The ultimate Canada vs. USA Aviation Thread

Chrisgoesflying said:
And to add to this, my annual fee this year came out to $96.34. As far as I know it doesn't matter what kind of airplane you own, it's always the same. But, I never owned anything other than a piston single engine airplane so I don't know for sure.
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If your airplane weighs more than 2 metric tons, the cost will more than triple.
Jon
 
My only experience in flying in Canada was taking supplies from Tok to a remote camp and landing on a frozen lake in Canada. The ''runway'' was marked off using black paint.

And guess what happens to ice when the sun shines on the black paint.....
 
Canada doesn't recognize "basic med", right?

One of the more interesting things Canada has in my opinion is the owner maintained category (or however they phrase it).
 
mondtster said:
Same here. I wish they did things that way in the US.

5 minutes out is the same unit of measure whether I’m in a helicopter, Cub, or a Citation while 5 miles out means we will all get to the airport at different times.
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But then again, if you are looking for them, you'd be looking in 5 different places, instead of one.

If I'm 5 miles out and you say 5 miles out, I know where you are. If you say 5 min, I don't know if you're in front of me, or behind me, or on top of me.
 
Salty said:
But then again, if you are looking for them, you'd be looking in 5 different places, instead of one.

If I'm 5 miles out and you say 5 miles out, I know where you are. If you say 5 min, I don't know if you're in front of me, or behind me, or on top of me.
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That’s true. It is best if you have both pieces of information but if we only have one I would rather have time. I’m more interested in when both parties would arrive at an airport or fix and less interested in where they’re at now.
 
In Canada you can buy a homebuilt (experimental) aircraft and sign-off the annual condition inspection. Yes, even your grandmother can do it! No need to be the named builder of the plane. Pretty sweet, no? ... and, they don't seem to be falling out the sky any more than in the USofA.
 
Jim K said:
Canada doesn't recognize "basic med", right?

One of the more interesting things Canada has in my opinion is the owner maintained category (or however they phrase it).
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BasicMed isn’t accepted but we have a class 4 medical which is like a BasicMed. However it’s only good for recreational pilot permit holders or ultralight permit holders.

Oh, here is another difference: In Canada you need a permit to fly ultralights, even one seater ultralights.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
BasicMed isn’t accepted but we have a class 4 medical which is like a BasicMed. However it’s only good for recreational pilot permit holders or ultralight permit holders.

Oh, here is another difference: In Canada you need a permit to fly ultralights, even one seater ultralights.
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Yeah even a paramotor needs a permit here too, as it is considered an ultralight. For which I am glad after the incident in the states.
 
When flying into some cities (e.g., Montreal) you will hear ATC and pilots speaking in French or English. You will have no clue what they are saying, so you can ignore it. Unless you speak French.
 
Salty said:
But then again, if you are looking for them, you'd be looking in 5 different places, instead of one.

If I'm 5 miles out and you say 5 miles out, I know where you are. If you say 5 min, I don't know if you're in front of me, or behind me, or on top of me.
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This right here I why I despise CTAF reports with no distance.
If I’m not in the pattern and on CTAF I state time and distance. Talking to a controller I say distance. Pretty sure their radar has range rings that are labeled in distance.
 
Canada has poutine and the metric system. America doesn't.
 
You can wear socks with your sandals and nobody will look at you weird.
 
Jim K said:
Just sayin'.
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NASA changed to the metric system around 1990, and we haven't been back to the Moon since. We did send numerous probes to Mars, though, and we only lost one because of the change to metric. (For those who don't remember, the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in 1999 because one piece of software produced its output in pound-seconds but the software that used the data expected it in newton-seconds, so its calculated altitude was wrong.)
 
iamtheari said:
NASA changed to the metric system around 1990, and we haven't been back to the Moon since. We did send numerous probes to Mars, though, and we only lost one because of the change to metric. (For those who don't remember, the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in 1999 because one piece of software produced its output in pound-seconds but the software that used the data expected it in newton-seconds, so its calculated altitude was wrong.)
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Confusing US and metric resulted in the famous Gimli Glider, the 767 that ran out of fuel and landed, safely, on an old runway being used for a dragstrip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
 
It is confusing, especially since, even though Canada uses the metric system, in conversations, especially in aviation (but many other fields as well), we talk in miles, lbs, gallons instead of kilometres, kilos and litres. Flight planning, W&B, everything is in the imperial system but then we go to the fuel pump and it's metric. Just confusing.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
It is confusing, especially since, even though Canada uses the metric system, in conversations, especially in aviation (but many other fields as well), we talk in miles, lbs, gallons instead of kilometres, kilos and litres. Flight planning, W&B, everything is in the imperial system but then we go to the fuel pump and it's metric. Just confusing.
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And the GFA has the isobars in millibars, yet we set the altimeter in inches Hg.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Confusing US and metric resulted in the famous Gimli Glider, the 767 that ran out of fuel and landed, safely, on an old runway being used for a dragstrip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
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That’s another difference between flying in Canada and flying in the USA. In the USA, when we mess up a metric conversion, we skip off the atmosphere of Mars. In Canada, when you mess up a metric conversion, you do a power-off landing on a race track and the race drivers probably push your wide body jet into the tie downs and bring you some Timbits, eh?
 
I know most of these have already been hit upon, but to reiterate:

The biggest difference operationally, for me, flying VFR through Canada are the "mandatory frequencies" used by the on-field Flight Service Stations, addressed as "Kamloops radio", "Ft. St. John radio", "Ft. Nelson radio", etc. Almost every airport that has a fuel pump seems to have a flight service station and they blur the lines between what you'd expect from an control tower and a flight service station quite a bit. Sure, there are a few airports like this in the US (especially in Alasa), but a lot of airports (most airports?) with FSS in the US also have control towers so you don't really interact with FSS during flight unless you call flight watch or need to open/close your VFR flight plan from the air.

Also, VFR flight plans, (or at least a "flight itinerary"?) are required for flights more than 25 miles from the point of departure in Canada; VFR flight plans are completely optional in the US. The FSS in Canada will assign a discrete squawk as you depart, even if it's all VFR, which is different. ATC towers in Canada will open/close your VFR flight plans for you.

Also, 100LL is about double the price as in the USA.
 
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schmookeeg said:
If I understand my hockey parlance from the Canadian educational series 'Letterkenney' -- they call it chirping and it's much better. :D
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There's a spinoff called "Shoresy". Pretty much only chirping.
 
Narwhal said:
The biggest difference operationally, for me, flying VFR through Canada are the "mandatory frequencies" used by the on-field Flight Service Stations, addressed as "Kamloops radio", "Ft. St. John radio", "Ft. Nelson radio", etc. Almost every airport that has a fuel pump seems to have a flight service station and they blur the lines between what you'd expect from an control tower and a flight service station quite a bit.
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^^ Yes, this!
You can recognize these on the chart where it says "MF" next to the CTAF frequency. Means you have to call the radio guy first, who will give you airport advisories (like the wind, and what other traffic they know about, etc.). And then you can make your normal traffic calls.
I like to call them "Class E-and-a-half."
 
Narwhal said:
Also, VFR flight plans, (or at least a "flight itinerary"?) are require for flights more than 25 miles from the point of departure in Canada; VFR flight plans are completely optional in the US.
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That's because a lost airplane up here is really lost. A population density map of the US and Canada:

upload_2022-7-20_21-36-28.png

A cellphone coverage map:

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It's expensive to send out SAR aircraft for days and weeks to look for a missing airplane. It's bad enough when there're a flight plan but the ELT doesn't work. No flight plan and no 406 ELT and you might never be seen again. There are many, many lost airplanes up here.
 
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