Flight Training - Canada
 

Can anyone recommend any flight training organizations in Canada?

All replies appreciated.

MaxFlyer - as your profile says you're already a PPL, I'm assuming that you're after additional training, such as floats / mountain flying, for which I can't offer anything above what you read in the forums / magazines.

If you're after a school which does ongoing training under the Canadian system (rather than JAR), I did around half my PPL with Shearwater Flying Club (near Dartmouth, NS) around 7 yrs ago. They were a very friendly, well organised club, which had several students doing CPL with them. They had good facilities (located on a Canadian Forces airfield which had runways big enough for an Airbus, so I just managed to squeeze a 172 in!!) without being overly busy (unlike Halifax International up the road). The scenery / weather is quite similar to UK and there's plenty of scope for touring NS / the Maritimes.

[Edited to add the following:]
Have just done a bit of checking around and it's now called the Shearwater Flight Centre and this is the Web site (many of the links on the Canadian club pages point to the old Web site). The fleet has doubled (primarily 172s, although they have a 150 and 2 * PA30s).

Hi MaxFlyer,

I am at a flight school in the Vancouver area, Pacific Flying Club at Boundary Bay. It is about a 40 minute drive south of Vancouver. I started flying there in January 2003 and in this time I have flown 35 hours time building as well as completing my multi, multi IFR and commercial flight test, just the written to do. The school is well run and a/c availability is normally good. The scenery here is stunning and completely different to the UK, a mountain checkride opens up a whole load of interesting flights for you.

Here are the websites:

www.pacificflying.com

www.czbb.com

If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.

CPL

I can happily endorse what CPL says about PFC. I did a Canadian licence conversion and mountain course with them in 2000. They were the one school I could find in the NW (either side of the border) that would rent me a 172 for a week and let me fly it to Nevada.

Just make sure you have a US visa waiver already if you are thinking of flying south...

BTW, what are the rental rates on 172's at PFC nowadays?

Fort Langley Air at Fort Langley on the south bank of the Frasier River, about 40 minutes drive from downtown Vancouver. Sorry I'm not on my home computer so don't have the URL or 'phone # to hand.

I can recommend Airhart Aviation on Lake Okanagan or in Victoria for float/bush training....

Second David's comments - also had an excellent trip down to Nevada in a PFC plane last year. Very accomodating. Also had the visa waiver mixup and got turned back from Bellingham on our first attempt!

There are several schools worth looking into at CZBB.

Das - is that you back under your old tag?

Cheers,

SSS

Suggest you look at the website of the Canadian Owners and pilots association, they list a wide range of flying schools in all provinces.

Time to spare. Go by air.

Hen Ddraig

I did my CPL, IR, and Instructor ratings at the Victoria Flying Club in Victoria British Columbia ( www.flyvfc.com ) and I turned out allright :D . Seriously they are a very well run school with excellent staff.