Some trips you plan for months. This one came together around a simple idea: what if we just flew there?
Toronto is a long drive from Minneapolis. It’s a short flight. And when you have three rows of seats and four people willing to come along, the math gets very easy.
A Thursday Afternoon at Flying Cloud
We departed Flying Cloud Airport on a Thursday afternoon under clear blue skies — the kind of afternoon where you check the forecast twice because it seems too good.
Five of us aboard the Cessna Centurion 210. My wife and I up front, my friend and his wife in the second row, and their son in the very back with an entire row to himself and the best window seat on the airplane. Full fuel, well within weight and balance, and everyone with room to stretch out.
That’s the part people don’t expect about the 210. Six seats, three rows, and nobody riding with their knees against their chest.
East Across Lake Michigan
We leveled off at 7,000 feet and pointed east.
Lake Michigan from a small plane never gets old. The shoreline drops away, the water goes on in every direction, and for a while there’s nothing to do but watch it pass underneath. It’s quiet in a way that a commercial flight at 30,000 feet never is — you’re close enough to see the surface, far enough that the whole thing feels enormous.
A Quick Stop in Michigan
We put down at a small field in Michigan for fuel, a stretch, and a bathroom break.
Nothing dramatic about a fuel stop, but it’s one of my favorite parts of a long cross-country. Twenty minutes on a quiet ramp, everyone shaking out their legs, and then back in the air.
Crossing Into Canada — Without a Customs Line
Here’s the part most people don’t know: you can fly a private plane into Canada without ever standing in a customs line.
Before we left Minnesota, I called Canadian customs and gave them everyone’s passport details over the phone. That’s the process. No terminal, no queue, no waiting room — just a phone call ahead of time and another one after you land.
By the time we crossed into Canadian airspace, the sun was long gone.
The Lights of Toronto
Billy Bishop Airport sits on an island in Toronto Harbour, right in the heart of downtown. On a map it looks improbable. From the air at night, it’s spectacular.
The city came up out of the dark all at once — the whole downtown core lit and spread out beneath us, the harbour black around it, and the CN Tower standing right there outside the window.
I’ve landed at a lot of airports. Very few of them put you in the middle of a major city before you’ve even shut down the engine.
On the Ground in Ten Minutes
We parked at the Porter FBO, made one phone call to clear customs, picked up our rental cars, and drove into the city.
Total time from touchdown to being on our way: about ten minutes.
The rest of the weekend was food, walking, and the kind of aimless exploring that a city like Toronto rewards. But the arrival is the part I keep replaying.
Why We Fly
There’s a version of this weekend where we book airline tickets, sit in a terminal, and land at Pearson forty minutes from downtown.
Instead we flew ourselves, watched the light change over a Great Lake, and taxied to a stop with the skyline right there. Same weekend, completely different experience.
That’s the whole reason I do this.
Watch the Full Video
If you want to see the crossing, the night arrival, and the moment the CN Tower came into view — the full flight is up on YouTube.
Have you flown into a downtown airport like Billy Bishop? Or is there a city you’ve been meaning to fly to and haven’t yet? Leave a comment below — I’d love to hear where you’re headed.
Blue skies and tailwinds.
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