Flying Over Toronto with Island Air Flight School

Flying over Toronto with Island Air Flight School should be on everyone’s bucket list! It was the BEST anniversary gift I could have ever gifted and thanks to Samba Days I now hold the title of ‘best gift giver’. You may recall that I asked our readers a couple months back to choose which Samba Days adventure experience we’d embark on for our fifth wedding anniversary. Most of you chose to have the hubs  fly over Toronto and so that’s exactly what we did to celebrate our Canadian wedding anniversary. I had ordered the adventure package from Samba Days and it arrived in a cute little package with a credit card-esque identification and booklet. All the hubs had to do was go online and choose the adventure he desired and everything was smooth sailing after that. We called the Island Air Flight School and they booked us in on a day of our choosing and told us we could fly anytime from 7 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and so we choose the last flight of the day as the option to fly at sunset did not exist.

With my parents watching the kids, the hubs and I took the ferry (the same on as we take to fly with Porter) and arrived at 6:45 p.m. for our 7 p.m. flight. It can be a bit difficult to figure out which hanger to head towards but we received great instructions from the flight school and so knew exactly where to go. On arrival they took our Samba Days card and cross referenced the details on their end and we were ready to embark on our 45 minute journey. Our instructor was extremely friendly and took us through the process in detail. First he told us what factors and issues they look for before flying and then he took the hubs through a detailed walk through of the aircraft. This was definitely the smallest plane we’ve been on to date. 4 passengers could fit in but the package we had allows one person to fly the plane with the instructor and one guest in the back seat.

Once we were up in the air I could hear the two of them in the front chat away and talk about altitudes and moving to the right and left (we all had headsets with mics which enabled us to communicate above the loud clamour of the propellers). This wasn’t a fake illusion of having control of the aircraft…this was the real deal. Over the downtown core the instructor had most control but he took us to a ‘practice area’ where he told the hubs to do as he pleased. The instructor even stalled the wings to do some weird dips which did give me a bit of a scare! In a good way of course. We didn’t do a Cuban eight or anything as the hubs was quite conservative, but he did fly over the outskirts of Toronto in all directions his heart desired. As we made our way back to Toronto we were given another chance to hover above the downtown core…the coolest way to see this beautiful city of ours!

Once we got back on ground we took a few more pictures and then caught the ferry back to the city without much delay. Our entire experience was not only smooth but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. They say wood is the traditional fifth anniversary gift but I think flying over trees is definitely a better gift than something made out of wood…don’t you agree?

Sure you could book directly with Island Air Flight School but if you’re looking to gift a cool experience, Samba Days is the way to go. The Samba Days adventure package  gives the gift recipient quite a few options to choose from so you don’t have to worry about them not liking it or wanting to return it. While my back seat view was fair and I got to experience a darn cool view of Toronto, the hubs had the best time ever in the hot seat! He says it’s possibly the coolest way to coast above a city and getting the chance to actually fly the plane is unbeatable! Guess it’s his turn to impress me with a super cool gift next year!