VFR Club
| Briefing | Dectember 2018 |
| Overview | For the 2018 Christmas Caper we will be crossing Canada, folowing the Trans-Canadian Railway. This is a tour which starts off in Nova Scotia, heads west through the beautiful eastern provinces of Quebec and Ottawa, traverses wild and sometimes featureless country through Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and ends with some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, traversing the Rocky Mountains to end the tour in Vancouver, British Columbia. |
| Start Time and Place | We start from Halifax, Nova Scotia (CYHZ) - but don't set your aviation watches by the time on the Town Hall clock. It will be advisable to start early in the month, although each of the legs in this event may be flown on any day in December. However, star-catchers might wish to be in Calgary before Christmas Day. |
| Tour Guides | For each leg, Ed Sterling has written a tourists guide highlighting items of interest for each leg. A must read before departure. |
| Route | There are 20 legs, the
longest of which is 240 nautical miles, and three others
are over 200 nm, so please fly a suitable aircraft. The
trip ends in Vancouver, home of the famous Canucks Ice Hockey
team.
|
| Flight Planning and Logging | The Plan-G files for
this event can be downloaded from Link
1.
LittleNavMap Plans can be downloaded from Link
2.
There will be two event stars awarded for this Caper,
with one quarter (0.25) star being awarded for landing
at 4 of the 20 airports listed above but of course
we won't tell you which ones! In addition, a full star
will be awarded for being in the right place at the
right time. If you want to start before December 1st, of course you may, but those flights will not count towards the star awards. |
| Weather... or Not | The weather in Canada in December isn't so good, so you may need to fly some legs IFR, or fix your simulator to give at least clear skies if not warm temperatures. |
| What Aircraft can I fly | Any aircraft can be flown in this event as long as it is within the EASA GA category. For crossing the Rockies, an aircraft capable of reaching 10,000ft without struggling is recommended. It also needs to be very manoeuvrable in order to follow the twists and turns of the railway as it weaves its way through the mountains. |
| ATC | At the time of publishing this event plan, ATC has not been confirmed for the airports on the Caper route. However, we have two members qualified to man Monkton, so they will probably be there to wave you off. Check the forum for details. |
| Radio Discipline | Take care not to let our Teamspeak chat cut across ATC. Stop any conversation immediately the R/T comes alive, then continue if "he wasn't talking to us". This is difficult because when transmitting on Teamspeak you can't hear the R/T. So be brief on Teamspeak, and be aware that ATC might be trying to get through. If anyone hears an R/T message which seems to be being ignored, just say "ATC is calling G-CIXN" if you have identified the callsign, or "ATC is calling us" which is a cue for everyone to be quiet on Teamspeak until ATC call again (which they will). Remember too that if asked to "Stand By" by ATC, you do not reply - not even "Roger", but simply wait until you are called again. Remember also that there are several different ATC frequencies in use, and you may not be able to hear when communications are taking place. Make sure you have set and know how to use a Teamspeak mute switch. |
| Acknowledgements | Event planning: Ed
Sterling Briefing: Ed Sterling. |
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Version 2.0 - 17:55 ZULU 26/11/18 |