Chilliwack Cross Country Routes


Private Pilot Short Cross Country

You will fly this route with your flight instructor before you do it alone.
Chilliwack (CYCW) to Pitt Meadows (CYPK) and back to Chilliwack (CYCW).  Use your VTA chart for the flight.

Private Pilot Long Cross Country

Private Long Cross Country RouteYou will also fly this route dual before you do it solo.  This trip is usually done in the C172, so for the dual trip you make take one or two other people in the back, and they may share the cost of the trip.  Of course you are not allowed passengers on your solo.  

Chilliwack (CYCW) - Pitt Meadows (CYPK) - Gillies Bay (CYGB) - Nanaimo (CYCD) - Gower Point (not an airport, just a flyover point) - Chilliwack (CYCW).

Use both your VTA and VNC chart for this flight.  

Commercial Pilot Long Cross Country

Transport Canada requires you to make a cross country trip, as PIC, to a point at least 300 nm from your starting point, with landings at at least three places other than your starting point. You can plan any trip you like, as long as it falls within the guidelines. The 300 nm applies not to the route that you take, but to the straight line distance between your origin and your furthest point. Transport frowns on the practice of backtracking to a "starting point" different from the point where you normally start. So, for instance, if you flew from Chilliwack to Tofino, then measured eastwards to get 300 nm starting at Tofino, you might have that trip disallowed, as not meeting the 300 nm requirement.

Airports at least 300 nm from Chilliwack include:    300 nm circle around Chilliwack
Mackenzie, BC (372 nm)
Eugene, OR (306 nm)
Calgary, AB (326 nm)

Bella Bella is 298 nm from Chilliwack, but we've had a cross country accepted from a student who planned and flew to a point a few nautical miles north of Bella Bella before landing.

Feel free to go further than 300 nm, to customize your trip to visit some friends or interesting sites along the way, and to stay overnight.  Note that the 300 nm trip does not have to be a return trip, so if you fly together with another commercial student, you can each log one way, and both fulfill your requirements.

I recommend that you do as much of your commercial cross country and time building flying as you can at night. You will require 100 hours of night PIC and 25 hours of night cross country PIC in order to get your ATPL, and if your jobs are daytime flying, or as co-pilot you can find yourself trapped, unable to get the hours you need for the upgrade.

Here is a site that allows you to type the latitude and longitude of each endpoint of your trip, to determine the distance between them.  The lat-long of Chilliwack is 49 09 10 N 121 56 20 W.  You can find the coordinates of other airports listed in the CFS for Canadian airports and the AF/D for US airports.  

The maps on this page are for illustrative purposes only.  Calculate the exact distance to your chosen airport to ensure that you fulfill the requirements.

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This page written 24 May 2003 by Robyn Stewart.  Last revised 18 November 2003.
Copyright 2003 Flying Start Initiatives