Ottawa Tie-down

I'm in the process of moving from Montreal to Ottawa and I'm looking for a
tie-down for my Cherokee 140. I will also need access to a good mechanic. So
far I've only heard about the Ottawa Flying Club. Any words of wisdon on
both subjects would be much appreciated.

Thanks


Jose Vivanco
C-GPYH

David Megginson wrote:

2. You can call before a flight and have your plane fueled, or towed
over to the apron and plugged in overnight, or even thawed out in
the heated maintenance hangar.

Thawed out???

Geez... Just when I think another millisecond of California politics is
going to drive me out of this frickin' state...

Tim

Also try the Rockcliff Flying Club, they seem like good folks. Never lived
there, but I have rented from them. http://www.rfc.ca/ Nice part of town
too, esp[ecially if you plan to live on the east side of Ottawa.

Duane
++++++++++++++
Duane MacInnis
Flight Instructor
Cell (604) 454-7415
www.macinnisaviation.com

Grumman Cheetah C-GVJF

"Jose Vivanco" wrote in message
...


I'm in the process of moving from Montreal to Ottawa and I'm looking for a
tie-down for my Cherokee 140. I will also need access to a good mechanic.
So
far I've only heard about the Ottawa Flying Club. Any words of wisdon on
both subjects would be much appreciated.

Thanks


Jose Vivanco
C-GPYH

"Jose Vivanco" writes:

I'm in the process of moving from Montreal to Ottawa and I'm looking for a
tie-down for my Cherokee 140. I will also need access to a good mechanic. So
far I've only heard about the Ottawa Flying Club. Any words of wisdon on
both subjects would be much appreciated.

I tie my Warrior II (C-FBJO) down on the grass at the Ottawa Flying
Club. It costs around CAD 65/month, plus another CAD 30/month to the
airport authority for the landing-fee charge at CYOW, so it's not
cheap compared to a country airport (you'll probably also want to buy
a CAD 150/year OFC membership as well, since it gives you free tows
and a discount on fuel and maintenance). On the other hand, CYOW and
the OFC give you lots of advantages:

1. You're parked only a few meters from the maintenance hangar, about
100 meters from the avionics shop (Canadian Airmotive), and across
the field from a good instrument shop (Woodlawn). All of them have
reasonable rates and good service.

2. You can call before a flight and have your plane fueled, or towed
over to the apron and plugged in overnight, or even thawed out in
the heated maintenance hangar.

3. When you need maintenance, they can just pull your plane in when
they need to -- you don't have to leave it at another airport for a
week or two.

4. If you come in late and want to fill the tanks, you can always fuel
up at the FBOs on the south field and then taxi back to the north
field to tie down.

5. You have a 24-hour, G.A.-friendly tower, customs, two ILS
approaches (and lots of non-precision approaches), a separate 3300 ft
GA runway, two long jet runways (when you want them), emergency
equipment on the field (just in case), and excellent snow removal for
year-round flying.

6. It's fun sharing the airport with the big jets.

I'll be happy to give you a tour the next time you're in Ottawa. My
address is dmeggin, followed by "at", followed by attglobal, followed
by "dot", followed by net.

I'll let others tell the benefits of the smaller local airports (like
CYRO, CYRP, CNP3, CYSH, and CYND), since I know them only from short
visits.


All the best,


David

Rockcliffe is "no frills" compared to CYOW. But tie down is $400 a
year or $600 with hydro.

AME is $40/ hr vs. $60 at CYOW.

Not very many ATC delays either :-)

Bob

What is "with hydro", water?

"Bob" wrote in message
...
Rockcliffe is "no frills" compared to CYOW. But tie down is $400 a
year or $600 with hydro.

AME is $40/ hr vs. $60 at CYOW.

Not very many ATC delays either :-)

Bob

In a previous article, "JerryK" said:
What is "with hydro", water?

"hydro" is Canadian for "electricity". Blame Ontario Hydro, formerly
called "Ontario Hydro Electricity Company" or something like that back
when all our power came from Niagara Falls.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Mary had a little key,/She kept it in escrow/And everything that Mary
sent/The Feds were sure to know." - Sam Simpson on sci.crypt

Thank you kindly for all the info. I spent most of today checking out big,
bad CYOW, CYRP (Carp), CYRO (Rockcliffe) and Smiths Falls (CYSH); I also
exchanged phone msgs with a guy at Gatineau (CYND). Tomorrow I'll find out
if I got one of the empty spots at Rockcliffe, their main claim to fame is
their low rates and low traffic. David makes an excellent point about all
the conveniences in CYOW, but, for a 50% savings on tie-down (that is for a
spot with hydro) and lower mechanic rates I'll go to Rockcliffe. Smiths
Falls seems like a great place, dirt low rates ($85/year), cool flying club,
but, it is 54 Km from the Hunt Club bridge ... and I live in the Glebe!

I also talked for a while to a woman at another flight school in CYOW, her
name and the school name escapes me now; I got the distinct impression the
CYOW administrators DON'T like general aviation .... they sort of make the
point by charging $30/month on top of the tie-down fees. Dorval (CYUL) is
free, go figure. I don't think those $30/month per general aviation aircraft
actually make a dent in their grandiose new terminal building payments ...
It would almost be worth it to pick CYOW just to **** 'em off :-)

Anyhow, if I don't get a spot at Rockcliffe, I'll go to the Ottawa Flying
Club ... They seem to have plenty of space.

Thanks again.


Jose Vivanco
C-GPYH






"Bob" wrote in message
...
Rockcliffe is "no frills" compared to CYOW. But tie down is $400 a
year or $600 with hydro.

AME is $40/ hr vs. $60 at CYOW.

Not very many ATC delays either :-)

Bob

I flew over Carp (CYRP) the other day and they have a new row of hangers
going up. Not sure what the cost is, but hangers are a must for our
winters, IMHO.


"Jose Vivanco" wrote in message
...

Thank you kindly for all the info. I spent most of today checking out big,
bad CYOW, CYRP (Carp), CYRO (Rockcliffe) and Smiths Falls (CYSH); I also
exchanged phone msgs with a guy at Gatineau (CYND). Tomorrow I'll find out
if I got one of the empty spots at Rockcliffe, their main claim to fame is
their low rates and low traffic. David makes an excellent point about all
the conveniences in CYOW, but, for a 50% savings on tie-down (that is for
a
spot with hydro) and lower mechanic rates I'll go to Rockcliffe. Smiths
Falls seems like a great place, dirt low rates ($85/year), cool flying
club,
but, it is 54 Km from the Hunt Club bridge ... and I live in the Glebe!

I also talked for a while to a woman at another flight school in CYOW, her
name and the school name escapes me now; I got the distinct impression the
CYOW administrators DON'T like general aviation .... they sort of make the
point by charging $30/month on top of the tie-down fees. Dorval (CYUL) is
free, go figure. I don't think those $30/month per general aviation
aircraft
actually make a dent in their grandiose new terminal building payments ...
It would almost be worth it to pick CYOW just to **** 'em off :-)

Anyhow, if I don't get a spot at Rockcliffe, I'll go to the Ottawa Flying
Club ... They seem to have plenty of space.

Thanks again.


Jose Vivanco
C-GPYH






"Bob" wrote in message
...
Rockcliffe is "no frills" compared to CYOW. But tie down is $400 a
year or $600 with hydro.

AME is $40/ hr vs. $60 at CYOW.

Not very many ATC delays either :-)

Bob

"Jose Vivanco" writes:

I also talked for a while to a woman at another flight school in CYOW, her
name and the school name escapes me now; I got the distinct impression the
CYOW administrators DON'T like general aviation .... they sort of make the
point by charging $30/month on top of the tie-down fees.

Right, and that's not very popular, though it would be worse if they
tried to make us pay CAD 15/landing rather than a flat CAD 30/month.
The Ottawa Flying Club is still fighting the fee it in court, since
they have a long-term lease that doesn't mention landing fees. Rumour
has it that the airport authority wishes low-end G.A. would just
disappear (fortunately, ATC does not share that view -- they've even
sponsored contests to encourage us to do *more* circuits).

Dorval (CYUL) is free, go figure. I don't think those $30/month per
general aviation aircraft actually make a dent in their grandiose
new terminal building payments ... It would almost be worth it to
pick CYOW just to **** 'em off :-)

Absolutely -- the more of us there are, the harder it will be for them
to squeeze out G.A. As I mentioned, Ottawa ATC likes G.A. (some of
the controllers fly out of the airport themselves), and the individual
staffers at the airport authority are friendly as well. The rumour is
that the board of directors would like to close the north field (G.A.)
for airport hotels, but right now they're stuck will long-term leases
for over a decade to come, and we can hope that new, slightly brighter
board members will be around by then. The funniest part is that Nav
Canada's technical systems centre is itself is located at the north
field right by the Ottawa Flying Club.

Anyhow, if I don't get a spot at Rockcliffe, I'll go to the Ottawa
Flying Club ... They seem to have plenty of space.

Rockcliffe is my fallback if, for any reason, I cannot stay at CYOW --
I've heard many good things about the club (though I had never heard
that they have an AMO on site, much less one that charges CAD
40/hour). One person told me that you're required to volunteer time
to help with maintaining the airport, but for most pilots, that would
probably be a benefit rather than a liability.

One further consideration for me, however, is the ability to cycle to
the airport. From where I live, near Tunney's Pasture (and from the
Glebe), the north field at CYOW is an easy bike ride almost entirely
on cycling paths and reserved bicycle lanes, while cycling to CYRO
means riding through downtown and then putting my life in the hands of
the yahoo drivers blasting around the sharp turns on the parkway. I'd
probably end up having to drive all the time if I moved my plane to
Rockcliffe.

Not very many ATC delays either :-)

The main cause of ATC delays at CYOW is waiting for an IFR clearance
-- if you're flying VFR, it's just a matter of taking your turn with
other planes to landing and taking off, just like it would be at an
uncontrolled airport (and the north field has its own runway, so you
don't have to wait for jets on 10-mile final). The one significant
difference is waiting two minutes for wake turbulence to clear if a
medium or heavy has taken off across your runway from 32 or landed
across it onto 14.

Best of luck getting a spot, and I hope that you enjoy flying out of
Ottawa.


All the best,


David