By Laurie Doering, EAA 1247381; Director, Brantford Flying Club, COPA 148
With my home airport in Brantford, Ontario, I am fortunate to have access to numerous scenic locations just minutes away when you fly “as the crow flies.” Brantford Airport (CYFD) has three runways in a triangle pattern, so there is always a best wind runway to minimize the impact of a crosswind. Our airport will celebrate 100 years in 2029 — one of the oldest flying clubs in Canada.
With a strong interest in video and photography, my Van’s RV-9A has been fitted with six GoPro camera mounts to capture my adventures. The image stabilization feature on the GoPro camera provides remarkably smooth footage despite bumpy flight days. In 2020, I created a YouTube channel (The Flight Level) as a place to showcase my real aviation and flight simulation videos. Many videos include documentary content in relation to the destination. The channel captures a variety of topics including avionics tutorials, dangerous airport landings, and selected destinations such as Lukla, Nepal, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and Mount Everest.
Brantford is just minutes away from the shoreline of three Great Lakes — Huron, Erie, and Ontario. It is all about the landings in my aviation notebook. Add an approach over water and that is “icing on the cake” for the flight.
Let’s begin with Lake Huron. The Goderich airport (CYGD) on the east shore of Lake Huron offers an incredible scenic approach when landing on RWY 14. You swing over the water in the left-hand circuit with a view of the largest underground salt mine in the world on your right side. The colour of the water can sometimes be that Caribbean turquoise — absolutely breathtaking on a clear day. Goderich has been referred to as the prettiest town in Canada and provided some excellent history for a video (The Largest Salt Mine in the World — History and In Flight Videography at Goderich).
My favourite go-to flight on Lake Erie is Long Point. You fly along the shore of the Long Point National Wildlife Area and then center your airplane directly over the lighthouse at the tip of Long Point Provincial Park (fourth-oldest provincial park in Ontario, established 1921).
Immediately following a panel upgrade to a Garmin G3X, a flight to Billy Bishop Airport (CYTZ) was planned. Check out the video on the history of Toronto City Airport that captured my approach to RWY 08 with full ATC on a picture perfect day (World’s Most Scenic Airport Approaches – Landing at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport – ATC Audio). The Billy Bishop airport approach has been ranked in the top ten of the world’s most beautiful approaches!
I have made many sightseeing flights over Toronto, and on my last visit I made a request to circle the CN Tower. I had no idea if this was possible, but it doesn’t hurt to ask! Well, you can fly around the tower if traffic permits. No Porter flights at the time, so I was given the green light to orbit the CN Tower. With a GoPro 360 camera mounted on the outer wing, the entire flight path was captured (Toronto CN Tower Orbit Flight with a 360 Camera – Full ATC – 4K). The GoPro 360 Max camera offered a multitude of photo perspectives.
As a lifelong Microsoft Flight Simulator enthusiast, the airplane cameras are also used to compare the realism between Flight Simulator and real life. Several videos have been published that compare the ground terrain and buildings in Flight Simulator to real images and video. Flight Simulator has come a long way since 1982, and VFR accuracy is impressive. You can locate and fly over your house!
Niagara Falls has been a popular sightseeing destination. You can judge the realism of Flight Simulator in this video (Niagara Falls In Flight Video – Real & Simulated Comparison – My RV9A Aircraft – MSFS2020 – 4K). The original Microsoft Flight Simulator catchphrase “As Real As It Gets” has lived up to its name with the latest version of Flight Simulator 2020. Here is a video comparing the sim to five landings in southern Ontario (As Real As It Gets – Flight Simulator vs Real Life Landings in Ontario + Memory Lane – Bruce Artwick).
We have all seen incredible sunsets from various destinations. I will state that the sunsets at CYFD rank with the best in terms of colour and perspective. My videographer/spotter has captured impressive moments at sunset (Sunset Flight Fun in a Van’s RV9A + Wife + 360 Camera – Circuit Practice – 4K). If you have a minute or two, browse through the collection of videos at The Flight Level and explore what the playground of flight simulation and real aviation over the sky of southern Ontario has to offer. Maybe even consider a subscription to the channel! Blue skies from your fellow aviator based at Brantford, Ontario.
