Northeast Flying Summer Roadtrip
| << Leg 8 - Laconia, NH to Bar Harbor, ME | Trip Home | Leg 10 - Quebec City, Canada to Burlington, VT >> |
|---|
Leg Stats
- Time Enroute: 2.1 hrs
- Distance (direct): 190nm
- Distance (actual): 229nm
- Fuel Used: 21.1 gal
On Sunday night, I started looking ahead towards our trip to Canada and although the weather wasn't beautiful, it seemed very flyable and I saw an opportunity to get to Canada. I filed our ArriveCAN, eAPIS, and flight plan on Sunday night and made a reservation with the AvJet FBO at Quebec City (CYQB). I had considered flying to Neuville, however since we would be arriving from the US, this required another stop at an Airport of Entry, and with the weather being IFR, I decided it was more challenges than I wanted to deal with. We broke camp early in the morning, dropped off the rental car, and waited at the airport to depart to hit our target customs time. The flight itself to Quebec was pretty easy with some light IMC enroute. The crosswind at 5000 feet on the arrival into Quebec was impressive (>80 kts!) and the surface winds were gusting to 25. Although I had previously flown to Canada last year (Victoria), I was a bit intimidated by Quebec because of all the French on the radio and the size of the airport. I need not have worried though... it has its quirks (in particular, 2 ATIS frequencies, one for each language, and a very unusual ramp/non-movement area layout), but the Montreal and Quebec controllers were extremely patient and kind. On descent they asked me if I was able to accept the arrival procedure, which I did, and then they joined me on the approach for Runway 24. I joined the approach just past the Montmorency Falls, which was a cool view, and we made an easy landing (albeit now with a 20kt headwind!). AvJet had 3 linemen waiting for us, and they patiently waited at least 10 minutes while I was on hold with CANPASS. After we cleared customs (as usual, no Customs officer met us), we got the plane unloaded and I grabbed us an Uber into the city. We stayed near Old Quebec at the top of the hill near the Fairmont Hotel, at the Place d'Armes. We had an amazing time exploring Quebec City for 3 days and nights. The beer was great, the food was great, and the city is amazing... it felt like being in late-1800s France or something. We had brief bits of sunny and cool weather interspersed with lots of light rain. On our last full day, we got an Uber out to the Montmorency Falls, which we had seen on approach, and explored the park around it for a bit. Afterwards, due to the unreliability of Uber right now in Quebec, we ended up being a bit stranded, so we took the city bus (where we pleaded and were allowed to take our dog!) back to the city.
Trip Leg Navigation
<< Leg 8 - Laconia, NH to Bar Harbor, ME
