With a Capital "C"

I don't have my logbook. I don't have my medical. I'm not current for passengers. I haven't flown in over a year. And I'm in a foreign country. Must be time to go flying. 

After a very busy schedule working north of the border in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia over the last 18 months, there is now a narrow window of opportunity in which to get some time in - albeit with an instructor as my Pilot In Command. Without my credentials, I can be nothing more than a passenger or quasi-student, but that doesn't keep one from going up whenever possible. Tomorrow, it will be a different experience however. Spending a few extra hours in Calgary, AB allows me to get some time in a new environment (again) with a new instructor (again) and in an unfamiliar aircraft (yes, again). But to keep things interesting, I will also get a feel for flying in Canadian airspace. Listening to the scanner the other day, I can tell it's not too different - as expected and intended by the international standards for aviation (ICAO). 

The biggest things that I have identified so far is that airspace has a slightly different classification up here, and they use the word "decimal" instead of "point" when stating a radio frequency. So, where an American will say 121.0 as "one-two-one point zero", it's "one-two-one decimal zero". I think I can handle it. It is said that there is a distinction between flying 100 hours and flying the same hour 100 times. In other words, if all you do is fly the same airport or same cross-country over and over, you're not really seeing or learning anything new. In contrast, my mere hundred hours will now include two (and soon to be three - stay tuned) countries, a half-dozen or so different instructors, flights into Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arizona (including the Grand Canyon), and California - with the variations in traffic, terrain, and weather that each one brings, and a mix of non-towered, towered, Class B, flight following, and various other idiosyncrasies that each flight brings. In addition, I have so far taken up seven different people as passengers, a couple of them more than once. So begins a new chapter, with new adventures waiting out there somewhere. Now, I will finally get a chance to fly in the Canada that I have worked so long in, and flown countless commercial flights to reach virtually every weekend of the last year and a half. But my time here is short, and at the end of the month, another destination awaits. Next stop: Australia!