In the fall of 1996, Microsoft released Flight Simulator for Windows 95 (FS6), the first windows based version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Although this was more or less just a port from the DOS version (FS5.1) released just a year earlier, it did feature vastly improved frame-rates, better haze as well as additional aircraft, including the Extra 300 aerobatic aircraft. It also featured more 3-D detailing. This could be noticed in many places such as Manhattan and Meigs Field. This version was the first to also include major airports outside the US and Europe, which put Canadian airports (11 of them) in the simulator for the first time.

This month we are going to pay tribute to that lost flight simulator, which helped get it all started some 19 years ago. Departing from Toronto (CYYZ), it would be fitting to visit the default airport of Flight Simulator for Windows 95 Meigs Field (KCGX). However sadly due to political reasons at the time using the tragic events of September 11, 2001 to back up his actions, on the night of Sunday March 30, 2003, Mayor Daley ordered city crews to Continue reading →

Back in early 2009 a close group friends and pilots found themselves without a virtual airline to call home. They could have just went and found a new one, but instead they decided to stick together and build a new virtual airline from the ground up and on September 4^th, 2009 Canadian Xpress officially opened.

Canadian Xpress would like to invite all pilots & virtual airlines to join us on Saturday, August 29^th  at 10h00edt (14h00z) and 21h00edt (Sunday 01h00z) for our August 2015 fly-in and help us celebrate our 6th anniversary where we fly from our training base in Moncton (CYQM) to our operational headquarters in Montreal (CYUL).

This is an open invitation to Continue reading →

Anyone who is a fan of all things that fly, has probably watched The Discovery’s Channels series called Mighty Planes. The 5^th episode of their second season which aired in the middle of June was on the Boeing 737-200 operated by Nolinor Aviation based out of Montreal Mirabel airport.

The show covered the operation of the 737-200 as it traveled from Mirabel to Val-D’Or, here it loaded up cargo for the giant mining company Agnico Eagle for transport to their Meadowbank mine in Nunavut.

For this month’s fly-in we wanted to Continue reading →

Last month, we enjoyed a nice -45°c landing in Russia, so this month we are going to warm things up a bit.

Starting in the city of brotherly love in Philadelphia and home of the Liberty Bell, we are getting away from the cold of winter into the warmth and tropical air of Caribbean Sea to Nassau in the Bahamas where the weather is a steady +27°c all winter long, so don’t forget your sunscreen.

Canadian Xpress would like to invite all pilots & virtual airlines to Continue reading →

For some places in the world the weather is warming up and spring is slowly starting to break free of winter’s grasp, if you live in the southern hemisphere. For those of us in the northern hemisphere winter is on its way. Already here in some places like Buffalo NY, it has seen 6+ feet of snow over a period of 3 days.

This month, we are flying to the coldest airport in the world. Yakutsk Airport in Russia will allow you to experience what could be one of the chilliest travel hubs on the planet as the city is regarded as the coldest in Continue reading →

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky (from the Latin word aurora, “sunrise” or the Roman goddess of dawn), especially in the high latitude like Canada’s Arctic regions, caused by the collision of solar wind and magnetosphere charged particles with the high altitude atmosphere. The charged particles and solar wind are directed into the atmosphere by the Earth’s magnetosphere. A geomagnetic storm expands the aurora zone to lower latitudes.

Canadian Xpress would like to invite all pilots & virtual airlines to join us on Saturday, October 18^th at 10h00edt (14h00z) and 20h00edt (24h00z) for our October 2014 fly-in where we will travel from Vancouver (CYVR) and head north on an 1h45 minute charter flight to Yellowknife (CYZF) with people heading to Aurora Village to spend a night sleeping under the stars, taking in the spectacle of Continue reading →