Harv's Air - Anthony Dueck Flight Report

My name is Anthony Dueck, a resident of Winnipeg, Mb. I am 28 years old and a commercial pilot student at Harv's Air Service located in Steinbach, Mb. This is the story of the trip I recently took in a Piper Cherokee from Winnipeg to Toronto and New York City between June 7^th and June 21^st, 2002.

I have only begun learning to fly in January 2002, and by February (just after my first solo)  I was already planning the trip with my girlfriend Risa Nakamura. I had met Risa in Japan when I was living there for 3 years teaching Eot than when Ime back to Canada to become a pilot. She had expressed interest in traveling to Toronto and New York City so I suggested coming after I got my Pilot's license and we can fly there together in the Cherokee. She concurred and arrived in Winnipeg on May 31^st.  I had received my private pilot license in April and by the time she arrived I had about 80 hours flight time total.  We departed Steinbach on June 6^th.  The weather was bad right off the bat. Rain clouds had passed over an hour before take off and I knew we would have to go through them to get to our first destination. But since the rain wasn't that heavy and there weren't any thunderstorms I decided to go for it. Upon take off we experienced the usual bumps and wind gusts as is typical in midday conditions. Having never been in a small plane before, Risa lets out a good couple of screeches to let me know she wasn't quite comfortable with the flight so far. Nevertheless, by the time I reach cruising altitude of 4500 feet she is fast asleep in the co-pilot seat, and remained that way for most of the flight time during the entire trip. Some co-pilot.

I had chosen to cut under the Lake of the Woods enroute to Thunder Bay because it seemed a shorter distance, but  required flying through U.S. airspace.  As you may or may not know, crossing into the U.S. requires a given transponder code from flight services and radio contact while crossing the border with an American ATS official. So when I was 5 minutes from the border I attempted to contact Minneapolis center, but no luck. I couldn't establish contact. So what did I do? Crossed over of course. I woke up my co-pilot to get the camera ready for the F-16's I expected to intercept us any minute. But they never came and 25 minutes later we had crossed back into Ontario, and eventually got to Thunder Bay. The flight was a bit bumpy and we experienced alot of rain. It was actually the first time I had flown in rain, which made the flight a bit stressful. In the Thunder Bay Shell Aero-center we were both feeling quite tired. Risa, having experienced some motion sickness clunked her head down on the conference desk in the areo-centre while I relaxed a bit and decided whether or not to continue to the next leg of our trip, around the north shore of Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie.

After a few hours of relaxing and flight planning we decided it was ok to go another 3 hours to the Soo. This leg was much better. We took off at 6pm so we had much more stable air, and beautiful scenery. Risa slept comfortably. Looking out of the right side of the plane, I couldn't see any land, only lake and sky. It was difficult knowing where the lake ended and the sky started. I wouldn't think that one could fly in VFR conditions over it, and I wasn't an IFR rated pilot at that point Luckily to my left there was land for me to refer to.

We stopped in the Soo for night and got back into the skies around 3pm to head to Toronto, another 3 hour flight. There was a strong 25 knot wind at the time but was straight up and down the runway so no problem, but I knew it would be a bumpy climb. Poor Risa. It was quite bumpy and we received a wind gust to shift the plane in a 30-degree bank position. Risa let out a few more screams and grabbed my right arm, pulling me toward her and throwing me a bit off balance, so for a few seconds I couldn't straighten the plane! But I got myself back in my seat correctly, straightened out the plane, and continued with the assent. Enroute to Toronto we flew over the Manitoulin Islands in Lake Huron. It was quite a beautiful area, with clear light blue water and sandy beaches. It reminded me of flying over Indonesia last year. I'd love to take a floatplane in there some day for a camping trip. After that as were approaching the shore of Lake Huron, I noticed an unusual layer of cloud at about the level I was flying at. It looked like a perfect straight line across the sky with thinner sheet of cloud underneath. I radioed ahead to a plane that had reported being over Owen Sound a few minutes earlier and he reported clear skies. Then I figured it out, Haze. Welcome to Southern Ontario.

Then it was into Toronto airspace. I was a little nervous at first because of all the planes I expected to be in the area, but it really wasn't any worse than Winnipeg on that day. The only plane I saw was the one the controllers warned to be at my 10 O'clock, 700 feet below me. I didn't see it until it was right below me. The pilot hadn't shaved that day I observed.  We landed at the Toronto City Centre airport, a very convenient airport on an island right off the shore of downtown Toronto. Seeing the CN Tower and Skydome I was quite excited and woke up the co-pilot (Risa) to take some pictures. At that point I had felt very proud of what I had accomplished. It was the most memorable moment of my flying career so far.

We spent a few days in Toronto seeing the sites. We stayed at my friend's house near downtown Toronto. I didn't know this before but his wife's sister, who owns the house and lives there as well, is the star in the Les Miserables musical production in Shanghai, China. There even was a huge picture of her on the front page of the entertainment section of the Toronto Star newspaper.  Too bad I didn't get a chance to meet her. Maybe next time. She actually grew up in Winnipeg before moving to Toronto to star in the Miss Saigon musical. But, I digress...

The next stop was Niagara Falls for one night. We took off from Toronto and 40 minutes later landed at the St. Catherine's airport. No, we didn't cross the lake we flew around it over Hamilton. We stayed at the Hilton on the 28^th floor. The room came with a king size bed, Jacuzzi, and a full view of the falls. Pretty nice huh. Don't ask me how much we paid for it though.

The next day we went on the Maid of the Mist boat, which takes people right to the base of the Falls so we could get completely soaked by the mist of the falls, we prepared for our flight into New York. I called U.S. customs to arrange a time to meet them at the Buffalo Airport. The custom's official said that Risa, being a Japanese citizen, couldn't cross the border through the air without a visa, only by land. We were still in Niagara Falls and the border was just across the bridge, so we walked across to get her a visa at the U.S. immigration office. It turns out the stamp she got in the Detroit airport while transiting from Osaka to Winnipeg was a visa, so we were able to fly there after all. So we walked back into Canada and made the way to the airplane. Once in the air, we headed towards the U.S. border and Buffalo, which was only about 30nm away. I could establish radio contact this time. As I was following the vector the Buffalo controller gave me, I obtained visual of the airport and reported it to the controller. He proceeds to tell me that it was not the Buffalo Airport, but the Niagara Falls International airport I was looking at. The Buffalo airport was another 10 minutes away. How embarrassing. To make things more embarrassing, after I landed in Buffalo and taxied to the Shell Aero center to await the customs officer, I got out on the wing to stretch my legs a bit, the Shell attendant asked if that was me who thought Niagara Int'l was Buffalo. Also, there were some guys drinking beer in the private jet we were parked beside, and one guy comes out laughing with a Labatt Blue in his hand and proceeds to put the beer into my hand, shakes my other hand, and gives me a cheerful "Welcome to Buffalo! Don't worry I've made the same mistake myself". Then he asks if I was waiting for customs, because the customs officer was coming and I had unthinkingly jumped off the plane to greet this guy. So he pries the beer from my sticky fingers (he had never let go of it to begin with) and went back to his plane and me back to mine. The customs officer didn't say anything. He didn't even check our bags or anything. He seemed more interested in the plane and asked what speed the Cherokee takes off at.

Then it was on to New York City, which took about 2 hours. We actually landed in Teterboro, New Jersey, the closest airport to downtown Manhattan. There was even more haze and smog there than in Toronto. The visibility was reported to be around 4 miles, but it seemed around 10 miles to me.  Teterboro Airport is a popular choice of airports in New York for celebrities due to its close proximity to downtown Manhattan, and it is a private airport so the members of the media aren't allowed in. Our taxi was a newer Lincoln, and our driver told us about all the celebrities he had met in the last week. He had met Jennifer Lopez yesterday and drove Steven Speilberg and Tom Cruise in the same car last week, in town for promoting their new movie, Minority Report. So that's why I received such royal treatment as I arrived there. No less than three people helped me get my bags out of the plane and carted to the lobby. I've also never seen so many private jets in my life, which were parked all over the place. Also, when taxiing in we were told by the controller to follow this enormous private helicopter, which had just landed on the taxiway and was going to the same place we were going. The driver had even asked if I were somebody famous, that yeah I played for the Canada's Olympic ice hockey team, and he said "Really?!" and I said, "no, not really. I'm just a humble Canadian".  We didn't get to meet any celebrities though.

While in the taxi, I borrowed the driver's cell phone to call flight services to check if my flight plan had been closed. It turns out they didn't have any flight plan filed for me at all! I swear to God I filed one in Buffalo and opened it after take off with Buffalo Radio. The flight services lady expressed her thankfulness in a very serious manner that I had made it ok, and she would surely bitch to someone about that since it was an inexcusable action on Buffalo flight services part, or something like that.  Later I wondered if they would even have let us in the Class B airspace over New York without a flight plan filed. She must have just made a mistake when looking for it. I wasn't too worried though, because I was being flight followed the whole way, and a controller would have noticed if I had gone down.

Since it was our first trip into New York the driver wanted to be the first to show us Times Square. It was quite something. Lots of flashing lights and jumbotrons everywhere. It was a Tuesday night and even then the streets are packed with stores open almost all night.

Anyways, we stayed in Manhattan for 6 days, 2 days longer than planned due to bad weather. But there was so much to see and do there it was great to have the extra 2 days. Our first spot to see was the World Trade Center site. There wasn't much to see, since there is a big wall around it and the viewing platform that was once there had been removed. There were however a few memorials around it, and we passed by a firestation right next to the site, which was closed down, with condolences from people all over the world, as well as lots of Canadian flags on it as well supporting the firefighters of the station.

The next places we went to were the statue of Liberty, the USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier and the submarine, USS Growler turned museum, and the Empire State Building. All places had increased security and metal detectors due to the past terrorist activities. We weren't even able to climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty. The most interesting place was the aircraft carrier and submarine. The carrier had several planes on the deck and inside, notables being the Blackbird SR-71 spy plane, and an old Mig 21 from Poland, along with almost every type of plane used on aircraft carriers in the past and today. One day we separated for us to get a chance to do what one wanted to do, but the other didn't.  Risa went to the Metropolitan museum of Modern Art and shopping, while I went to see a Broadway play and visit NBC studios. Although I couldn't watch any shows being taped, I got to see the set of Saturday Night Live, and got to go on a Wild Desk Ride with Conan O'Brien via a blue screen, while Risa got to see paintings by Monet and other famous painters.

Then it was back to Toronto. There was a strong headwind and multiple thunderstorm cells everywhere that we had to dodge, so it turned a 300nm trip into four and a half hours. The Cherokee usually does about 105kph but then it was only 75-kph ground speed. I had to go to the can after the first hour already. Man, that was a long flight. It was the first time I had seen thunderstorms from an airplane, so it was quite interesting for me. They looked to me like mushroom clouds after a nuclear explosion, with a dark base covering a relatively small area. I remember seeing this small town getting pulverized by rain and the surrounding areas had sunshine. It made me laugh (haha poor small town).

During the flight I realized my ETA would be way off, so I contacted the American FSS and informed them I would be an hour late getting into Toronto, and they said they would pass along the message.  To whom I wondered since I found out later they never informed Toronto FSS about it. When I finally did get to Toronto airspace I was informed that the customs officers at the City Centre Airport had gone home already (even though I called ahead), I guess because I was already an hour late and thought I was probably dead or something. Therefore I was informed I could land at Person International Airport to go through customs there. As I was on the left base I was informed I was cleared for landing and then transfer to tower. But as soon as that was said I lost radio reception and couldn't hear what frequency they said. I hadn't planned on landing there so I didn't have the frequency written down on my navlog. So I tried them repeatedly for about one minute until finally getting reception back. Once I finally heard the controller give the frequency, I could hear his co-workers laughing heartedly in the background. Those jerks! That was a very stressful situation.

After a few more days in Toronto and a trip to Paramount Canada's Wonderland for some roller coaster rides, it was time to go home. Risa's flight back home to Japan left from Pearson, so I accompanied her there. After saying our good-byes and going our separate ways, it was time for me to fly home as well. I got to the Shell Centre to see my plane parked next to the Carolina Hurricane's private jet. I think it was for the NHL awards or the entry draft was taking place in Toronto. Anyways, as I was taxiing out of the Shell center to the first taxiway, the ground controller couldn't see me on his radar and asked where I was. I told him what intersection I was in and he gave me clearance to proceed to the runway. As I started moving again the controller informed me that now he could see me, and he guessed he couldn't before because the my plane was so small and I was behind the taxiway sign which prevented the radar from seeing me. I guess they don't have too many Piper Cherokees using the airport. By the way, it was $85 dollars per night to keep the plane there by the way .It wasn't even in the hangar. I had the plane there for 3 nights but thankfully they only charged me for one night. I guess because the plane didn't take up too much space. I

The flight home was relatively uneventful. My first and last stop of the day was in Sudbury; about 2 hours flight north of Toronto. I spent the night there and the next day flew for four hours to Thunder Bay, and then 3 hours back to Steinbach. When I arrived in Steinbach it was around midnight, so I attempted to turn the lights on using the ARCAL system, but for some reason they wouldn't turn on. Luckily there was another airport in Steinbach, which has its lights on all the time so I landed there and called to my destined airport and asked them to turn the lights on for me. So I took of again and made the 5-minute flight back to home base. Back at last.

A cross-country trip like this one really taught me a lot about flying. It would have been nice to have another pilot along to share the responsibilities with, but being able to have handled everything myself benefited my greatly into becoming a better pilot than when I left. I would also like to thank my sleepy co-pilot and sometimes GPS navigator, Risa Nakamura for trusting me enough and feeling comfortable enough to be able to sleep and never once doubting my abilities as a pilot.  I would recommend New York as a destination to anyone thinking of going on such a trip. And unlike how my father thinks, you won't get shot down flying over New York City, even if you may not have a flight plan filed.

Contact Harv's Air Flight School

Harv's Air Service
Steinbach South Airport
Box 1056,
Steinbach
Manitoba
CANADA
R0A 2A0

Ph: 204 326 2434
Fx: 204 326 4182

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(800) HARV-AIR
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