So loving living vicariously through your beautiful trip. I hope you are able to make the IFR process a reality. I think there are many people that would benefit from seeing that process. If they're in a similar situation, or hoping to be.
Glen, please continue to share these wonderfully pleasant discussions. I will be re-upgrading my ‘57 172 in January to “full IFR” since it was originally IFR but only VOR/ILS…and with most everything RNAV now, it behooves to update the panel with IFR certified WAAS-GPS not just portable (despite it being very capable)…very excited at the prospect, but yes, definitely not cheap. Also, might I add what a joy to have Julie by your side. It is my hope to inspire my lovely bride to join me more frequently as well
Yes as Canadian born living in USA I totally agree. Glen’s description of these small remote cities and airports is so different from the USA except Alaska.
1) Gotta love Julie’s priorities on aircraft handling. “Not crashing” should ALWAYS be top of the list! 2) I didn’t know a larger engine was a “wishlist” item for MVU. Would that mean some sort of prop upgrade as well? 3) I was one of those that believed English was mandated for flying. Is it, perhaps, mandated for commercial flying?
English... ATC must be available in English, and if you are flying commercial you need a proficiency in English (to speak with ATC). But private pilots; do not need to speak English and can use their native tongue: French in French speaking nations, Spanish in Spanish, Japanese in Japan, etc, etc. Commercial pilots can also use any one of 5 (official) languages to communicate with ATC in the countries where one of those languages is the native tongue. Here's a better explanation: internationalaviationhq.com/2019/11/23/language-used-by-air-traffic-control/
Glen, Complete your Instrument rating. File IFR no matter where you go to maintain proficiency, when your panel is complete you will be ready to charge off into marginal conditions. Working the system is the best way to practice, even if it’s VFR.
Hey Glen, thanks for letting us fly along with you and Julie to see the beautiful countryside! (hopefully we aren’t messing up your weight and balance too much. 😂) Really enjoy these videos. Keep them coming. I am with you. Working on IFR before a bigger engine.
Glen...you need to silicone down your glareshield and put some weight on it for a couple days. Mine was like yours and now it's perfect! Great channel 👍
It's kinda only there temporarily (even though temporary has been nearly 3 years) until we do a complete change to the underlying panel structure sometime next year. Since I knew I needed to pull it off, I didn't want to fix it in place.
It's very "in the weeds" for non-pilots, but I'd love to see the details as you figure out a path to making your plane IFR capable, then your IFR training. IFR has a complicated set of requirements, of course, but the manufacturers don't make it easy to form a clear picture of what preposterously expensive piece of gear is needed to work with a different preposterously expensive piece of gear to do what you need, and then what absolutely required only-fairly-expensive doo-dads are then required to actually make things work on top of the big-ticket eye-watering prices. And in-depth videos about installing/upgrading to add the gear would be very interesting! (at least to me and maybe a few other people.)
Nice video, good to see some clear skies on your trip! When we were in St. John’s last summer we met this really nice couple from Havre-St-Pierre at a restaurant. I’d never heard of the town, cool to see you spent so much time there. Would you recommend it as a stopping point?
Yes we'd definitely stop there again - the Réserve de parc national de l'Archipel-de-Mingan in the St Lawrence is great for a couple of day trips to hike, or overnight camping. Not a lot of Hotel options in town, and the two biggest ones are setup for forestry / mining workers who are on a week off. Julie and I were ready for that, since we both worked out in the bush and had lived in places like this.
Very much enjoy these videos. I'm not in a position where I'm able to get my pilots license at this time in my life however, I have been playing a new video game called Microsoft Flight Simulator. In the game, you start with a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Playing this game has made me far more engaged in these videos. I now have a slight understanding of what I'm seeing on your glass panels and some of the terminology you're using. Keep up the great work. I very much enjoy the content on all of your channels. Cheers!
Glenn, At 7:25 or so you talked about how it is useless to have an IFR rating without an IFR ready plane. My experience has been different. I fly a PA-12 with zero IFR instruments - no attitude indicator, no WAAS GPS, no DG, only the required VFR instruments plus a VSI. I got my instrument rating a year ago and have found it very helpful even in VFR conditions in a VFR plane. If I'm caught out when the weather isn't great, I am much more confident about my ability to navigate, keep it upright, and feel like I am a much safer pilot. Though practically and monetarily, it would make sense to get your rating in your 172 so you're very comfortable with whatever avionics you choose. It may be worth even getting some hood time in your plane as it stands now.
I have a lot of time 'under the hood' I Canada you need that training to get your PPL and PPL night and PPL VFR 'over the top' ratings; which I have. I've also done most of the IFR training (many years ago), but decided to stop since at that time I wasn't in a position to maintain proficiency.
You can be IFR rated and proficient, but everyone has their personal minimums regardless. It would be nice for the few times you have to use or may need it, but because you have it would you change your risk assessment, and is it worth the cost. Another great flight thanks .
At CYOO for alternate on paper it still kinda sucks. CYTZ ILS is your only alternate really and that leaves you at 600-2/300-1. Ok but not awesome. I suppose you can file a 100+ nm RNAV alternate but that leaves your range circle a lot smaller. And of course we all have to think about icing. We just did our upgrade to enable us to get our IFR tickets but the more I do the ground school the more I am thinking small GA planes aren't the most practical transportation solution.
The IFR rating does take your flying up a notch but its not super useful on a light aircraft. You have to consider what you are going to do when an engine dies. Do you really want to pop out of the clouds at 500' and then try to find a field? So realistically you probably wouldn't want to fly with ceilings lower than 1500' in a single. In a light twin your single engine service ceiling might be as low as 6000'. Over the mountains in cloud would be a little pucker inducing even in a twin. Then there is the lack of de-ice equipment. In the winter in Canada clouds are likely going to have some icing. Then there is your skill level to consider. Just because its possible to do a flight you might not feel comfortable doing it. It seems super useful theoretically but the reality is not so clear. I would do the rating anyway because it could save you if you get stuck in the air in bad weather. Being able to fly on instruments, do an approach and interact with the system would remove a lot of stress in that situation.
Lack of de ice equipment makes it tough. Most of my light aircraft IFR is typically flying away from poor weather to better at my destination. If you apply good personal minimums it can open up your flying profile.
I’ve been tracking used equipment for a while - One of the guys who helped on the rebuild of MVU owns an airplane ‘wrecking’ yard and has a warehouse of used IFR equipment. The problem with used / older gear is that the electronics are no longer supported, so if something goes wrong I’m out of luck. Pricewise the initial instal of used equip is certainly cheaper - I’d need 2 units that work independent of each other (Canadian regulations) *since filming this in August, the decision has been made, an announcement on what we’re putting in will be made in late Jan 2025.
The requirement for two definitely makes the prospect way more expensive (well, double). If they have to both be WAAS GPS units, that seems unreasonable. If one can just be a NAV receiver though (KN-53?) that would make sense. I once had a 430W get in a screen restart loop for a minute right after I was told to change to the next approach frequency and I couldn't put the new frequency in (VFR). The radio still received and transmitted, so at least there's that, but it made me think that having one box do all of the functions maybe shouldn't be the goal.
The purple line really is just a guide. If you think about it, flying to one side of the purple line is actually a little safer, especially if adsb fails. Why don't you mount the gdl52 from the already exposed roof on the passenger side, facing the pilot. This way it's off the dash & more likely out of the sun, which as you probably know, eventually kills everything when exposed for long enough. Also in a crash it's much less likely to become a dangerous projectile in the cockpit.
Still figuring out the location. Initially I thought that having it under the panel with the remote antenna up top was going to work in all scenarios. But this trip proved that as you move out to the edges that just not true. (though for the last two years flying in the centre of their coverage everything was fine). The heat on top of the glare shield is a killer.
The plan is for a WAAS enabled IFR GPS navigator, and an IFR Nav/Com. All of this coupled to the Dynon panel(s) will be more than capable, and will also satisfy the CARs for main and backup equipment. I'll be doing a 'reveal' video of the exact equipment sometime in February.
How often do you suppose that you would be able to get above cloud cover instead of being visually blind inside the clouds? Even with IFR technology, not being able to see would scare me to death and would seem extremely exhausting. As long as you can view your landing zones and get above the clouds, try like hell to get a sponsor for it. It seems that weather and smoke has been a hindrance and I don't imagine they will be getting much better. As I understand, a lot of the fires are smoldering underground and are nearly impossible to extinguish.
Hi Glenn, completely unrelated. But do you have your night rating? I think what non pilot people don't understand about IFR, is that it's such a step up from VFR. Your aircraft has to be IFR complaint, as you mentioned that's around $16,000 and on top of that you will most likely spend another $8000 just to get your rating.
Night and VFR OTT rated at this point - and when I first got my PPL I went pretty far down the IFR road before stopping because of time constraints, and not being able to rent a capable plane when I needed it.
Garmin is the best at a couple of things: They are number one at marketing and advertising to tell you they are the best, and at making equipment that really only functions (easily) with other Garmin equipment.
I hope Garmin or one of the other manufacturers steps forward to help you equip F-MVU with IFR capable equipment, so you can get your rating and log some real IMC. Boca Lupo!
Fantastic as always G+J!! Please excuse the ignorant question/comment: I understood air comms were always supposed to be in english. I guess it makes sense to hear french flying through Quebec, but is that technically a violation?
It's a common misconception about English being the only language for aviation. ATC must be available in English, and Commercial pilots must know English Phrases to fly internationally. But pilots use their native tongue when flying in their home country or a country where that language is spoken. Here's a better explanation: internationalaviationhq.com/2019/11/23/language-used-by-air-traffic-control/
In the part of the St Lawrence that we were flying over, we were most likely to see Beluga whales. But I understand that Minke, Fin, Humpback and Blue whales also frequent the area at certain times of the year. ***But I'm not a whale expert***
Why? I was flying in a predominantly French speaking area so those pilots were communicating in the language that they are comfortable in and that 99% of the other pilots speak. If I needed clarification I could ask the other pilot to repeat in English or ask ATC. You'll also notice that when I gave my location report in English the other pilot came back in English. Contrary to popular belief - English isn't mandated as the only language for aircraft communication. English is just the common language; fly outside the USA and you'll hear almost every language on the radio.
Not any more than Germans speaking German in Germany along with English, French people speaking French in France. Any where you go, you may hear the country’s main language along with English. Never had any close call until now.
Nice video, Glen. So much water up there in Canada! Lovely flight this time. See you in the next one. Thanks. - Marilyn
So loving living vicariously through your beautiful trip. I hope you are able to make the IFR process a reality. I think there are many people that would benefit from seeing that process. If they're in a similar situation, or hoping to be.
Glen, please continue to share these wonderfully pleasant discussions. I will be re-upgrading my ‘57 172 in January to “full IFR” since it was originally IFR but only VOR/ILS…and with most everything RNAV now, it behooves to update the panel with IFR certified WAAS-GPS not just portable (despite it being very capable)…very excited at the prospect, but yes, definitely not cheap. Also, might I add what a joy to have Julie by your side. It is my hope to inspire my lovely bride to join me more frequently as well
As a Canadian, I really enjoyed seeing Canada from the air. We really do have a beautiful country.
Yes as Canadian born living in USA I totally agree. Glen’s description of these small remote cities and airports is so different from the USA except Alaska.
1) Gotta love Julie’s priorities on aircraft handling. “Not crashing” should ALWAYS be top of the list!
2) I didn’t know a larger engine was a “wishlist” item for MVU. Would that mean some sort of prop upgrade as well?
3) I was one of those that believed English was mandated for flying. Is it, perhaps, mandated for commercial flying?
English...
ATC must be available in English, and if you are flying commercial you need a proficiency in English (to speak with ATC).
But private pilots; do not need to speak English and can use their native tongue: French in French speaking nations, Spanish in Spanish, Japanese in Japan, etc, etc.
Commercial pilots can also use any one of 5 (official) languages to communicate with ATC in the countries where one of those languages is the native tongue.
Here's a better explanation: internationalaviationhq.com/2019/11/23/language-used-by-air-traffic-control/
@@GlensHangar
Thanks! Great article, with great links as well.
Glen, Complete your Instrument rating. File IFR no matter where you go to maintain proficiency, when your panel is complete you will be ready to charge off into marginal conditions. Working the system is the best way to practice, even if it’s VFR.
I can't file IFR and maintain proficiency with Zero IFR equipment in the airplane.
Hey Glen, thanks for letting us fly along with you and Julie to see the beautiful countryside! (hopefully we aren’t messing up your weight and balance too much. 😂) Really enjoy these videos. Keep them coming.
I am with you. Working on IFR before a bigger engine.
Beautiful. I love it when you’re happy
looks like a lovely area to fly in :) great video as always Glen!
Glen...you need to silicone down your glareshield and put some weight on it for a couple days. Mine was like yours and now it's perfect! Great channel 👍
It's kinda only there temporarily (even though temporary has been nearly 3 years) until we do a complete change to the underlying panel structure sometime next year. Since I knew I needed to pull it off, I didn't want to fix it in place.
Your videos are great - thanks for posting! I also love the cooking ones, and Chicken the cat.
It's very "in the weeds" for non-pilots, but I'd love to see the details as you figure out a path to making your plane IFR capable, then your IFR training. IFR has a complicated set of requirements, of course, but the manufacturers don't make it easy to form a clear picture of what preposterously expensive piece of gear is needed to work with a different preposterously expensive piece of gear to do what you need, and then what absolutely required only-fairly-expensive doo-dads are then required to actually make things work on top of the big-ticket eye-watering prices. And in-depth videos about installing/upgrading to add the gear would be very interesting! (at least to me and maybe a few other people.)
I tell you, i have learned so much from this channel! Thanks so much for this. I'll never be a pilot, but i can be one vicariously ❤
Nice video, good to see some clear skies on your trip! When we were in St. John’s last summer we met this really nice couple from Havre-St-Pierre at a restaurant. I’d never heard of the town, cool to see you spent so much time there. Would you recommend it as a stopping point?
Yes we'd definitely stop there again - the Réserve de parc national de l'Archipel-de-Mingan in the St Lawrence is great for a couple of day trips to hike, or overnight camping. Not a lot of Hotel options in town, and the two biggest ones are setup for forestry / mining workers who are on a week off. Julie and I were ready for that, since we both worked out in the bush and had lived in places like this.
Very much enjoy these videos. I'm not in a position where I'm able to get my pilots license at this time in my life however, I have been playing a new video game called Microsoft Flight Simulator. In the game, you start with a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Playing this game has made me far more engaged in these videos. I now have a slight understanding of what I'm seeing on your glass panels and some of the terminology you're using. Keep up the great work. I very much enjoy the content on all of your channels. Cheers!
Glenn,
At 7:25 or so you talked about how it is useless to have an IFR rating without an IFR ready plane. My experience has been different. I fly a PA-12 with zero IFR instruments - no attitude indicator, no WAAS GPS, no DG, only the required VFR instruments plus a VSI. I got my instrument rating a year ago and have found it very helpful even in VFR conditions in a VFR plane. If I'm caught out when the weather isn't great, I am much more confident about my ability to navigate, keep it upright, and feel like I am a much safer pilot.
Though practically and monetarily, it would make sense to get your rating in your 172 so you're very comfortable with whatever avionics you choose. It may be worth even getting some hood time in your plane as it stands now.
I have a lot of time 'under the hood' I Canada you need that training to get your PPL and PPL night and PPL VFR 'over the top' ratings; which I have. I've also done most of the IFR training (many years ago), but decided to stop since at that time I wasn't in a position to maintain proficiency.
Beautiful flight, love your videos
Beautiful flight
luv the aerial views 🤩
Love MVU great plane.
I hope you're able to make the upgrades :). It should help with the Northern adventures, plus we may get more shop and possibly training content!
Just did my IFR flight test last month in Oshawa. used a few freelance trainers in Ontario! Find a way to get equipped and get it done!
You can be IFR rated and proficient, but everyone has their personal minimums regardless.
It would be nice for the few times you have to use or may need it, but because you have it would you change your risk assessment, and is it worth the cost.
Another great flight thanks .
At CYOO for alternate on paper it still kinda sucks. CYTZ ILS is your only alternate really and that leaves you at 600-2/300-1. Ok but not awesome. I suppose you can file a 100+ nm RNAV alternate but that leaves your range circle a lot smaller. And of course we all have to think about icing. We just did our upgrade to enable us to get our IFR tickets but the more I do the ground school the more I am thinking small GA planes aren't the most practical transportation solution.
Small aircraft GA - even IFR - is not at all a practical transportation solution. If I have to get somewhere I'll buy a ticket on Westjet or Porter.
Do they do they automated weather observation in french too ?
Love the way you say "havre" ahahah! couldnt understand at first coming from france!
Yes - each airport has both English and French ATIS /AWOS frequencies, and ATC is in both languages.
The IFR rating does take your flying up a notch but its not super useful on a light aircraft. You have to consider what you are going to do when an engine dies. Do you really want to pop out of the clouds at 500' and then try to find a field? So realistically you probably wouldn't want to fly with ceilings lower than 1500' in a single. In a light twin your single engine service ceiling might be as low as 6000'. Over the mountains in cloud would be a little pucker inducing even in a twin. Then there is the lack of de-ice equipment. In the winter in Canada clouds are likely going to have some icing. Then there is your skill level to consider. Just because its possible to do a flight you might not feel comfortable doing it. It seems super useful theoretically but the reality is not so clear.
I would do the rating anyway because it could save you if you get stuck in the air in bad weather. Being able to fly on instruments, do an approach and interact with the system would remove a lot of stress in that situation.
Lack of de ice equipment makes it tough. Most of my light aircraft IFR is typically flying away from poor weather to better at my destination. If you apply good personal minimums it can open up your flying profile.
OK, let's go!
Regarding the # 7 island it`s a big rock not easy to see. I notice Julie starting to add some flight time !
We'll fly lower next time; maybe then we'll see all 7 islands.
Auto pilot is a must for IFR to reduce pilot work load. Fuel injected engine and a twin engine for serious IFR flying.
The autopilot is already installed - did that last year.
Used Garmin 400W units seem to be about $3000. So are CNX 80 units.
I’ve been tracking used equipment for a while - One of the guys who helped on the rebuild of MVU owns an airplane ‘wrecking’ yard and has a warehouse of used IFR equipment. The problem with used / older gear is that the electronics are no longer supported, so if something goes wrong I’m out of luck. Pricewise the initial instal of used equip is certainly cheaper - I’d need 2 units that work independent of each other (Canadian regulations)
*since filming this in August, the decision has been made, an announcement on what we’re putting in will be made in late Jan 2025.
The requirement for two definitely makes the prospect way more expensive (well, double). If they have to both be WAAS GPS units, that seems unreasonable. If one can just be a NAV receiver though (KN-53?) that would make sense. I once had a 430W get in a screen restart loop for a minute right after I was told to change to the next approach frequency and I couldn't put the new frequency in (VFR). The radio still received and transmitted, so at least there's that, but it made me think that having one box do all of the functions maybe shouldn't be the goal.
The purple line really is just a guide. If you think about it, flying to one side of the purple line is actually a little safer, especially if adsb fails.
Why don't you mount the gdl52 from the already exposed roof on the passenger side, facing the pilot. This way it's off the dash & more likely out of the sun, which as you probably know, eventually kills everything when exposed for long enough. Also in a crash it's much less likely to become a dangerous projectile in the cockpit.
Still figuring out the location. Initially I thought that having it under the panel with the remote antenna up top was going to work in all scenarios. But this trip proved that as you move out to the edges that just not true. (though for the last two years flying in the centre of their coverage everything was fine). The heat on top of the glare shield is a killer.
Glen, What's your equipment plan if you go IFR? What's the minimum needed for the early 172's?
The plan is for a WAAS enabled IFR GPS navigator, and an IFR Nav/Com. All of this coupled to the Dynon panel(s) will be more than capable, and will also satisfy the CARs for main and backup equipment.
I'll be doing a 'reveal' video of the exact equipment sometime in February.
Certificated cost is one of the big reasons I like my experimental aircraft...
How often do you suppose that you would be able to get above cloud cover instead of being visually blind inside the clouds? Even with IFR technology, not being able to see would scare me to death and would seem extremely exhausting. As long as you can view your landing zones and get above the clouds, try like hell to get a sponsor for it. It seems that weather and smoke has been a hindrance and I don't imagine they will be getting much better. As I understand, a lot of the fires are smoldering underground and are nearly impossible to extinguish.
Hi Glenn, completely unrelated. But do you have your night rating? I think what non pilot people don't understand about IFR, is that it's such a step up from VFR. Your aircraft has to be IFR complaint, as you mentioned that's around $16,000 and on top of that you will most likely spend another $8000 just to get your rating.
Night and VFR OTT rated at this point - and when I first got my PPL I went pretty far down the IFR road before stopping because of time constraints, and not being able to rent a capable plane when I needed it.
Garmin is the best!
Garmin is the best at a couple of things: They are number one at marketing and advertising to tell you they are the best, and at making equipment that really only functions (easily) with other Garmin equipment.
I hope Garmin or one of the other manufacturers steps forward to help you equip F-MVU with IFR capable equipment, so you can get your rating and log some real IMC. Boca Lupo!
Fingers crossed!
Ya'll live in the north too so you're only benefiting half the year for the price of WAAS. Sure is nice though.
True - farther North WAAS doesn't really play much of a factor, but where we fly most of the time the airports are covered.
@@GlensHangar Oh yeah, I was referring to icing season.. but that too! 😁
Fantastic as always G+J!! Please excuse the ignorant question/comment: I understood air comms were always supposed to be in english. I guess it makes sense to hear french flying through Quebec, but is that technically a violation?
It's a common misconception about English being the only language for aviation.
ATC must be available in English, and Commercial pilots must know English Phrases to fly internationally. But pilots use their native tongue when flying in their home country or a country where that language is spoken.
Here's a better explanation: internationalaviationhq.com/2019/11/23/language-used-by-air-traffic-control/
@@GlensHangar Thanks for the explanation Glen!
Are these north American right whales? I live nearish to where one of the pods frequents. They're pretty cool.
In the part of the St Lawrence that we were flying over, we were most likely to see Beluga whales. But I understand that Minke, Fin, Humpback and Blue whales also frequent the area at certain times of the year.
***But I'm not a whale expert***
@@GlensHangar Cool!
Boo, no whales...🐋
½ of this trip was over water where we could / should have seen whales. Not one whale.
The mix of languages on the radio is reckless.
Why? I was flying in a predominantly French speaking area so those pilots were communicating in the language that they are comfortable in and that 99% of the other pilots speak. If I needed clarification I could ask the other pilot to repeat in English or ask ATC.
You'll also notice that when I gave my location report in English the other pilot came back in English.
Contrary to popular belief - English isn't mandated as the only language for aircraft communication. English is just the common language; fly outside the USA and you'll hear almost every language on the radio.
Not any more than Germans speaking German in Germany along with English, French people speaking French in France. Any where you go, you may hear the country’s main language along with English. Never had any close call until now.
So what you are saying is that Havre St. Pierre isn't the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from there?