I`ve arrived in Quebec City, after departing from Ottawa. I was unsure of the route I was going to take, because Montreal is right in the middle, and we didn`t have a Montreal VTA chart. So I planned 2 routes last night, one north of Mirabel, out of the Montreal control zones, and one right in the middle between Mirabel and PET, over the city following the river. The city route was preferred because of access to civilization, alternate airports and ATC guidance along the way. Luckily, the Rockville flying club sells charts, and I was able to get a Montreal VTA.
So the city route it was - with radar flight following the whole way. I left Ottawa/Rockcliffe about 11am, and flew 5500 feet all the way to Quebec. It was very smoggy and hazy down below, and at times it was hard to see the river very far ahead. But I choose this altitude because the weather briefer warned of moderate turbulence to 3000 AGL, due to surface heating. "Moderate turbulence" is how a 737 would feel it, so I didn`t want to take any chances. At 5500 it was very smooth, again with an agressive tailwind. Nearing Quebec I had to descend due to clouds ahead at 3500, so I did the last 20NM at 2500, with some nice bumps and potholes!
The weather ahead is looking marginal - T-storms for this afternoon, and I seem to be between a warm front to the east and a cold front advancing from the west, squeezing me in the middle. I expect to be grounded by weather for a day at least, and the long range forecast for the maritimes is not looking good, so I`m pretty sure that this is as far east as I can get. It`s too bad, because I`m about 2 hours flying from Dalhousie on the bottom side of the Gaspe. It would have been nice to view the Gulf and dip in the saltwater. But Quebec is a great place to have to stop for the turnaround.
I called my cousin`s son, who is supposed to be back home by now but had to leave a message begging for a place to stay. Hopefully he`ll call back later this afternoon, otherwise I`ll find a hotel in the old city.
I`ll try to upload pictures and breadcrumbs later tonight.
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Hi Bob,
That's a pretty good achievement - congrats on getting to QC! Gonna stay all in Canada for the return or dip into the US a bit?
That haze sure can be thick. I got lost in it once, flying over the Kawartha lakes. Took me several minutes of flying to figure out where I was and get back on track. I was sweating over that one!
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