June 29th 2001 - Ottawa (CYOW) - (Halifax) Shearwater (CYAW)

So the long awaited weekend arrived - a cross-country flight from Ottawa to Halifax waited to happen. The routing with a stop-over in St.John:

cyow-ulamo-yjn-ysc-mlt-pnn-cysj-ysj-yhz-cyaw

A total distance of 510nm - a nice little tail-wind helped to cross that in 4.5 hours. The way back proved to be almost 6 hours because of the inevitable head-wind :)

I left Ottawa with GCVO around 1000h - soon Montreal was on my left side:

From there it's another hour passing Mount Megantic before enter US airspace. A view of the cockpit shows 5500 feet while tracking Millinocket (mlt):

Once back in Candian airspace I had planned one stop along the way so I refuelled in St.John, New Brunswick. Next I had to cross the Bay of Fundy - the mandatory life-vest didn't make the thought of ditching more appealing :) ... "Hmm, is this island o.k. for an emergency landing?"

Finally Halifax appeared ahead and I managed to do a decent landing in Shearwater on the other side of the harbour. To get a PPR call the Shearwater Flight Center 902.463.3177 (it's a military airport). They have great facilities there - lot's of space and parking is CAD$5 per night.

Two days later (the weather delayed the departure by one day) I was back on my way to Ottawa. Another over-water portion was uneventfull and at the end I landed on the familiar runway 32 in Ottawa. Glad to hear the familiar controllers when getting home.