Good afternoon from Edmonton Villeneuve Airport! My name is Alex, and welcome back to the channel.
Today, I’m here for a flight in a Cessna, but not as a passenger!
In my ongoing quest to find better legroom, I took matters into my own hands,
and finally got my Private Pilot License.
Okay, not really, there are much bigger reasons for that,
but I do actually have my PPL now, and it’s about time I took you all with me,
along with one very important passenger on a city tour above Alberta’s capital.
We’ll be flying this 45-year-old Cessna 172M Skyhawk, registered as C-GJJL.
This was the plane I flew mostly throughout my PPL here in Edmonton,
and it’s also the one I did my first solo in, so it’s certainly a personal favourite of mine.
*engine starts*
As for why a Calgarian did his flight training in Edmonton?
Well, that’s a story for another video.
Now, for entertainment purposes, I will be editing out the checklists, runup, and so on,
so this should not be taken as an instructional video by any means.
Everything you’re seeing is recorded by the mounted GoPro as well as by my passenger.
So, with cameras rolling, here’s our departure from Villeneuve, off of runway 16,
heading southeast bound towards Edmonton.
Although the visibility certainly isn’t great thanks to all of the smoke that found its way
up into Alberta that week, it was 8 statute miles at the time,
which is still within limits for daytime VFR flying.
Just to the northwest of Big Lake, Villeneuve Tower handed us off to Edmonton Terminal,
who we’d be talking to while over the city at 4,500 feet.
“Edmonton Terminal, Cessna 172 Golf Juliet Juliet Lima.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, Edmonton Terminal, good day, identified, what are your intentions?”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, we’d like to request a city tour at 4,500.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, roger, turn right 15 degrees and climb to 4,500.”
“Turning right 15 degrees and climbing to 4,500, Juliet Juliet Lima.”
(music)
“Edmonton Terminal, Golf Juliet Juliet Lima.”
“Golf Juliet Juliet Lima, go ahead.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, just to confirm, we’re clear to do some..."
"...right hand orbits around the downtown core here?”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, roger, you can maneuver as required.”
“Thanks very much, Golf Juliet Juliet Lima.”
(music)
After a few orbits of downtown, and before heading back to Villeneuve,
I thought it’d be worth getting a closer look at the old Edmonton City Centre Airport, which was closed in 2013.
(music)
“Edmonton Terminal, Golf Juliet Juliet Lima.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, go ahead.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, we’re done here, we’d like to return to Villeneuve now.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, roger, proceed inbound, Villeneuve altimeter 2986.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima.”
“Juliet Juliet Lima, descend at your discretion, contact Villeneuve Tower 118.8, good day.”
“Descent our discretion, and we’ll contact tower 118.8."
Thanks for all your help, have a good one!”
“You too.”
(music)
And welcome back to Villeneuve, thanks for watching this flying video!
Big thank you as well to the fine folks at Edmonton Terminal and Villeneuve Tower that day.
If you’d like to see more stuff like this, in a mixed trip report kind of format,
do let me know in the comments down below.
Also, let’s just say I’m not planning on stopping at the PPL,
so there’s plenty of flying to come, and I hope you’ll join me.
Thanks again for watching, and I’ll see you next time.