After a busy week of Charters
It was time to head back North to CYTS to see the family for the long Canada Day weekend, but first I needed to make a stop.
I asked one of the guys from work to jump into my Baron and fly with me to Oshawa (CYOO) as I would need someone to fly one of the planes back to our hangar in Buttonville.
CYOO (Oshawa Executive Airport) is home to HADHER TBM’s official service center! (Amongst other things).
We parked the Baron and then walked around the hangars until we found it.
My new Cessna 310R!
She’s an old girl but has been kept in great condition with a few modern upgrades (maybe I should name her after the Mrs then! 
)
My buddy left with my Baron and I spent a few hours with the original owner going over everything and before long I was on my way home with it!
A big shoutout to @Crunchmeister71 and everyone else over at Simstrumentation for their help in getting the new C310R Cockpit in working order.
As well as to @BobbiCanada who also contributed a large number of the instruments!
If you are into Air Manager cockpits, make sure to check out www.simstrumentation.com for what they have published, as well as their Discord Simstrumentation for what’s up and coming, support, or to just talk shop.
After landing in CYTS, picked up the family and loaded up their gear to head to our nations capital to celebrate Canada day!
Family may not actually be as depicted in the following photo’s 
Coming into Rockcliffe airport (CYRO) which is a former military base along the Ottawa river just outside downtown Ottawa.
We got unloaded and grabbed an Uber to downtown to start the celebrations!
With the weekend coming to a close it was time to get myself back down South for another week of charters in the CJ4.
But first, I made a surprise trip up the James Bay cost to check in on my Kodiak and Twin Otter which I have rented out to a freight service.
Being the long weekend I knew they would both be parked in the yard and wanted to ensure they were being taken care of!
Headed North with a flyover Kid Creek mine.
And into Moosonee (CYMO).
Found the Kodiak first and she was nice and clean with updated logs and maintenance records.
Walked around a bit more and found the Twin Otter tucked away in the same shape, great news!
And with that, we were up in the air once again headed to Buttonville (CYKZ) for the week.
From the Moose River in the far North.
To Lake Simcoe in the Far South.
Parked and unloaded!
After a full schedule last week, the boys from work jumped into the 310 and we headed north for a fishing get away!
When flying straight North out of Toronto it doesn’t take long to change from the glow of city lights to the moon.
The crew looks a little sketchy, and I guess think Hearst is in the artic based on the sweaters they are wearing. City folks!
After a good weekend of filling the boat with Pickerel (Walley) (which my kids and I actually did spend the weekend doing). It was time to head back South for another round of charters.
Hearst in the daylight, blink and you’ll miss it!
The Sudbury Super Stack!
Sunset skim along the Georgian bay.
Another week of flying the corporate routes comes to an end, which means a weekend of exploring in the C310R!
This weekend we headed out to Thunder Bay Ontario (CYQT). This part of the Province was a big part of my childhood so I try and get back every once in awhile (including a trip last year). This weekend, decided to check out those same sites in the sim and see how they are portrayed.
Unfortunately, not very well, but hopefully a Canadian World Update will fix that someday!
First stop after landing was heading East down the Trans Canada (Highway 11/17) to see if the Terry Fox Memorial was there. Sadly, it looks to be “under construction”.
I remember as a kid travelling back and forth for hockey tournaments, the memorial being right on the side of the highway. Today it has been moved back to provide ample parking, a visitor center and removing the need to spring across the highway if you were coming from the opposite direction.
Here is what it looks like today from my trip last year,
Off in the distance, you can see the Sleeping Giant.
Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is a 244 square kilometer (94mi) park located on the Sibley Peninsula and projects into Lake Superior.
The Sleeping Giant itself, is a series of mesas formed by the erosion of thick, basaltic sills which resembles a giant lying on its back. One Ojibway legend claims the giant as Nanabijou who turned to stone when the secret location of a rich silver mine now known as Silver Islet was disclosed to the white men.
The Sleeping Giant from the Terry Fox Memorial site in the sim,
And how it looks today,
And a little closer look in the sim,
I’d say it’s pretty well represented!
It was neat to get an aerial shot as last year I mountain biked from the Provincial Park to the base of the Giant, and then hiked to the top of the chest.
It was pretty neat, at the trailhead they had a place to lock up your bikes.
The view from partway up!
That little spec of land to the left of my finger is where the photo of the bay with the parked sailboats was taken, and that was only part of the ride in.
View from the top!
And here is what it looks like from the top in the sim.
Total time in and out was about 7 hours.
The next stop was Kakabeka Falls. As a kid, I spent allot of summers camping at this park as well.
The falls are part of the Kaminiqtiquia River with a drop of 40m, cascading into a gorge carved out of the Precambrian Shield by meltwater following the last glacial maximum. Due to its size and ease of access it has become known as “The Niagara of the North”.
The name Kakabeka comes from the Ojibe word gakaabikaa “waterfall over a cliff”.
The Legend of Green Mantle:
The legend is about an Ojibe chief who upon hearing news of an imminent attack from the Sioux tribe instructs his daughter, Princess Green Mantle, to devise a plan to protect her people. She enters the Sioux camp along the Kaministiquia river, and pretending to be lost, she bargains with them to spare her life if she will bring them to her fathers camp.
Placed at the head of the canoe, she instead leads herself and the Sioux warriors over the falls to their deaths. Sparing her tribe from the attack.
The legend claims that one can see Green Mantle when looking into the mist of the falls.
Unfortunately, the falls are not captured in the sim at this point.
But this is what they look like today,
The last stop on the tour was to “Big Thunder”. I remember as a kid going here to ski and being in awe of the Bug Thunder Ski Jumping centre. It was a regular site for the FIS Nordic Ski Jumping World Cup as well as hosting the World Champions, twice.
Unfortunately, it closed in 1996 but is still modeled in the sim!
Unfortunately, I don’t have any childhood photos from the hill, they were destroyed in a flood.
Back in the C310R tomorrow to head for home base (CYKZ) before starting another week of charters!
