Papple Aviation

02/06/2025

Flying late in the day, when the sun is getting lower, is one of my favourite times to fly. Trees and buildings become even more interesting with the added shadows. We noticed this tree shadow in a farm field east of Benmiller and circled back around for a better view, the shadow looks 3 dimensional and even more impressive than the tree itself!

02/02/2025

Yesterday's weather was perfect for a flight to admire the landscape from above. We spotted this tug boat working in the harbour at Goderich.

01/31/2025

When we're flying we use large buildings as landmarks. These 2 photos were both taken of the town of Hensall but at different times of the year and from a different direction. Can you figure out where the plane was in relation to the town when we took each photo? Hint: use the 2 large grain elevators along with the direction of the roads.

The Andersons (formerly Thompsons) has the green paint scheme on the top of their elevators and Hensall District Co-op uses yellow.

The spring photo was taken in April 2023 and the winter photo was taken in December 2023.

01/26/2025

With the snow squalls and wind hanging over our area lately we haven't been able to go up in our planes so we settled for a different type of flying.

01/23/2025

In 2018 there was a 4 acre Goderich wharf expansion to provide additional loading/unloading space for ships; additional storage space of salt as well as other commodities; and wind and wave protection to the inner harbour.

The stages of completion are shown in our photos, taken on the following dates:
1st photo: June 25, 2018
2nd photo: July 3, 2019
3rd photo: July 10, 2021
4th photo: Oct. 11, 2024

Further expansion is now being considered.

01/18/2025

Enjoy a flight with us this year at last year's prices - 2024 pricing available on gift certificates bought by Jan. 31st, 2025.

Go to PappleAviation.ca - click on "gift certificates" to place your order; click on "Book a flight" to see maps showing popular routes for each length of flight. You can also create a custom route at no extra charge - fly over your house, farm, or other areas of personal interest to you. 519-318-4224 for phone inquiries.

01/17/2025

On a mid-winter day like this it's nice to remember how colourful the landscape will be later in the year.

Photo taken over Bayfield, Oct. 25, 2024

01/14/2025

Many of the small towns have lagoons as part of their water treatment system. They vary in size and number of ponds but they're all similar enough to be easily recognized from the air. This one is just north of Chesley. Do you know if your town has lagoons and how many ponds there are?

01/12/2025

In 2018 there was a 4 acre Goderich wharf expansion to provide additional loading/unloading space for ships; additional storage space of salt as well as other commodities; and wind and wave protection to the inner harbour.

The stages of completion are shown in our photos, taken on the following dates:
1st photo: June 25, 2018
2nd photo: July 3, 2019
3rd photo: July 10, 2021
4th photo: Oct. 11, 2024

There is now the possibility of further expansion, as outlined in this article: https://london.ctvnews.ca/too-many-boats-not-enough-parking-calls-for-expansion-of-goderich-port-1.7087317

01/09/2025

To go along with our last post about ship activity in Goderich harbour in 2024, here is additional information, compiled by Ron Smyth:

Goderich Harbour 2024
Further to the previous report of 17 Ocean Cargo Ships called Salties to many world
Ports, there were also:
117 Loads of Salt Shipped from Compass Minerals to various Ports along Great Lakes
4 Loads from Elevator were shipped by Canadian Cargo Ships to Canadian Ports Nova Scotia, Quebec and Newfoundland
4 Tug /Barg loads of Calcium Chloride were received from Ludington Michigan for dust suppression.
9 Loads of Grain were received from Elevators in Thunder Bay
4 Loads of Stone were delivered to the North Harbour

Photo was taken Sept. 28, 2024.

01/06/2025

We frequently see ships in and near Goderich's harbour but we didn't realize how far away ships travel to/from Goderich. Thanks to Ron Smyth for sharing the included screenshot of the list he's compiled of the 17 ocean going cargo ships that took loads from Goderich elevators in 2024. He was surprised to see loads to Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Ron uses the website MarineTraffic.com to see Goderich ship traffic. Our harbour photo in this post is from July 10, 2021.

01/04/2025

Our last post was a photo of the Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls - thank you to everyone who guessed.

Can you identify the bridge pictured here? Hint: it has something in common with the Rainbow Bridge and the first photo was taken in Oct. 2020 - within a few weeks of the Rainbow Bridge picture. The second photo, looking up the river, was taken in June 2022.

PappleAviation.ca

01/02/2025

Do you recognize the bridge in this photo, taken in Nov. 2020?

12/30/2024

Some of the photo highlights of our 2024 scenic flights along the Lake Huron shoreline - how many of these towns and beaches do you recognize?

12/24/2024

A little Christmas fun in today's weather reporting for Waterloo airport - can you read the abbreviated Christmas weather that was reported this morning?

There are a number of airports in Ontario that issue aviation weather reports (METARs) and forecasts (TAFs). While these weather services only cover the area immediately around the airport they do give us an idea of the weather in the general area. The airports around us with these weather services include: London, Kitchener, Wiarton, Gore Bay, Hamilton, and Toronto City Centre.

There's still time to order Christmas gift certificates, any orders received by 9:00 p.m. tonight will have their gift certificates in their email inbox by midnight tonight, in time for Christmas morning.

PappleAviation.ca for online ordering or 519-318-4224 for phone inquiries.

12/22/2024

Toronto Island is among our favourite airports to fly into on air taxi flights, especially when flying a group in for a Blue Jays game or a visit to the aquarium. With great views of downtown Toronto, Ontario Place, and the CN Tower, along with Toronto Island and Lake Ontario there's just so much to see - and it only takes us about an hour to get there!

PappleAviation.ca, click on "gift certificates" to order, or https://pappleaviation.ca/bluejays/ to learn more about our day trips to Toronto Island from Seaforth and Goderich. 519-318-4224 for phone inquiries

12/22/2024

There's still time to order gift certificates and receive them for Christmas! Order by 9pm on Dec. 24th to receive them by midnight on Dec. 24th.

Starting at $155+hst for a planeload of up to 3 people (not per person).
We also offer "split flights" for groups of up to 6 people to split a flight of 40mins or longer into 2 flights so everyone can fly.

Order online: www.PappleAviation.ca, click on "gift certificates", 519-318-4224 for phone inquiries.

A gift they'll never forget!

Scenic flights, air taxi, & more

12/20/2024

We were asked to share a photo of Goderich beach with snow on it, we don't have any snowy pictures taken this year yet so here is a picture from February 2023 with some cool snow formations along the beach.

PappleAviation.ca for online gift certificate orders sent by email within 24 hours or 519-318-4224