by Kenneth Berger

 

May 12, 2004

 

Last Sunday, I took a day trip in the C172 up to Canada to check out the territory. My first stop was Victoria, then North to Nanaimo, then further North to Quelicum Beach. I had lunch, and returned via Friday Harbor. Here are some notes regarding getting in, around, and out of Canada:

 

I called Can Pass 888 226-7277 for pre-arrival clearance to touchdown in Canada

·    They required a two hour notice prior to arrival

·    They asked for the full legal names of pilot, passengers and dates of birth

·    They reminded me to ask the passengers about the usual … no guns, drugs, over 10 thousand cash etc, and told me I was responsible if the passengers were caught with illegal stuff on board

·    Remind your passengers to bring passports or ID and birth certificates, and for the pilot remember to bring your pilot’s license and passport.

·    They told me that I would receive a special squawk code when I opened my flight plan

I did my VFR flight plan to Victoria (800 WXBrief), and they said they would hold the plan open for up to 24 hours

 

After take-off, I opened my flight plan with Seattle Radio

·    They gave me the special squawk code to use when approaching and near the US Canadian boarder

·    I used flight following from Seattle Center, to Whidbey approach

·    as I got to Roche Harbor, Whidbey approach told me to enter my squawk code and contact Victoria

·    the timing was a bit tight because from Roche Harbor there isn’t much distance to Victoria’s class D airspace, you really need to have the Victoria AITIS from about Friday Harbor and be ready to contact Victoria Tower on 119.7 (unless over 2500’ in which case contact also Victoria Terminal, their approach) as soon as you get to Roche Harbor

The Victoria Airport was a bit confusing, because the runway numbers were hard to see and they criss-cross each other in a way that does not make one distinctive over another

·    We got directed to Runway 09, which was the longer of the runways. Final is 90 degrees to the shoreline from the West.

After landing, we were directed to contact ground for customs. Customs was at the Aero Shell building.

·    I parked and walked to the pay phone like unit on the side of the building to call Can Pass 888 226-7277. I found out later that some people call on their cells from the plane because customs can be testy about you getting out of the plane.

·    Customs gave me a clearance code and asked me to keep the code in my logbook in case we needed to prove our entry clearance later

Consider Calling US customs immediately upon arrival in Canada to arrange for the return custom’s inspection at a specific time.

·    this seemed to be where the timing was trickiest. If you can predict your return time, call early and schedule it.

·    I called Friday Harbor Customs 360 378-2080 at about 1:30 pm and requested landing clearance in the US at the Friday Harbor airport

·    The theory is that I could not land coming from Canada into the US without this advance phone OK with clearance to land at a certain time. I suddenly had this feeling like if I could not get someone on the phone quickly, I might have to spend the night in Canada (because of inefficient or understaffed US Customs)

·    Friday Harbor customs are only open 9 am to 5pm. and Friday Harbor Customs does not man their phones the whole time they are open. I got a call back a half an hour later at 2 pm and all was OK, but I was already thinking I might have to contact Bellingham Customs (360 734-5463), which I was told is theoretically much slower to process you, but is open 24/7 and one requires 1 hour advance notice to get landing rights, versus 1 to 2 hours at Friday Harbor.

·    Customs demanded a specific anticipated landing time, although they didn’t seem to be concerned as to unanticipated delays.

Finally, I called the Canadian flight plan people (866 WXBrief, yes the area code is different for the Canadian radio people) and filed my flight plan to Friday Harbor.

·    They suggested that I make the flight plan open automatically at a set time, and that I could call any tower and adjust my actual flight plan opening time.

·    I estimate the flight from Victoria to Friday Harbor to be only 20 mins, so getting the plane ready and in the air is probably the limiting factor on scheduling the Customs arrival.

·    upon landing, the Customs agent wanted me to stay in, or around the plane, within her view. She gave me a form 178 (copies attached) and suggested that I could speed entry next time by having the form completed in advance. As it was the customs only took as long as it took to fill the form out, which was about 10 minutes.

The airspace system was a bit different:

·    In Class D, the tower always assigns you a squawk code

·    In Class E, there may be towers and if so it will show like a class D dotted line around the airport on the map. If there is a class E tower, they will assign a squawk code to you and you need to get the code before you enter the blue dotted line tower airspace.

·    There is an "outer tower" for the airspace just north and outside of Victoria’s D airspace, and they have their own frequency

·    What we call center or approach, they call terminal

·    The tower people were friendly, among other differences

 

Happy Flying in Canada,

Ken Berger