Flying in Canada - Crossing the Border and Navigating Differences in General Aviation Flying

In this video I share what I learned on a flying club trip to Canada! We cover some of the differences in procedures and regulations between the US and Canada, as well as the requirements for crossing the border between the US and Canada.
Some of the resources you may find useful:
AOPA overview: www.aopa.org/travel/internati...
AOPA flyer with checklists: www.aopa.org/-/media/files/ao...
Transport Canada: “Flying to Canada”: tc.canada.ca/sites/default/fi...
Transport Canada AIM: tc.canada.ca/en/aviation/publ...
Canadian Aviation Regulations: lois-laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/r...
Weather: flightplanning.navcanada.ca/
eAPIS tutorial: www.aopa.org/training-and-saf...
Phraseology guides are available on: www.navcanada.ca/en/aeronauti...

[@GlensHangar]

1 caveat - 27:56
You must file a flight plan - OR - a flight itinerary. The flight itinerary is as simple as telling your partner, parent, neighbour, friend; where you're flying to and when you expect to be back. Giving them the knowledge to contact SAR if you fail to return.

[@FlyingLessons]

Indeed! Apologies for omitting that. As foreigner travelers, that option had limited value for us.

[@dhmoose1]

I have flown single engine pistons into Canada from the PNW a handful of times and each time, I have had to refresh my knowledge of the differences which takes several hours. Your video was a perfect refresher! Thanks for putting it together.

[@willg967]

Thank you very much!!

[@doronoz7354]

Great video! Recommended for any US pilots flying to Canada first time or as a refresher.

[@nel218]

Very informative. I’m planning a flight to Montreal in a couple of months.

[@robertolson9875]

Very informative and well done, but I do have a question. It seems like videos on this topic steer clear of IFR. Is there a particular reason to avoid IFR and stay in VFR rules in Canada? Said another way, is VFR flight recommended in Canada - even for a GA pilot who usually flies cross-country IFR in the U.S.? It seems like it would reduce the risk of running afoul of Canadian airspace differences and generally be safer. Thoughts? Thanks again…

[@FlyingLessons]

Thanks! I chose to stay VFR focused in the video largely because that's the kind of flying we did and what I learned about most. We wanted to fly around the mountains and sightsee, and IFR was not really conducive to that. A few of our group did fly IFR, and it can streamline things as you say since I think it's mostly the same as in the US. The one complication we had in our G1000s was getting the correct database configuration. Many G1000s cannot have more than one active nav database, and can't activate a standby database on demand. So if you have separate US and Canada databases, you can't switch them easily. The best practice is to have a North America database that covers both.

[@robertolson9875]

Thanks for the quick and informative reply!

[@GlensHangar]

@@robertolson9875 If you are worried about running afoul of airspace, just ask for VFR radar surveillance (flight following in the USA) - this works great in the more populated areas of Canada, but not so much when you get farther North.