I can attest to the low stress of the YMX tower having flown through their zone several times. Here are two actual conversations I had with YMX twr. (C-GGEY was the C172 I was renting regularly in the '80s. C-GAXP was a C150 I briefly owned in the same period): Twr: "Golf Echo Yankee cleared direct through the zone to St Andre Avellin maintain 2500; by the way are the lakes still frozen up there? How's the fishing these days". GAXP: "Mirabel Tower Golf Alpha Xray Papa, a Cessna 150, 5 miles southwest of the zone at 1500, out of Cedars for Lachute for a touch-and-go". Twr: "Alpha xray papa roger, uhh, would you like to come do one at Mirabel too? We're bored here". AXP: "Uhh, tower, alpha xray papa, do you still have a landing fee for a touch-and-go?" Twr: "uhh, xray papa, yeah I guess we do". AXP: "What about a low-and-over?" Twr: "uhh, no, no fee if the wheels don't touch" AXP: "Twr, xray papa, OK, request low and over runway 29" Twr: "Alpha Xray Papa cleared straight in for a low and over". And so it went. On a bright sunny summer Sunday afternoon. Mike Gammon ----- Original Message ----- From: <JoeThree@aol.com> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 11:04 AM Subject: Re: Speaking of Montreal... > In January, 1989, I flew through Mirabel on a British Airways L-1011, flying > DTW-YMX-LHR. > > We landed well after dark, and taxiied for nearly ten minutes before we > arrived at the terminal. During the time we were taxiing, I did not see a > single sign of life other than the runway and taxiway lights. No hangars, no > ground vehicles, no other aircraft, until we were within sight of the > terminal. It felt as though our TriStar had landed in a small airport in the > Canadian bush, instead of at the international gateway for one of the world's > most exciting cities. > > We were on the ground for about an hour for servicing and to pick up > additional passengers (at that time, Detroit did not have a big enough > traffic base to support nonstop transatlantic flights), and in that time, I > saw just six other aircraft: two Minerve DC-8s, a Sabena DC-10, and a 747, an > L-1011, and a 767 of Air Canada. I'm sure working in the tower at YMX was one > of the lowest-stress ATC jobs in Canada! > > Joe Wolf > Minneapolis, Minnesota > > Airport Codes: > > DTW: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Michigan > YMX: Montreal Mirabel > LHR: London Heathrow >