In this special edition of Flying BC from EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2022, we catch up with Jason McDowell (@cessnateur), Luke Penner (@harvsairinverted) and Steve Thorne (@flightchops) to get their take on the world's greatest aviation gathering. Follow Flying BC on Instagram @flyingbritishcolumbia and sign up for the mailing list at www.flyingbc.com #OSH22 #Airventure #EAA ..read more

The 5 members of the Porter family are going to fly around-the-world in a single engine aircraft and raise $1 million for the global charity SOS Children's Villages. Flying BC caught up with them right before they departed Vancouver for the first leg.  You can find out more information and donate to their charity on their website www.5inthesky.com Sign up for the Flying BC mailing list at www.flyingbc.com ..read more

"Our 206 landed in the community and they were on rations because nobody knew about them. We found out about them so we put a bunch of stuff together and flew it out to them. They were literally crying." When parts of British Columbia were cut off due to flooding in November 2021, General Aviation came to the rescue. Aviators and volunteers quickly banded together to provide highly adaptable relief, offering lifelines to isolated communities and filling gaps in the supply chain. In the aftermath came a desire to formalize the effort, to ensure that emergency planning agencies took General Avia ..read more

"I heard a big crunch and then the scenery disappeared! I couldn't figure out why everything was gone all of a sudden, and it took me a while to realize I was looking at the bottom of the lake!" Dominique Prinet was a bush pilot in the late 60’s, flying everything from Cessna 180’s to Single Otters and Beech 18’s into some very remote places in Canada's far North. Later in his career he became a Vice President at Nordair and Canadian Airlines. He’s written a great book called Flying to Extremes, full of well-written stories packed with vivid details and photos. There was no GPS or Sat phones i ..read more

"You can't expect perfection, but you can strive for precision, and I think they are two different things." If airshow flying is the flashy rockstar of aviation, competition aerobatics is the soloist in the orchestra. One is all about the show and the spectacle from the perspective of a crowd, where the other is a highly precise and practiced performance striving for perfection.  I sit down with Mark Cunningham and Christian Baxter at Boundary Bay airport to discuss all things aerobatics…and competition aerobatics in particular. As we’ll hear, competition is much different from airshow fl ..read more

"Your decision-making skills, everything, it benefits drastically by making the step into the float plane world." Peter Grimm is the President and Chief Pilot at Van City Seaplanes in Vancouver, BC. If you've ever wondered what it takes to be a float plane pilot on the West Coast, this episode is for you. Peter dives into how to get the experience and training you need, the intricacies of coastal weather and flight planning, the differences between lake and salt-water operations, and why the Dehavilland Beaver is still the workhorse of choice.  ---- SIGN UP for the Flying BC mailing list ..read more

"So we flew all the drums out, and laid them on the blue ice, and then we went back with pictures. We were all so happy because, you know, 100 drums, we did a good job and it looked really nice. And just the way he looked at the pictures when we showed him...we were, like, 'uh oh'. He's says, I'm really sorry guys but this won't do..." Linden Hoover is a First Officer with the legendary Canadian company, Kenn Borek Air. He has been flying the Twin Otter and Basler (Turboprop DC-3) in Northern Canada and Antarctica for the past few seasons. A graduate of University of Victoria’s Aviation Busine ..read more

"People don't necessarily know that this doesn't have to be a career. This can be something that is an add-on to your life...a fantastic add-on to your life." In North America, we enjoy a freedom of the skies that is the envy of the rest of the world. And a lot of that is due to strength in numbers, and advocacy efforts from organizations like COPA – the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. There’s a lot of change and new faces coming into COPA head office in the past few months, and as a member and regional director, I’m excited to see the organization revitalized. So, I asked COPA’s new P ..read more

"So I sat down in the roughest water I think I've ever landed in, and it's not that big of a plane so it was pretty big waves for those little floats. And I landed so far from the camp because I just wanted to be down on the water sooner than later." On this episode of Flying BC, I chat with my friend Katie Cowley about her first couple years as a new commercial pilot. For the past year, she’s been flying on floats and wheels out of Sioux Lookout in Northern Ontario, living the bush pilot life. I caught up with her just as she was coming up to the 1000 hour milestone, and we talked about her a ..read more

"One of the things we recommend for all clients if you're going to purchase in the US, is to send a Canadian Maintenance Engineer down across the border to view the aircraft and do your pre-buy for you." Michael Wilton is the President of FlightSimple Aircraft Sales, and his job is to help pilots navigate the world of buying and selling an aircraft. On this episode, Micheal walks us through the steps people should take when buying a plane, the pitfalls to avoid, and answers some of the listener questions about importing from the USA, and whether purchasing for time building or in a partnership ..read more