Weather made this an interesting flight. I checked weather online and called both US and Canada for weather briefings checking weather every hour. With no thundershowers on route (with ceiling at 1500 and 2000 feet with showers), I decided to go.
I had filed the eAPIS the day before and had my clearance by email. I called Canadian customs two hours earlier with the ETA who asked questions on the phone just like they do at the border.
I then called US Flight service and filed the same route the way I came ART, UCA, DNY, IGN, CMK, KHPN at 8000 feet so I’m well above Catskills mountains (4000 feet) and to minimize weather issues. The US briefer on the phone struggled a bit to complete the Canada flight plan saying that it’s her first time. It took about 15 min to file what should have taken 5 min as they don’t have a master on file (so expect to know transponder type, equipment, survival gear, and of course colour of plane, etc. just like you were filling one out from scratch). You need to know the approx border crossing time and geography. Since the point of landing is Kingston I told Wolfe island and called it 10 min. before landing.
Since this was her first time filing the flight plan in he US, I called Canada Flight Service an hour before flight to confirm that they have it (Note: 1-866-WXBRIEF doesn't work in the US, so you have to call the London FSS number). They didn't get the plan until activated by the tower but they were able to see it on FlightAware. I got another weather briefing from the Canadian briefer who advised me that the weather is definitely IFR but it is slow moving with thundershowers still in Ohio. Icing wasn’t an issue at my altitude. Reading through all on-route METARs and TAFs, with a couple of solid outs, I decided to continue the flight with KART (Watertown) as my alternate because I didn't want to risk flying into another Canada airport without notifying customs.
Once we got in the plane I called Clearance Delivery first. They took about 10 min. to work out my flight route. Their clearance was then as follows: Cleared to Kingston via Westchester 3 departure HAAYS direct to HUO, V 273 GGT direct to ART, direct to Destination. Climb to 3000 expect 9000 with departure frequency 120.8 and squak 1120.
I asked for a re-read and read it out. However, the disconnect which I’d later discover was that the route between HUO and GGT should be on V273 (as I was correctly told)... this actually takes you over RAGER, HNK so that you are over V273 So it’s important to study the map first then put in all the points into the GPS otherwise the GPS is going to skip V273 and fly direct between HUO and GGT instead of flying using RAGER and HNK as waypoints.
I asked for a re-read and read it out. However, the disconnect which I’d later discover was that the route between HUO and GGT should be on V273 (as I was correctly told)... this actually takes you over RAGER, HNK so that you are over V273 So it’s important to study the map first then put in all the points into the GPS otherwise the GPS is going to skip V273 and fly direct between HUO and GGT instead of flying using RAGER and HNK as waypoints.
Now that I got my clearance I called Ground, did the runup done and they gave me taxi instructions to active (K, left on L cross runway 11/29 and hold short of 16)
I called holding short of 16 on taxiway L, had me re-read my route clearance and cleared me for the takeoff. IFR lesson learned here: Make sure you do your IFR PTILT checklist prior to takeoff (Pitot Heat, Transponder, Instruments with heading set to runway heading, Lights and Time Up) - I didn’t confirm my heading, and was unsure of a right or left turn as I hadn’t flipped the approach plates page over for the narrative on Westchester 3 departure which says right turn out when departing 16. I got instructions by the tower to turn right to 320 as soon as they saw my turn to the left, and switching over to departure 118.175 corrected me on this as well. Embarrassing! I’ll never forget to do the PTILT check before departure and mentally walk through the expected IFR departure procedure!
Departure switched me to 120.80 New York which vectored me to clear for traffic (I saw a heavy 2000 feet under me which doesn’t happen very often) We then switched over to 124.5 which vectored me to where I was supposed to be (over the victor airways) and gave me a choice of 10000 feet or 8000 feet (I chose 8000), then to 116.8 Bingham, then to 133.25 Boston. Knowing that I’d be getting into weather, I called Flightservice at 122.0 for a briefing and for any PIREPS (there weren’t any). The 2nd radio had readability 2 out of 5 so I asked Boston if I can switch to Flightservice and come back, which they let me to. I got a good briefing and came back to Boston knowing that the weather hadn’t worsened and it was slow moving.
I entered instrument conditions an hour into the flight - and the autopilot is a must for any IFR flying, especially one coupled to the GPS. It makes navigation a breeze and relieves the workload considerably to keep an eye for on the weather, communication and for the nearest airports just case!
I called FlightWatch and give a PIREP to help out other pilots in the area: ORH UA /OV ORH315010/TM 1147/FL080/TP C182/WX RA/TA 07/TB NEG/IC NEG/RM SMTH
I was then switched to Weelersack at 124.87, which transferred me to Montreal at 134.67 which cleared me to the approach after giving me weather (2000 feet overcast, 3 miles vis and rain with winds 080/10 knots). Montreal had me descend to 5000. Descending was trickier in the IFR weather because of the turbulence. I had to keep the descend controllable between 500 ft/min to 1000 ft/min.
When I got closer I was asked to switch over to Kingston at 122.5 where I announced my intention to take ILS 19 circling to runway 07 and went further down to 3000 feet to the YGK beacon and called procedure turn outbound. I called intercepting the ILS, then called the beacon where I was at 1600 and saw the runway about 3 miles out. I circled at 1000 feet for 07, landed and taxied over to Central Air. Tower said customs was waiting for me, but no one came out so I called them. Customs asked if anything had changed, if my passenger was with me and cleared me giving a customs clearance number.
Flight time was two hours - could have been down to 1 hr 45 min if it weren’t for the weather, ILS approach and the vectoring. However, I enjoyed the actual instrument approach (since I had over 100 practice approaches) and benefited considerably from actual weather flying!
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