I think Oshawa has reached a breaking point - it had been common practice to have one controller doing both a certain times of the day, or when (I guess) they were covering breaks etc. For years it has been super busy at times and the controllers had to ask for silence or on rare occasions turn people away from the control zone. Now that Buttonville has closed; I think there needs to be a change in how ATC at CYOO is handled. The increase in traffic has opened up some stress cracks in the system, and is leading to traffic being turned away. On my last three returns to Oshawa I've been asked to circle outside the zone until they could handle the extra traffic. While I'm circling I'm listening to one controller try to handle both ground and ATC. They are also issuing more NOTAMs about reduced capacity and their inability to handle certain types of traffic and requests. I know the people in the tower are working hard, and doing their best - my hope is that Management at NavCan takes notice and supports them with more staff.

@bernardkermanadventures5961

6 ай бұрын

This is normal at CZBB. Been like that for years. I've seen a dozen aircraft waiting to get out. The controllers they have are like gods but there just aren't enough of them.

@sebastianip4751

6 ай бұрын

Hey Glen, this isn’t new to closing of CYKZ. On my first solo XC on return I had to circle too. And my 2nd solo I stopped after 2 full stops cause I kept having extending downwind or fly runway heading, and they told me off cause I drifted off runway centerline on the extended flight almost to St Mary’s. One time I waited forever for 5 PFLs in a row holding short of 12. CYOO always has those perfect days when everyone’s going up. I guess maybe worse now but hey you can always switch to night when it’s completely dead :) I think you had a lot of flight school planes on the radio there. There’s enough of them that without the new based planes from CYKZ you already could have the same rush hour. It’s always possible to aim and avoid when the school swarms are heading up or coming back. Everyone’s on that one hour-ish cycle. North practice area is also stuffed on a nice day. I hated doing diversions cause someone’s always in the way to and from CYOO at 2500. You also have the students who’s clueless about where things are still so every time they hear a radio call in the practice area they will broadcast their own position.

@chrisjohnson4666

6 ай бұрын

I was thinking I bet Glenn's hanger fees go up next year due to supply and demand... What are they doing to the closed airport houses???

@sebastianip4751

6 ай бұрын

@@chrisjohnson4666 tie downs likely going up as well?

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

@@chrisjohnson4666 Luckily the City owns this airport and under contract my hangar fees can't increase more than a set amount.

Whaaaat? You mean me, a guy who doesn’t own a plane, and has no ambition to ever do so and only watches these videos because I find you entertaining, is secondary? Ah man.

I used to work at the Oshawa Airport. It’s one of the busier GA airports in Canada (next to Canadas busiest airport). Not to mention Nav Canada is severely understaffed. I remember the tower closing multiple times in a week for 30mins-1hr for fatigue management (no fault to the controllers in Oshawa, they are some of the best I’ve ever dealt with).

Thanks for the video. I’m sure the ATCs would like to see the comments here calling them heroes, as it’s sort of an unseen profession. If you’re interested in watching ATCs at work, you might be able to call the tower and ask the ATC supervisor if they’ll allow a visitor to observe. YYZ tower used to allow this on less-busy days, so Oshawa might

Thanks for posting this and bringing light to the increased traffic at YOO. As one those who moved from YKZ, the increased traffic, increased radio comm and less familiarity with the surrounding geography definitely adds to the workload. Always enjoyed your video and was nice to meet you at Oshkosh this year!

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

Yes - Oshawa tower often asks pilots to report when they are 'over Walmart' or 'over Home Depot'... recently I've heard a lot of dead air after those requests as pilots try to decipher where Walmart is.

Holy! The last time I've flown from Oshawa was in October. There are a ton of new call signs I don't recognize!

Great video. I fly out of Springbank CYBW and it is commonly like that on a weekend, sometimes worse - I’ve been number 7 to land with two behind me, and the controller talking like an auctioneer. As a general note, when it gets busy people should not unnecessarily read back the whole instruction. Unless it is a clearance, simply repeating the call sign to acknowledge is sufficient and avoids tying up the radio when the controller urgently needs to be talking to someone else. VFR aircraft are not required to read everything back.

This reminds me of CYWG in 2003 when I took my PPL training there. Radio traffic like this was our normal. Plus, we had Airbuses, Boeings, Metroliners, C130s, and the occasional F-18 in the mix. It was an amazing learning opportunity for us Katana drivers.

Reminds me of flying out of CYHU during my PPL training. After paying 0.5 hours of rental just waiting for my turn to take off, I decided it was time to become a plane owner and find another airport. Good job managing the radios.

Imagine the “fun” if they ever go ahead with the Pickering airport plans. Stuffed under a Charlie and all that :)

I fall into the latter category lol thanks for posting :) I am not afraid of the busy airspace, just unfamiliar with it. 15 years ago I would make a point of flying into Winnipeg airport CYWG 3 or 4 times a year to keep current with the pro's but it's been a while. landed at Lindsay (CNF4) and spent a night at Oakwood (COK3) this summer on my southern Ontario tour, and really enjoyed the trip. I'll be back for sure

I used to respond to Transit light rail accidents for a living and until now I thought that radio traffic was as busy as it could be.

Thanks for posting this, crazy buzy

Thanks for video.

Another awesome video. Great footage, great sound and awesome editing. Entertaining and intriguing as always. Merry Christmas to you and Julie.

Glen, this is as close to being in the cockpit and flying ourselves as we can get. This video is much appreciated..

Just saw your checklist comment on Trent's latest video and had no idea you had a flying channel. My wife and I love your cooking channel and had no idea! We're vig aviation nuts, too. 🎉

@GlensHangar

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for coming!

Wow😳 That was both busy and intense.

Good moring

Very interesting. That is a lot of air traffic!

I love listening to this and trying to make it play in my head. It would be really interesting to watch the tower controllers working from their point of view, they must be exhausted at the end of their shifts, like playing 4 dimensional chess but with real world consequences.

Great video. I was surprised to see on ADSB exchange that it appears that York Region Police has to station their helo at Oshawa now. That is too bad. I am sure the non aviation fans in Oshawa will also take note of the increased traffic. Maybe that airport in Pickering will happen after all.

That was interesting! I've had one similar experience on my local airport, which is also used as a basic (prop planes) and intermediate (jet trainers) training airport for Finnish Air Force. Once there was a flight of both prop and jet training flights leaving, while another group was returning, and two GA planes were also in the circuit as I was trying to take off. Pretty busy, it was difficult to find a break in the radio to give my calls, and I even got my clearance piecewise, while they usually give a full takeoff clearance in one go. Then 15 minutes later the frequency was suddenly quite silent. An interesting experience!

Great video. May I ask for your opinion on how you’d rate CFA vs Durham vs Island air. I’m struggling in choosing a school. Would you recommend any of the Oshawa schools? Thanks

Hoo boy, that is congested. Kudos to the local controllers. As a side note, if you're flying in this area or another like it and not on flight following, you're wrong. You're asking for trouble and making ATC's job a lot harder if you're not talking to them.

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

That's the pilot at 7:44 - waited until he was right at the edge of the control zone before making contact, ignored the reporting points farther out and didn't ask for following. Just popped up out of the blue. He was flying 'legal' and had no requirement to make contact before that point; but he wasn't contributing to safe airmanship.

I’m surprised that she (and he) was working both Ground and Tower with that amount I traffic. Been awhile since I’ve been to YOO. Have a great weekend!

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

I think Oshawa has reached a breaking point - it had been common practice to have one controller doing both a certain times of the day, or when (I guess) they were covering breaks etc. For years it has been super busy at times and the controllers had to ask for silence or on rare occasions turn people away from the control zone. Now that Buttonville has closed; I think there needs to be a change in how ATC at CYOO is handled. The increase in traffic has opened up some stress cracks in the system, and is leading to traffic being turned away. On my last three returns to Oshawa I've been asked to circle outside the zone until they could handle the extra traffic. While I'm circling I'm listening to one controller try to handle both ground and ATC. They are also issuing more NOTAMs about reduced capacity and their inability to handle certain types of traffic and requests. I know the people in the tower are working hard, and doing their best - my hope is that Management at NavCan takes notice and supports them with more staff.

@CLdriver1960

6 ай бұрын

If I may make a few suggestion: 1) get your cohorts to do one or two extra touch and goes whenever possible. That’ll increase the number of ‘movements over the course of the year. 2) when there is conflict, especially an ATC issue, have your co-residents (if that’s the proper term) file an incident report with Nav Canada. They’re all about statistics, and when the numbers warrant it, they’ll increase the resources.

Glen I have a question about your cameras. I see you have trouble with them cutting out occasionally and am assuming it is battery related. My question is it would seem that the inside cameras could be hardwired instead of using internal batteries. Is this possible?

Hi, thanks for your awesome videos! Can you tell me what are you using to record the audio from headset? I’m using the GoPro adapter connected to my GoPro but for some reason there is a high pitch noise between conversations. When there’s a transmission on radio the noise is gone but comes back when the transmission is over. I can edit them out but it’s a tedious process. Any ideas or recommendations is highly appreciated!

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

I record on a Tentacle Sync audio recorder and ‘jam’ time code with the GoPros so the audio lines up in post. There is still a small electrical whine from the aircraft present, but I clean that up with a voice isolating filter in post.

Hello Glen, very good and informative content , just a question do you have your aircraft under owner maintenance?

@GlensHangar

5 ай бұрын

No - this airplane is Certified.

@GlensHangar

5 ай бұрын

I should probably expand on that. The aircraft qualifies for Owner Maintenance and I thought about transferring it over since that would give me a lot of latitude for modifications. But Owner maintenance aircraft can't be flown into the U.S. (strange since I could build an airplane of my own design, out of parts from the hardware store and it would be completely legal to fly across the border... but I digress) Since I have family in the Southern U.S. and I want to also fly to Sun'n'Fun / Oshkosh, I decided to keep MVU as a certified aircraft. I have my eye on an 'abandoned' C150, that if I can work it out I would put it in owner maintenance and then go all in with mods.

Wow... That is busy comms. Are they rebuilding the RWY nearby airport or is it closed? Merry Christmas Glen and A&P from Sydney Australia. 🇭🇲🌏🌲

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

Nearby airport closed

I've noticed this before but haven't said anything. Why do you have to tell ATC where you're coming from. And has this always been the case?

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

It's been the case as long as I've been a pilot (25+ years) - no on has ever adequately explained it to me. Perhaps someone in ATC could help us out?

@satguy

6 ай бұрын

@GlensHangar Hopefully, somebody knows the answer out there. And Merry Christmas.

My limited experience with ATC has always left me feeling those people are way overworked, understaffed and overloaded due to cost cutting measures. If the other airport closed, Canadian Air Traffic should have known your airport would see an increase in activity and transferred controllers from the closed airport to yours to cover the increased traffic.

if we're competing in the busy airport category... on the other side of Hogtown at CYKF, add a bunch of 737s every day and watch the whole pattern get piled up. My record is #9 waiting for takeoff; circling outside the zone happens to me several times a year; clearing the runway quickly past the hold short lines is crucial so those on short final don't get sent around even though you're clear off... sorta. One controller doing ground and air is ridiculous at times. Often the reply to requests from the trainers is, "sorry, circuits unavailable at this time; is there anything else you would like?" And the ATIS includes a standard statement about VFR traffic being delayed into the zone. Hope that you are adding your voice to COPA feedback about NavCanada service. And, to the majority of right wing voting pilots out there... IMO, this is what happens when privatization occurs in what I believe should be a publicly funded service. Great job you did on editing the text for all the ATC talk though.

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

I've spoken at length to COPA about NavCan, and I fill out their 'denial of service' form every time YYZ denies me into their zone. I don't blame the controllers, they are front line doing their jobs; it's whoever manages what the service should be. it would seem to me that if for the last 10+ years GA has been denied service because there 'isn't enough capacity', then why aren't NavCan building capacity?

@swiftadventurer

6 ай бұрын

@@GlensHangar simply... private sector mentality... why give access and timely service to small-time customers who aren't generating the same income for you as your big-time customers are? So, sell off government infrastructure, then charge higher fees because of the greater demand for access to what is left, and watch those smaller customers slowly go away... a win-win in the business model.

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

Yep.

Kudos to the hard working skilled controllers but too high a workload does them a huge disservice by degrading safety. Here in the US privatized towers are notorious for lower quality of service due to understaffing and the stress that puts on the overworked controllers.

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

In a tale with too many twists, turns, and government back room deals, to explain in a KZread comment: all air traffic control in Canada is privatised. Nav Canada is a privately run, non-profit corporation arms length from the government. Yeah, none of us completely understand either.

Sounds like one of Kennedy Steve's videos before he retired. Of course, those were edited for time, whereas this wasn't. Still, Oshawa is pretty busy. You have to be careful.

Why did the other airport close?

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

So many reasons - but they all boil down to money. When Buttonville was built it was 'in the middle of nowhere', but now city sprawl has grown around it. The city wanted to develop towers around the airport (but couldn't for obvious reasons) and the company that owned the land the airport was on; realised that they could make more money by selling to a developer. The sale happened years ago, and now the developer is ready to build, so the airport closed.

Glen, It looks like there is Duct tape on the nose of your plane. What's up?

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

That's the third 'nose' I've put on this plane, and every one of them has cracked in exactly the same place. It's a compound curve in aluminum and after 62 years they just don't stand up anymore. I'm going to get Andre (metalworker who modified my wings) out to patch this one up. For now I've drilled the crack so it won't get bigger and put tape over it. It's a non critical part that isn't structural, so it's fine.

ATCs are bleeping heros.

why other airport closing?

@GlensHangar

6 ай бұрын

The land was worth more as offices, condos, and shopping malls.

@B4s3MXxD

6 ай бұрын

@@GlensHangar Back in the 80s/90s as a kid, my family would shop at Knob Hill Farms just south of Buttonville and I always loved watching the planes coming in to land. They would fly right over the parking lot and you could get a great view. I looked at the city plans for the development thinking the airport would be replaced by something significant, perhaps even contribute towards solving the housing crunch/crisis. It's tragic, the plans aren't even for mixed use. They're building a bunch of boring warehouses and industrial with not a single residential unit in sight.

@mts982

6 ай бұрын

@@GlensHangar yeah thats what happened to golden gate fields horse racing facility and soon to be bay meadows horse racing facility and soon thereafter great america amusement park all in bay area will become offices/housing/strip mall type structure built on the land. i still follow that area even though i live in sacramento area now.