Recently I made a trip to Canada (Ontario), and thought I'd share some of
what I learned.

When entering Canada, you must land at a designated airport of entry.
Location and hours are listed on the Canada Customs website. Call them on
the central toll-free number before departing. They will ask for everyone's
name, DOB, citizenship and ETA. They expect you to arrive within +/-20mins,
but they said we can ask FSS to relay any changes to the ETA. We never saw
a customs inspector upon landing. The FBO instructed us to call the toll-
free number and we were cleared by phone in a matter of seconds. Dealing
with Canada Customs was a very efficient and pleasant experience.

It is not always necessary to land at the nearest airport after crossing
the border. We flew as close to our final destination as possible. If we
had to divert due to an emergency, we were confident we could call Canada
Customs and explain the situation.

DUATS will not recognize many Canadian airports except for a few large
ones. Our destination was Barrie, Ontario (CNB9), and since DUATS would not
accept it, I had to file to the nearest VOR (YEE).

Our route was across Lake Erie. There is a chain of island between Port
Clinton and Point Pelee, and it is easy to stay within gliding distance by
choosing that route.

I found it interesting that Cleveland Center controls air traffic well past
the Canadian border.

There was not much difference between the US and Canadian ATC, except for a
few minor things. Canadian ATC says "radar identified" instead of "radar
contact". They call Approach control as 'Terminal'.

Most of the aircraft checking in with Toronto Center and Montreal Center
were airlines. I did not hear many GA traffic. It appears that most small
aircraft don't fly IFR in Canada.

The US and Canadian system are almost transparent under IFR. Therefore it
is best to go IFR whenever possible. You always require an alternate when
filing IFR.

VFR flights greater than 25 NM require flight plans. FSS number is 1-866-
WXBRIEF. If you tell them you are not familiar with the flight plan format,
they will talk you through it. In addition to all the standard US
information, they want to know what type of ELT you have (fixed or
portable) and your pilot certificate number. IFR flights always require an
alternate. They are serious about getting a destination contact number. I
have gotten into the habit of giving my cell phone number, but the Canadian
FSS wanted a real phone number. S&R is a serious concern when flying in
Canada, even near populated areas, so it makes sense to comply with all
recommended procedures.

If you are departing from a non-towered airport VFR and IFR flight plans
are automatically activated at the filed departure time. If you don't go,
you must call FSS to cancel the flight plan.

VFR flight plans are automatically closed if you land at a tower controlled
airport. Otherwise you have to call FSS.

Canceling IFR does not automatically terminate the S&R. It puts you back
into a VFR flight plan, and you must close the VFR portion separately or
else S&R will be activated. Every time I cancelled IFR prior to landing at
a non-towered airport, ATC asked me whether I wanted to cancel the S&R as
well. Fortunately, ATC handles both VFR and IFR flight plans, so you could
cancel both portions simultaneously without having to call FSS.

You don't have to go very far from major cities to enter remote areas. For
example, a direct route from Toronto to Ottawa takes you over dense trees
and lakes with no place to land in case of emergency. The airway routes
take you over relatively safer terrain. I did not realize this safety
factor of flying along airways before. This was all in southern Ontario
with relatively high population. I can only imagine what it must be like in
areas officially designated as remote areas.

Sorry, I did not like Canadian VFR charts (VNC's) at all. Restricted areas
don't stand out like they do in the US sectionals. The same shading is used
for restricted/alert/flight training areas, except for one letter in the
information block. Some restricted areas near Ottawa were shown by a solid
black circle with no additional information. I could not readily locate the
airport information blocks. For example, I still have not found the
information block for Buttonville (Toronto). I could not find the block for
Rockcliffe (Ottawa) either, but when I did find something, it was not clear
which airport that block belonged to. You must have the Canada Flight
Supplement (Airport Directory) on hand to get all this information.
Airspace markings were unclear. I could not find the top/shelf altitudes
for all the rings around Toronto. May be they are in the Terminal Area
charts, I don't know.

Since most areas of eastern Canada are covered in the US sectionals, it
might be better to use them rather than learning the Canadian charts. True,
there is some risk involved, but I doubt there would be serious errors.

Traffic is very sparse, even in big cities. I never saw another airplane in
the air except near airports, and ATC never pointed out traffic. I even
flew through 'flight training alert areas' and never saw another airplane.

A single FSS frequency (126.7) is used everywhere. At first this may seem
like a good idea, but I witnessed how it could lead to confusion. I heard
one pilot calling up London Radio for a weather update, and two FSS guys
responded simultaneously and kept stepping on each other for several
minutes. It took a while to get the confusion sorted out.

GA airports generally have shorter runways than in the US. Even at a very
busy towered airport like Buttonville (Toronto), the longest runway is only
3900'. A 2500' runway is considered pretty standard in most airports. That
was not a problem in the Archer I was flying, but it would be a problem in
our club Mooney because club rules don't allow the Mooney to be flown into
airports less than 3500'.

Night landing at Rockcliffe airport (Ottawa) was an adventure. It is not
only hard to locate at night, but only the west 1700' of runway is lit. No
wonder they need a separate night rating in Canada.

Toronto City Center is a great airport to fly to. The view is fantastic,
and is walking distance from downtown. If you buy fuel you get one night
tiedown free, which is an unbelievable bargain considering how expensive it
is to park your car in downtown.

Departing Toronto City Center, I was assigned Island Eight departure. Since
I did not have the DP in front of me and tower was not busy, I asked if he
could give me the instructions. He said it was very complicated and he
couldn't describe it to me. So I departed VFR and picked up my IFR in the
air. Later I looked at the DP and found it to be quite simple - a couple of
headings and altitudes. I am not sure why he thought that was very
complicated.

Clearing US customs was a more serious affair. We decided to land at
Sandusky, just a few miles after cross the US border. There is no central
toll-free number. You have to call the individual customs office two hours
prior to arrival. It is usually one guy behind a desk, so you may not get a
response if he is out inspecting airplanes, or if he is on his break. We
waited for half an hour before someone picked up the phone. He asked for
the names, DOB and ETA. At first he said arrive within +/-15 mins, but
later gave me only a 15 min window. I asked for his name and badge number
as proof of having called, but he said that would not be necessary. I gave
him an ETA 15mins beyond my calculated ETA. I arrived about 10mins early,
but I was able to slow down by 10 knots and touchdown exactly on time. He
asked for passports, what we do for a living, where we went etc.. Unlike
the horror stories I heard, he was a very friendly guy. He never looked
inside the airplane, or checked our bags. We paid $25 for the annual decal,
and filled out the customs form. These are length forms, and it took some
time, and it would have helped to have it filled out ahead of time.

Canada was a great place to fly, and in some sense they seem to enjoy more
flying freedom than here. There are no last minute TFRs, and they seem to
be more relaxed about flying than the post 9/11 paranoia we have here.