Cross country to Canada

Ladies and gentlemen,

I've been invited on a Canadian fishing trip and would like to fly
myself and one passenger to Red Lake, Ontario. We leave June 16th. I
am in the process of preliminary flight planning. I've browsed the
AOPA website for info and called Canadian customs. This will be my
first border crossing and would appreciate any help from you guys.

Back ground info: I am a VFR pilot only. I have around 800 hours and
I have 3 or 4 cross country trips of similar length under my belt. I
am more comfortable with non-towered airports but have flown under the
Dallas - Fort Worth Class B area some and have no real fear of towered
airports. I've flown into Oshkosh twice. I just trained and am more
familiar with non-towered fields and seem to meet nice people at
smaller fields. To be brutally honest, my radio skills are adequate
but probably not much better, (in spite of reading Bob Gardners book).
Mainly just from lack of practice. There are few towered fields near
my home base. I have an autogas STC for my Cherokee 140 and will use
it if available, but it is not a show stopper at all if I have to buy
100LL. The Cherokee will be loaded to within 100 pounds of gross, so
adequate runways are a must, say 2500 feet minimum. A leg length of
about 300 NM is preferred due to fuel & bladder management issues.

1. I would appreciate any advice on airports and small airplane
friendly FBO's along the 900 + nautical mile route from Woodward,
Ok.(KWWR) - Grand Island, Ne. (KGRI) - Sioux Falls, SD (KFSD) -
Baudette, Mn (KBDE) - Red Lake, Ontario (CYRL).

2. Due to the trip length we will probably overnight in Baudette or
somewhere near and I would appreciate recommendations concerning
hotel, rental or courtesy car, and eatery accommodations in that area.
AirNav.com's fuel price data is pitifully ancient on many airports
along this route.

3. If anyone has used Baudette customs coming back into the states, I
would like to hear of your experiences there.

4. Looking over the charts I ordered, the area between Baudette and
Red Lake appears to be full of swamp, lakes and forest with very, very
few emergency landing sites. Safer route suggestions along this leg
would be greatly appreciated, especially from anyone familiar with the
area and its terrain. A detour, even of a hundred miles or more in
the interest of safety will be carefully considered.

5. For those of you with meteorological crystal balls... What can I
expect for weather conditions in the vicinity of Red Lake and North of
the border in mid - June. I am familiar with the thunderstorms
marching across the plains this time of year but not so familiar with
weather systems that seem to park themselves for days at a time over
one area. Is there much chance of getting weathered in for more than
a day or two?

--
Joe Schneider
8437R
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