The Nav Canada flight information center (FIC) in Quebec City (CYQB) does not normally take calls from the general public since air traffic services are centered on the needs of pilots.
But a particularly urgent situation sometimes dictate a more flexible approach. I remember a telephone call we received on the 800 line, during a very hot summer day of 2007. A worker in charge of the installation of dynamite in a mine in the Abitibi region told the flight service specialist (FSS) that he was working for a big company and that an important blasting operation was to be undertaken soon. He was in the middle of the blasting site, having just completed the installation of the detonators and explosives on the whole area.
He was wondering if there could be something he did not know about the weather since there were very dark clouds coming his way. The flight information center FSS was aware of the meteorological situation in Abitibi, and it was certainly not appropriate for a blasting operation. The caller was told that gigantic thunderstorm cells were forming in his sector and that the lightning detectors were already recording hundreds of strikes.
His actual position, in the middle of detonators and dynamite, was certainly problematic, to say the least. Without asking anything else, he told us that he was getting out of the site quickly…
(Photo taken with a Canon 5D MKII)
For more real life stories about being a FSS in Quebec City, click on the following link: Flight service specialist (FSS) in Quebec City