RFH: Ottawa (CYOW) - Philadelphia (KPHL)

K. Ari Krupnikov wrote:

The controllers kept clearing me direct to VORs I
couldn't possibly receive yet, and I kept asking for vectors until I
could tune in the VOR rather than cheating and navigating solely with
my new 196 (which is a nifty device).

Glad you got yourself one of those. It's amazing how much it reduces
workload, isn't it? No substitute for the paper chart, but truly an
"aid to navigation".

BTW, where did you end up clearing customs, Philly or closer to the
border?

I flew straight to Philly. The only problem was the stronger-than-expected
tailwind, which gave me ground speeds from 155-175 kt (in a 120 kt airplane)
even when I throttled back to 65% power. I managed the 340 nm flight in 2.5
hours and 20 US gallons, even with opposite-direction takeoff and landing
and a bit of vectoring at both ends, and arrived 25 minutes early despite
all my delaying techniques. I dawdled as much as I could on the ground, but
customs still met me 15 minutes early.

I had called Philly customs earlier in the week, though, and I was pretty
confident that they were easy-going. The trick at KPHL is that you radio
the FBO (Atlantic) when you're 15 minutes out and they advise customs, so
there's no inconvenience for the customs and immigration offices -- it's not
as if there's some poor guy (or gal) who had to drive from the nearest
border crossing and sit waiting in the pick-up truck.

I also talked to Philly customs about what I would do if I had to divert,
and they were very friendly and helpful, and didn't make it sound as if it
would be a disaster.


All the best,


David