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Old 20th Jul 2005, 13:51
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pgelinas
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Montreal, QC Canada
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There are quite a few schools in Quebec; some are in smaller airfields in the countryside, some in Montreal or Quebec city. In Montreal, most schools are at St-Hubert airport (CYHU) which is a busy GA airport with a tower. Some are at Mascouche airfield and Cedars airfield, non-towered airports in the suburbs. There is also one school at Dorval/Trudeau International airport (CYUL), Dorval Aviation, where I trained (PPL, ME, IR, Floats, CPL in progress). What I liked about Dorval Aviation is that you very quickly get into the mindset of operating at a busy international airport with lots of large jet traffic. You develop very good comm skills and airspace awareness that way, and if you're going to do IFR later you pick up a lot of knowledge just by monitoring the frequencies.

The drawback to Dorval is that your solo flights have to be from St-Hubert until you've passed your PPL, so solos and cross-countries involve flying with an instructor to St-Hubert, dropping him/her off, flying your solo, then picking them up again. It adds about 0.5 hours to each solo flight (which we used to do instrument time under the hood). Plus taxi times at Dorval can sometimes be a little longer when there is a runway closure and you can't use 24L (200m away from the school), or all traffic is using 24L and you have to wait. It makes for great plane spotting however. Dorval aviation has 4 C172s (one on floats) and a Navajo, and they borrow a Seminole or a Seneca for multi-IFR from another school.

At St-Hubert I can also recommend Air Richelieu (C172s, C152s, PA40, Seminole). There is also Pro-aviation with DA20 Katanas (no experience with them).

In the Vancouver area, I can recommend the Victoria Flying Club at Victoria Intl (CYYJ) where I did a checkout and a rental on vacation. Very nice and professional people. Most schools in that area are at Boundary Bay airport (CZBB), just south of Vancouver International airport (CYVR). Also a very busy and interesting airspace, and spectacular scenery.
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