Flying: To CYTZ And Back

On Saturday I flew over to Toronto Island Airport to go visit the folks and celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday.

I did the electronic paperwork, called Canpass, filed my typical route and got my clearance to depart. Approved clearance was ADRIE T781 OLAMO CYTZ

I climbed to 3,000 as instructed and contacted Detroit Approach.

A beautiful day and still some fall color to see.

Detroit Approach climbed me to my filed altitude of 5,000 and then amended my clearance to just fly direct to CYTZ, which was nice.

Had a light tailwind and was cruising along at a nice 146 knot ground speed.

Crossed the border and it started getting a little overcast around Sarnia:

I got permission to climb above the layer to 6,000 and enjoyed the view.

Toronto Center then amended my clearance and had me go direct to OLAMO before heading to the airport.  I then did a practice localizer approach to Runway 26 and had a very good landing.

I had a nice time in Toronto with the folks, and the open house party on Sunday to celebrate my dad's birthday went very well.

Then yesterday, it was time to head back.  The weather would, unfortunately, not be quite as nice. Overcast, rainy, and windy it would be.

I had filed what I had done for the return on the last trip, which was accepted. Easy enough.

I got to the airport, paid my parking and fuel bill, did the preflight.

 I contacted Ground, and then was told my clearance had changed and was I ready to copy?

Yep, yet again I got the PERL.4 Departure, DERLO Transition, PICUP, OKLND ONE Arrival.  So next time I go, I'm  just going to file that from the outset to save time as they seem to like it a lot on Mondays.  Knowing it well from the last time made reprogramming the system a lot faster.

I then, just before takeoff, got a further amendment to the departure procedure and was told to climb to 3,000, on heading 210 degrees, so I did that and out over the Lake I went.

It was rather overcast and I had a pretty major headwind of around 30 knots so my ground speed was around 90-100 knots, most of the time so it was kinda slow going.

Toronto Center then got me on course to the next waypoint and I was told to climb to 6,000, and then once I reached that next waypoint ANCOL, I got an amended clearance to fly straight to DERLO which saved a little bit of time.

At DERLO the Overcast became more acute and I started getting some instrument time.

It was rather solid with some light chop and light precipitation.  Air Temperature up there was 15 degrees C due to the warm front that was moving in and causing all the winds and clouds, so no icing risk which was good.

The clouds opened up just a bit as I was crossing the border.

And soon closed up again, with even more rain and bouncing around and I was again in solid IMC conditions.

Then for a brief while I was right in between two layers of clouds which was kinda neat.  The air was smooth and it was all rather beautiful.

But soon it closed up again.

I got the weather at Pontiac with winds of 14 knots at 180 degrees for a very direct crosswind for landing on 27L.  I was passed on to Detroit Approach and clearance amended to fly straight to GUZVY for the 27L RNAV and was then cleared onto the approach.

Up to the Final Approach Fix it was IFR, as I followed the glideslope down and got lower I broke out of the clouds.

Not the best visibility, and I was kinda flying sideways in the wind following the RNAV guidance.  This was a tad disorienting, so I just kept on the needles, and it took a bit to find the airport as the nose was pointed into the wind left of the Airport, even as the plane was moving on a nice straight line right to the runway.

Then I had the runway in sight before the missed approach point, and still had to fly crabbed into the wind on the way towards final.

I then made a most excellent crosswind landing, even as it felt like a lot more than 14 knots.  The excellent landing was likely due to a lack of observers of same.

I then cleared customs, then headed to the hangar and got the plane refueled and put away, and that was the end of the weekend.

November 2 I had 2.0 out, and 1 great landing.

November 4 I had 2.4 back, .9 actual instrument time, an instrument approach and another great crosswind landing.

An excellent trip flying that sure as heck beats driving, and it was good to get some actual IFR time and a real approach in and plan for and deal with more challenging conditions.