wrote:

Interesting. Perhaps some Canadians reading can pipe in on this idea. This
past summer while flying through Canada to Alaska, it certainly seemed like IFR was
the vast minority. I'm sure some of it was that I was in the sticks for a lot of the
time, but even in the relatively populated plains provinces, one didn't hear much
about IFR traffic (or traffic at all for that matter). Perhaps the US just has more
infrastructure so IFR is easier to do casually for PP?

I often file IFR in both central Canada and the northeastern U.S. in my
Warrior, and on long cross-country flights in both countries, I'll
often be the only light aircraft talking to ATC in the sector. The
main exception is when someone's doing practice approaches down below
me, though once in a while I'll hear a piston twin or another single
doing what I'm doing. You'll see a lot of IFR piston traffic (mostly
twins) into places like Toronto/City Centre, though.

In the late fall, winter, and early spring, IFR can be tricky because
of the risk of icing, but the same is true for the northern U.S. You
were flying across the northern Canada, where a lot of the traffic
still goes on floats -- as you know, float plane pilots get nosebleeds
above 1,000 feet AGL, so they can't usually make IFR altitudes and have
to skim the treetops.


All the best,


David