Sunday turned out to be a great flying day. A new friend with a
Cardinal decided he wanted to experience the complexities of crossing
the border into Canada and flying in the bilingual environment of
Montreal Terminal airspace.

He, his wife, and I were wheels up around 9:30, cleared customs around
noon. Canada customs actually met us at the airplane, but there are
one of two explanations. Either because his wife is a Spanish citizen
and they wanted to check papers, or one of the agents might have been
a trainee and was getting practical on-the-job experience. No biggie
either way.

The flight was VFR all the way, but I wouldn't've made it as a VFR-only
or IR-but-rusty pilot. We were On Top for most of the way to Burlington
before finding a hole and decending to a still-comfortable 2500'.
Someone on the other side Burlington Approche's airspace said he was
looking for a hole, but his backup plan was to go all the way back to
HPN. Below the clouds had to dodge a few areas of reduced visibility
but I spotted the Mercier Bridge from about 20 miles out. Spotted
Montreal downtown first, found the Champlain Bridge, looked farther
West and there it was, right where it was supposed to be.

The Terminal controller slowed his speech down to baby talk when we
expressed some confusion about needing to be "cleared" into Montreal's
class C. I thought it worked like U.S. class B.

We rented a car and I suggested the choice of My Favorite Deli or My
Favorite Rotisserie Chicken Place. The receptionist at the FBO also
suggested My Second-Favorite Steak Place. After lunch, we bought
some Montreal bagels, then spent the afternoon kicking around the
Old Port before returning to the FBO around 6pm.

It was a great day. The weather improved steadily during the day and
the nighttime return trip was with an surprisingly bright full moon.
I've said it before... The GPS is soooo cheating. :-)

It took about 20 minutes on hold to get a NavCanada FSS briefer (who
says privitization doesn't pay?) and then we called U.S. Customs at
Burlington (my preference is to stop an clear customs as early as
possible). Oops, they require 3 hours prior notice, not 1 as listed
in the AOPA directory. So, we called HPN. The customs person there
was delighted to hear from us and told us to call her supervisor
(at Newark) to aprove the overtime. The overtime was declined and the
supervisor suggested landing at Newark (customs open 24 hrs.). They
generally waive prior notice unless they're swamped. We elected to
wait out the time and land at Burlington, which turned the evening
return trip into a night flight.

The customs officer wasn't excessively slow, but he was meticulous
and he actualy poked around inside the baggage compartment. He was
certainly polite and friendly enough, almost apologetic for making us
wait the 3 hours.

All in all, the customs experience particularly unpleasant, but it
meant getting home to bed much later than planned. I'm sure it's
because I went non-linear with Sporty's over their idiotic shipping
error.


Morris (Life Out Of Balance)