Q. What’s the difference between a charter flight and an airline flight?
- With an airline you purchase a ticket based on a flight that is happening regardless of whether you are on it or not, and will depart at a specific time whether you are there or not. With a charter, you tell us where you want to go and when, and that is what we do. It is a custom tailored flight to your needs.
Q. What kind of airplane do you use for your charter?
- Our aircraft for charter is the same as what we use for sightseeing and flight training. It is a Single Engine, 4 Seater Cessna 172. It will seat 4 average sized adults comfortably and has space available for 120lbs of baggage. It has a 150 horsepower engine which allows us to cruise at a speed of about 90 knots (about 170km/h). We can reach altitudes of 10,000 feet, or fly as low as 500 feet depending on the weather.
Q. Is a small airplane safe?
- Absolutely. Our aircraft our maintained to the highest Commercial Standards. Notwithstanding daily inspections by our pilots and careful monitoring by our maintenance manager, the aircraft undergoes rigorous safety inspections every 50 hours of flying time, which in the summer is almost every week!
- Aside from that, our pilots are highly qualified Commercial Pilots and Flight Instructors who have hundreds and thousands of hours of experience on these aircraft. The airplane alone is extremely versatile in its ability to land in a grass field with as little as 500 feet needed to safely come to a stop. So not only is the aircraft safe, but it’s maneuverability combined with the experience of the pilots, in our opinion, makes it safer than any large airline aircraft.
Q. How far can your charter service take me?
- As far as you need essentially On one tank of gas we can make it about 400 miles away, or from Owen Sound to Montreal in one go, if the winds are not against us. Short hops to Toronto take about an hour, same to Killarney. Ottawa is about 2.5 hours and when we start getting further up to Thunder Bay you can expect about 5 hours plus a fuel stop along the way.
Q. Can you fly to the U.S?
- Unfortunately we cannot fly our charter service in or out of the United States. There is a requirement for additional certifications that we do not intend to pursue at this time for a single engine aircraft. In the future when we have a larger, faster aircraft we will likely make this a possibility.
Q. How much does it cost to fly to Toronto?
- Our charter rates are based on the distance to and from the destination. The cost of our charter is $3.20 per statute mile. For Toronto you’re looking at $998.58 plus tax to get you to the Toronto Island Airport. This is the price whether it is just you or three people, as long as the weight does not exceed our limitations. For more information, see our Charter Rates here.
Q. What kind of weather can you fly in?
- We operate a DAY-VFR Charter Service This means that we are restricted to operating our charter in Daylight hours, and in Visual Flight Rules weather. For daylight, we cannot fly passengers anytime before 30 minutes prior to sunrise, or anytime after 30 minutes beyond sunset. VFR means that we can only operate when the visibility is more than 3 miles, and we cannot fly in cloud. This may seem somewhat restrictive, but this still opens us up to operating about 90% of the year through many types of weather.