Zodiac X-C: Niagara Westbound 1

As I walk out of the terminal at Toronto International Airport, Tim Ward from Zenair is waiting for me. Two hours later, relaxed, lunched, and briefed, I am ready to taxi the Light Sport Zodiac XL I have flown North - to fly West...

GCXA is fueled, I have just flown over much of the route in perfect weather, and there is little reason to delay longer. I am planning to deliver the Zodiac CH601 to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then possibly ride along to the West Coast while the plane is ferried to northern California.

The plane, with an O-235 Lycoming under the cowl, licensed in the Experimental category, meets the definition of the relatively new Light Sport Aircraft rule in the United States. Consequently, I (and later, my friend) can ferry the plane coast to coast (in the US) without benefit of a medical certificate as Sport Pilots. Ron had parked his Cessna ten years earlier and allowed his medical certificate to expire. However, with the advent of the Sport Pilot rule, he has again shown interest in aviation and had gotten the required flight review out of the way a year earlier to accompany me from California to Alaska in another experimental aircraft. Now all I have to do is deliver this fire-engine-red Zodiac to Ron at Oshkosh.

I depart Midland’s Huronia airport (CYEE), just east of Nottawasaga Bay on Lake Huron (seventy miles north of Toronto) at 3 p.m. headed southeast for Oshkosh.

OOPS! Maybe Wisconsin is not really southeast of Midland, but then I have my hands full after takeoff just getting used to the Z, staying out of the Toronto airspace, and navigating across forty miles of trackless Lake Ontario. Since I had not figured out how to operate the panel-mounted GPS before I launched, and my $40 hand-held GPS does not have a data base, the navigation on this first leg leaves a bit to the imagination. However, shortly after making landfall again, I have a recognizable landmark.