Flight 39: St. John's International to Gander (CYQX)

Turbo Duke at St. John's International Parking

 



The next leg of my journey took me to Gander.  This means heading northwest from St. John's International.

Gander is a Canadian town located in the northeastern part of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Gander Bay, 100 km (62 mi) south of Twillingate and 90 km (56 mi) east of Grand Falls-Windsor. Located on the northeastern shore of Gander Lake, it is the site of Gander International Airport, formerly an important refueling point for transatlantic aircraft, and presently a preferred stopping point for transatlantic aircraft that need to land because of on-board medical or security emergencies.

Gander was chosen for the construction of an airport in 1935 because of its location close to the northeast tip of the North American continent.  Gander is near the great circle route between cities of the U.S. East Coast and London. Starting in the 1940s it was a refueling stop for transatlantic flights to Scotland, Ireland and beyond, and continued in this role through the early 1960s.

Officials at Gander International Airport have stated that the future for the airport is grim unless the federal government provides funding to cover costs. Over 50% of all aircraft operating from the air field are military, and do not pay landing fees.  However, domestic passenger traffic increased by over seven percent in 2006, while weekly cargo flights from Iceland show some promise of expansion.

In April 2014, Gander Airport Authority decided on plans to abandon the existing terminal building due to high operating costs and replace it with a new terminal a quarter of the size. The fate of the old building is uncertain. The terminal, which was built in the 1950s and has drawn continuing worldwide interest for its modernist design, has been recognized by other Canadian institutions as a valuable piece of heritage architecture and has many of its original furnishings and fixtures still intact.

Turbo Duke at Gander Airport

The St. John's scenery was produced by Simaddons and appears as an expansion to their Halifax base pack, along with Moncton (Flights 30 and 31) and Deer Lake (which will be the destination in my next flight).

Although I have the Gander scenery from the VFR Shortfields of Newfoundland, I did not use it because reviewers gave it low marks and because it is difficult to install.  This addon, to be quite frank, is a piece of crap, and I would not recommend its purchase.

Instead, Gander is one of Orbyx's freeware global airports, and that is the version which I used for this flight.  I have also used Orbyx global freeware airports for Mountain Air (flights 16, 16a, and 17), Nantucket (flights 24 and 25), Martha's Vineyard (flights 25 and 26), and Bangor (flights 28 and 29).