2500’ until they released me to Toronto City.
We could see the city skyline in the distance as we continued. At about ten miles Toronto Centre advised us to contact City Tower on 118.20. They advised us that runway 08 was in use and the wind was 080/10G15. OK, straight down the runway, so no problem there. The plates said to avoid over-flight of Ontario Place, which we would normally do for a long final on this runway, so I tried for an angled approach to avoid this noise sensitive area.
Two mile final and cleared to land. The approach was good as we touched down. I hit one of the rudder pedals by mistake and pulled the plane a bit to the right, then corrected with some left – come on Steve, start thinking! We exited left and were told to taxi to Porter who are the utterly dominant FBO at the airport (a Canadian commuter airline). I pulled in next to another Cessna in what looked like a parking space and switched off. I was ten minutes early, so although I opened the window, we stayed sat in the plane.
Five minutes before the customs time, a guy walked up and said we couldn’t park there as it was part of the manoeuvring apron. He was right, although there were holes for tie-downs, they had been tarmac’d over – Ooops! As we spoke, I saw another Cessna ull forward out of a crowded flight line, so I started up and headed for there.
By the time we got there and shutdown, it was the stated arrival time, so I got out and started to unpack. Dan tied the aircraft down. Still no customs, so Dan and I started walking to what looked like the main passenger terminal. We were intercepted by an airport security van who asked us why we were walking airside. I explained and he ushered us into the van and said if customs didn’t show up that we should call them for specific clearance as they probably weren’t here at all and often didn’t show up.
OK, so I called them on 1-866-CANPASS. He asked if we had anything to declare and I said no. There was an ominous pause on the line as he said ‘you earlier declared that you were in possession of baseball hats, are you still in possession of these items?’. OK, OK, you got me! I forgot all about the baseball hats worth $US12! I said sorry, that I forgot about those and I got the now standard ‘I see’. He then cleared us and gave us a customs clearance number and his badge number which he advised us to note on the flight log and carry on us personally in case questioned by customs when leaving or arriving in Canada at another time. So I noted it on both the Journey Log and in my pilots logbook.
I realised that I was now a bit tired. While this was not the most number of hours I have flown in a day, it has been tiring, especially the New York low level route, where I was far from relaxed with all the traffic about.
We headed towards the building to the left of the main Porter hangar where I had seen people going to and fro. This was the main entrance to the Porter helicopter facility and acted as handling for GA. The lady on the desk was extremely bright and helpful and agreed to refuel. She said the courtesy van had now knocked off for the night and if we were OK with it, could we walk the 200m to the dock where we could get the free ferry to downtown Toronto, where once we got off, we could get the free bus to Union Station (very near our hotel). OK, so far I like all this free stuff!.
Well, that was it. We had arrived. I felt immediately at home with the impressive Toronto skyline. This is where I was born and raised and despite my many years in England, this still feels like my real home.
An easy flight with a pretty clear procedure for seeing the falls themselves, if a bit too high for my liking. Toronto City has to be one of the best and most scenic city airports there is anywhere in the world. I seriously recommend this particular airport to anyone.
