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How to get ton of fun out of nothing

V

Vlad

Well Known Member
How to get ton of fun out of nothing? Easy. You are on VAF goofing off work you watch. You see a thread like this pops. You catch it you mark your calendar you wait. (could take two months or more). It's not canceled you are good to go.

If you really want to go lazy you call a cautopilot. Resident aliens preferred 400 hours TT desired. Plenty of them around well trained and ready to work right stick. Dmitriy is one of them he fits the space and has all the quals. Crossing Canadian border...






Some big airport in CanadA. There should wait for Dmitriy a customs patrol.






Customs trust me no officers showed up. Quick stop at a Hueilulelbeluulle fbo cost 50 bucks that's just a modest ramp fee. Taxi for departure to a different field. Some jets for F1 race were already on the ramp.








You can smell this little airport from 10 miles. Lachute CSE4. A new RV owner Julian fired his mangal and preparing shashlik. A food I didn't taste for many years.












While we were busy consuming everything hospitable Canadians had on the table our horses relaxed too.













In one hour we will be flying Montreal scenic route.
 
Montreal scenic route is similar to Hudson River Corridor. Under close watch of Montreal tower you fly as depicted on VFR chart. I had a very pretty lady in right seat and it was her first flight in powered craft. Giovanna was very comfortable and she agreed to fly with her husband in their RV. Only when I was taking pictures she was a bit nervous :)
















The scenic route took about an hour. I left my autopilot in Lachute and ran to Ottawa to meet my good friends Alfio and Shirley. I will be staying with them overnight then we go as a group to Smith Falls next morning.


Ha! Who I see?! Long time long time :D


















Airplane parked on EAA ramp we go home.





The rest of the evening was spent looking over amazing videos and pictures Alfio and Shirlie made while touring New Zealand. I wish they posted them here. Absolutely RV related. Alfio please bring that mystery man picture. :D
 
Next morning a gaggle of different airplanes departed from Carp CYRP to Smiths Falls. I "stuck" to Alfio and he brought me to the field. You are not going to believe but it's true I was hand flying myself all 10 minutes because I "rented" my autopilot to other RV owner.







Smiths Falls. A lot of airplanes. Place for a paint job worth of 1,000 hours of gas in Canadian prices.






Lots and lots of beautiful RVs.












In Canada you can not fly as we do here in US. Everybody has to call private ATC and get a squack. Every single flying object. Even that formation on the left downwind. You can not blast through private skies on your own.






Anybody knows this genleman?







He owns all of this.







and this








and this.








And a lot more.




 
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You made me miss my grandma and great aunt. They both made the best shashlik ever. My mom tried, but theirs was better! They are all gone now, but I think my cousin has the recipe! I feel a bbq coming up in my future!!

Thanks for the reminder and good memories of my relatives.
 
Breakfast at Smiths Falls is over I got my autopilot back. Still two hours till filed departure and I am already homesick. Quick call to a US Customs outpost; "sorry ma'am it's me again we want to go home now, can we come in 15 minutes?" "OK" said the supervisor "the officers will be there to meet you..."


Wroom... departed from the middle of the runway locals were very pleasant and accommodating.







12 minutes flight to an AOE on US side. A white SUV blinked high beams seeing we are turning wrong direction. Sorry, thanks.


Two minutes of formalities and 10 minutes of friendly talk. Our CBP officers are the best in the world. We are back home. Let's do some flying... :D










.... will continue tomorrow...
 
Anybody knows this genleman?
Click to expand...

That's Bob Hanson, owner of Classic Wings - he's
almost as entertaining as you are, Vlad!

http://classicwings.ca/about-classic-wings/

Here he is, flying one of his L39's on my wing:

oDFxH.jpg
 
Non-stop fun

Vlad,

You have had non-stop fun since you finished your magic carpet. Great picture of Alfio and Shirley!
 
Great write up Vlad! I just showed my wife your post....all was good till the picture of you....she said " Is that Vlad?!...Wow!!!" I just quietly moved on to next picture realizing I just created one more person who wants to meet Vlad:)
BTW. 819DJ is planning on being in NY by end of this week. If you are local and have time.....
 
:) Thanks for the great write up Vlad. Helps us folks that are still pounding to keep at it. You're the bomb.

Dale
 
tc1234c said:
Vlad,

You have had non-stop fun since you finished your magic carpet. Great picture of Alfio and Shirley!
Click to expand...


I hear Vlad has signed up to licensed his name for the next version of Where's Waldo

vlad-where is.jpg


.
 
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Canpass

Hi Vlad

You mentioned before that you had Canpass and I'm wondering why you went to CYMX (Montreal Mirabel) which is 5 minutes from my strip to clear Customs??

You could have gone directly to CSE4 (Lachute) which is an airport of entry and save the $50 Helilibellule charged you ( which is way over the top if you want my opinion)

CYMX is a Canpass only airport so everyone on the airplane has to be Canpass if not you have to go to CYUL ( Montreal Dorval) . Customs could charge up to $700.00 as a fine for landing at CYMX without everyone being Canpass..A friend of mine found out the hard way..

You may expect a bill for landing fees in CYMX..

Looks like you enjoyed flying in our neck of the woods..

Welcome back anytime..

Cheers

Bruno
[email protected]
 
OLDSAM said:
Your lady passenger was indeed beautiful, Vlad, but she did not look like a happy camper.
Click to expand...


Sam she liked the ride. Honestly. We were flying as a flight of two, following her husband and as soon as I grab my camera she becomes a bit tense. :)


RV-4 said:
Hi Vlad

You mentioned before that you had Canpass and I'm wondering why you went to CYMX (Montreal Mirabel) which is 5 minutes from my strip to clear Customs??


..... snip....


Bruno
[email protected]
Click to expand...

Hi Bruno,
Yes, I do have CANPASS and I've been to Canada multiple times it's very convenient. However, when you have somebody new onboard the things are different. I should have planned my arrival better. Lachute Customs office is closing at 1400 on the weekends. I planned 1500. I was ready to amend arrival time but my right seater was late. Canadian officer was very accommodating he called me Captain and called Lachute office then Mirabel. He explained me all those big fees in details and told me how to avoid them.
It was really non event. Once we went to NS five airplanes. Only I had Canpass but all was good, everything was handled by the phone... :)

Dave12 said:
Vlad, is that Boldt Castle on the island ?
Click to expand...

It is Dave. You should go there in your RV12 before you sell it.
 
... After clearing the Customs we topped off, changed pants for shorts and went sightseeing.

Boldt Castle.







Kayak Farm.






Some strange rock formation on Lake Ontario coast. It looks like a sleeping Godzilla fins.











Then we went to Niagara Falls. I've been there several times it's never enough.












 
After Niagara Falls we went to Grand Prix racetrack by Elmira NY. The track was hot. What? No news helicopters? Airspace empty we fit right in. Elmira Approach didn't mind.





Wow this guys are really turning tight. I need an RV8 to follow them.










Then was quick hop to Wyoming Valley KWBW for lunch. Great Japanese food right by the airport. Pocono racetrack was next followed by Delaware Water Gap. Air was smooth and filled with balloons.






Pure flying couldn't beat that.






Keep pulling those wires it's well worth it :D
 
Nice write up!

Hey Vlad......nice Canadian write-up in a metric kind of way:D. Hope to see you this weekend!
 
Vlad ,sounds and looks like your total trip was a success....good reason for me to keep pounding rivets....Don't know if you got my reply message sun, but on Sat June 14th there is open house and car show at KPOU (Dutchess County) as well as FAA safety seminar at @ 2:00 PM. Maybe we might connect then....Your trip reports and photos are AWESOME..Tom
 
Skykingbob said:
Hey Vlad......nice Canadian write-up in a metric kind of way:D. Hope to see you this weekend!
Click to expand...


Bobski thanks. Get your guitar, bring Skyprincess to Salmon Farm and stay overnight. Glen sprayed all the bugs out of his grass. Your shiny bird will be clean. See you there :)

Tomcat RV4 said:
Vlad ,sounds and looks like your total trip was a success....good reason for me to keep pounding rivets....Don't know if you got my reply message sun, but on Sat June 14th there is open house and car show at KPOU (Dutchess County) as well as FAA safety seminar at @ 2:00 PM. Maybe we might connect then....Your trip reports and photos are AWESOME..Tom
Click to expand...

Tom, I got your message when we were clearing customs. Initially I was planning to hit Dutchess but my cotopilot never been to the Falls and we diverted. I'll get back to you on June 14th. Too many events every weekend now hard to stay focused :)
 
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