Author Archives: David Megginson

On Top

Posted on March 17, 2005 by David Megginson

When weather permits, VFR is often a good choice: it gives you more control over your route and altitude than you would have IFR, generally speeds up the trip (since you don’t have to be spaced and sequenced as much … Continue reading →

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New York and Teterboro

Posted on March 17, 2005 by David Megginson

I just got back from a short trip to New York with my family and my first visit to Teterboro airport. A big advantage of Teterboro is that it has customs at the airport, so I was able to fly … Continue reading →

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Local U.S. FSS Numbers

Posted on March 13, 2005 by David Megginson

The U.S. Airport/Facility Directory consistently lists 1-800-WX-BRIEF as the phone number for any Flight Service Station (FSS). Unfortunately, the toll-free numbers don’t work for a Canadian cell phone, even when you’re in the U.S. — that makes life hard when … Continue reading →

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Web site: push your own tin

Posted on March 10, 2005 by David Megginson

The US has some sites for tracking flights on the web (IFR or VFR with flight following), but as far as I know, they all require accounts, membership in an organization, or something like that. While collecting information for our … Continue reading →

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Mnemonics

Posted on March 4, 2005 by David Megginson

Aviatrix has a great posting on the pointless mnemonics we learn during flight training, such as GUMPS (Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Props, Switches) for last-second pre-landing checks and CCCC (Cram levers forward, Carb Heat [or Cowl Flaps], Climb, Call ATC) for … Continue reading →

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Backup

Posted on February 23, 2005 by David Megginson

Yesterday, I got into a situation that I couldn’t handle on my own and needed to call in backup; fortunately, it had nothing to do with flying. I was a few kilometers from home just before 7:00 am, running in … Continue reading →

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Blog: Aviation in Canada

Posted on February 21, 2005 by David Megginson

Thanks to Aviatrix, I see that Michael Oxner has finally joined the blogosphere with his weblog Aviation in Canada — welcome, Michael. Michael is a controller at Moncton ACC (i.e. “Moncton Centre”), one the seven area control centres that handle … Continue reading →

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Canada vs. U.S.: how much do we fly?

Posted on February 21, 2005 by David Megginson

Since both countries have statistics for 2003 available (U.S. stats, Canadian stats), and I thought it would be interesting to compare trends in Canada and the U.S. Unfortunately, statistics for the two countries do not follow the same categories, so … Continue reading →

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Google Maps and Airports

Posted on February 9, 2005 by David Megginson

There’s a lot of noise in the blogsphere about the new Google Maps site, and most of it is good. One of the nicest features is the ability to find things using plain query strings like airports near livingston, nj … Continue reading →

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AIP Canada online

Posted on February 9, 2005 by David Megginson

Transport Canada is planning to put an Aeronautical Information Manual similar to the U.S. AIM online in HTML format this fall. While we’re waiting, they’ve put the existing ICAO-conformant Aeronautical Information Publication online in PDF format. The PDF is fully … Continue reading →

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