Flying in Canada
 

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and and interested in hearing the views anyone who has trained or spent time flying from one of the schools in Canada

I had a couple of discovery flights earlier this year, sufficient enough to catch the bug and am planning a trip to north America / Canada this summer in between jobs. I have two months and hope that this would be enough to attain a PPL.

Would be keen to hear the views of those who have been to any of the schools in Canada and particularly Quebec / Vancouver provences.

Thanks in advance.

DR

<<edit: Moved from "Private Flying" at authors request.>>

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.

If you wish to train in the Vancouver area, I recommend Professional Flight Centre. John Montgomery (the owner) puts on fantastic seminars with a memorable sense of humor and the training is absolutely top notch-- his school has grown impressively during the last few years. If actively training they also have a comfortable "pilot house"-- all very worth while. Widely considered one of the best schools in Canada.

Professional Flight Centre

I spoke about this very subject the other day with the chief Instructor at Professional...He feels that a candidate can get through(flying everyday)in about 45 days...What holds things up initially is the student medical...There are some qualified(Transport Canada )Dr's in the UK..Getting this out of the way early would help.....Try Canadian Aviation Regulations for a list of Doctors available..
Cheers...:ok:

Try www.tc.gc.ca/aviation:ok:

One wouldn't really learn much flying every day for 45 days in the row, me thinks.

Took me just about 10 months to get the PPL in an extremely relaxed pace. And the bloody winter too, of course!
Got the medical in 3 weeks time (you only need it by the first solo day)

Also remember that stuff like flight test appoitement alone could take a few weeks, depending on the season.

I would give it at least 3 months, preferrably from June to September when the WX is good.

I took me about 4 months to complete the PPL (ground school and flying, from intro flight to flight test, about 60 hours flight time, ground school 2 nights a week) while I was working about 20 hours a week on other things. I found that flying two to four times a week (at about 2 hours per flight) was the best pace to keep learning and yet have time to absorb the knowledge. This was in spring and early summer (April through July) when the weather is generally good. I could have managed it in three months as I had four weeks of business travel during the training period. It seems to me that two months is somewhat of a short time but three is reasonable.

Hi there!!!

I would say that Vancouver area is not the best place to train for a PPL... You may be often grounded because of the bad weather... On a other side the area is certainly the best to train IFR!!!

In respect of my experience, i spent 1 month in Pro IFR (Boundary Bay). I started there my ME/IFR. I didn't like the atmosphere and flew back to Manitoba in my previous flight school where i passed my CPL...

good luck!

Termerair

I agree that flying in the Vancouver area has become busier and more complex that it was even just 10 years ago. I understand why it takes a new pilot longer to solo, or complete the PPL than it would at a small airfield, especially one without a tower.

The huge advantage to flying out of Boundary Bay (CZBB), Abbotsford (CYXX) or Victoria (CYYJ) is that from day one, students learn communication etiquette, dealing with ATC, and airmanship within a busy environment. Yes, some focus will be taken away from actual handling of the aircraft at first, but these are essential skills - especially in the real world!!! I would recommend any of these airports for training, and as others have already suggested, each has a few excellent schools to choose from. Flying in the Vancouver area is a busy place with many procedures and routes, yet within 30 minutes, there are plenty of uncontrolled airfields available also.

Just my $50 worth!

Happy Landings