Canadian private pilots?

[tackdog]

Hi everyone. My wife and I live in Australia (Australian Citizens), and my wife is applying for a Visa / citizenship so we can hopefully move to Canada under a skilled migrants scheme. We've travelled to Canada many times as we have close relatives that live in Calgary, and if successful, we would like to move to Alberta - to settle somewhere near Calgary. The process takes about 16 months to navigate....... I think having access to a good local flying cub and hangarage is going steer where we live.

By the time I finish building my Experimental Javron Super Cub, we should have some definite answers about migration, which leaves me with the important question! What do I do with my Cub? I have a tonne of questions from license requirements, medicals, hangarage - and hope to visit some of the clubs and aerodromes around Calgary and up to Red Deer, when we travel over before Oshkosh this year. Can anyone recommend clubs to see or visit around Calgary or spots that may have hangarage options? I've read Okotoks is or has closed, so I've found the following on-line:

• High River
• Chestermere (Kirby Field)
• Didsbury / Olds?
• Red Deer
• Spring Bank - I'm guessing this one would be expensive?

I've scanned transport Canada's website and whilst I hold an Australian PPL - day VFR and with low hrs - about 500, I really don't mind if I have to cover all the PPL - transport Canada theory and practical assessments again - as I'm sure there are many gaps in how we operate. (Weather will definitley be one.) I have no real interest in doing CPL - IMC or so forth, so I'm wondering if the 'recreational' permit approach would be more suitable as opposed to PPL - as I'm only interested in flying small - 2 seat day VFR? In Australia, we have a similar recreational permit scheme that has weight and pax. restrictions, and also a MUCH easier medical requirement - that basically lets you self declare - or see a GP as opposed to a 'regulator endorsed physician'...

Does the Canadians Recreational Permit - give you access to controlled airspace / towered airports - or have other limitations? I'd guess it may not let you cross the border?

In Canada, for skills like tail wheel, constant speed propellor, retractable undercarriage or aerobatics, are these an additional courses and assessment with an instructor and flight examiner - or just competency based? In Australia, each of these things are operational ratings i.e: See an instructor, do a formal course - examiner. For my tail wheel rating, I had to do a course and X hrs of training and demonstrate proficiency - was the same for CSU, retract undercarriage and so forth.

In Canada, how do you undertake flight reviews - proficiency checks? In Australia - every 2 years we have to find an examiner, and sit a check ride - Biennial Flight Review, which is basically a watered down, PPL check ride or you can learn a new operational rating in lieu. My last flight review was about 40 min of talking through a complete flight plan and submissions, Q&A on the regs, full hand written performance calcs, fly a 3 leg nav into controlled airspace, diversion, engine fails, stalls, steep turns, under the hood IMC and all the other stuff that keeps you awake.

I'll try and visit a CFI at one of the flying schools to listen to what they have to say too.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Greg Harvey]

Why would you want to come to Canada ?
I live here its a Democrat government for the last 40 years . All social government hand outs
The normal wait time in hospital is 40 hours
They close hospital emergency rooms on the weekend
It takes two years to get a medical back from transport Canada
Move to Texas or Florida or Oregano would be my choice….or even better Alaska

 

[tackdog]

Why would you want to come to Canada?

A good question and 'happy wife - happy life' drives a lot of the choice. She see's the romantic side of things we don't get 'down under' such as fur tree's, crystal blue rivers, snow falling for Christmas, ice skating on the local lake and moose walking mountain paths. I wonder what it would be like waking at 5:30am to get ready for work in -30c winter, to probably shovel snow of the drive way for 30 min's each day, and dealing with the daily grind stuff, where taking a holiday somewhere - versus living there, are very different realities I'm sure!. Other than the weather extremes, I think our two countries, including their problems are very similar, so the transition should be easy.

My wife's an ED Emergency nurse, and the wait times in our regional areas can almost be as long as yours. The only thing I noted that was confusing about Canada for us, was the govt. subsidised medication scheme or ones attached to health insurance as it appears to be dependant on which province you live in, where in Australia, it's a national scheme. I'm on a medication that when subsidised is $30 for a script, but $3000 if it wasn't on the Govt. approved list. That particular drug is approved in Alberta - yet not in some other provinces - so I guess this will dictate where we could live in Canada. Housing is a LOT cheaper in Alberta - about 100 -150k cheaper than where we now live, and if we sold and bought a similar house, maybe I could afford a snow blower for the driveway, or a hanger somewhere to put my Cub and fly to Alaska?

Regarding getting your medicals back from TC.... I'm 49, where we also have additional age test requirements attached to our medicals, so with re-setting pilots medicals here, with a single bad blood test report, our equivalent to Transport Canada will have you spending $1400 to see 3 specialists where it takes 9 months to get an appointment just to see them, to then wait until the regulator receives then reviews your reports, only to have the reports not accepted as some box wasn't ticked by a Dr, and back through that cycle again. 12 months later, your medical has expired - rinse and repeat. This year, they released a new medical in Australia which 'sounds' similar to the basic med or self declared medicals where ours has restrictions like: Day VFR only, MTOW below 4400lb, below 10,000', 2 persons, no aeros, no formations.

 

[sj]

Why would you want to come to Canada ?
I live here its a Democrat government for the last 40 years . All social government hand outs
The normal wait time in hospital is 40 hours
They close hospital emergency rooms on the weekend
It takes two years to get a medical back from transport Canada
Move to Texas or Florida or Oregano would be my choice….or even better Alaska

technically a form of democracy I believe with some other plot twists.
There is also a rising problem of ERs closing evenings and weekends in the US for the same reasons. Tough to get people to do those jobs especially in small hospitals that can’t pay competitive salaries, and really big ones where people burn out.

sj