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Guide

Flying yourself in: the island's small strips and seaplane bases

Node to node: every coded strip against every other

The island as a pilot's graph. Distances are great-circle, from the open map's coordinates, so they are the floor of any leg, not a route. Fogo (CDY3) is a node like the rest — the strip that skips the ferry queue also shortens the hop from either door to a single line in this table.

Great-circle distance in nautical miles between every coded aerodrome OpenStreetMap maps on the island (18 nodes), west to east. Computed from the mapped coordinates on 2026-09-06; a straight line, not a route, and not a promise that either end is open.
nmCDA5CYJTCCT5CYDFCCM4CYAYCDU4CCR8CCP2CCC2CYQXCDY3CCW5CCZ3CHG2CWVACCV4CYYT
CDA5·55100115192251167151172166202231209218245255256265
CYJT55·4661137196115125127155159182176185218218230239
CCT5~10046·151011556910586146121138145154192183203212
CYDF1156115·891405610677149112126140148188175200208
CCM419213710189·6384180122227150134191197241209251257
CYAY25119615514063·111209142257159126202205248206256261
CDU4~167115695684111·99381486972108114158132168175
CCR8~15112510510618020999·684873117617095108106116
CCP217212786771221423868·1163559707612099130138
CCC216615514614922725714848116·112157838991125100109
CYQX202159121112150159697335112·4543479264101107
CDY3231182138126134126721175915745·838412580131136
CCW5~2091761451401912021086170834383·950476169
CCZ321818515414819720511470768947849·44395461
CHG22452181921882412481589512091921255044·531221
CWVA255218183175209206132108991256480473953·5658
CCV425623020320025125616810613010010113161541256·9
CYYT265239212208257261175116138109107136696121589·

~ marks a water aerodrome. Hover a code for the name; click one, on either axis, for the strip's own page.

From CYQX — Gander International Airport

From CYDF — Deer Lake Airport

From CDY3 — Fogo Airport

Flown, on the record: no pilot has sent a log yet. A GPS log from the panel or the tablet, both ends at a strip on this table, is the proof — how to send it.

Every aerodrome and water base OpenStreetMap maps on the island (21, swept 2026-09-06), each pin linking to the strip's own page, with the measured routes to the aerodromes this guide writes about drawn from Gander (YQX) and Deer Lake (YDF) and St. John's (YYT).Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Tiles by OpenFreeMap. Route line computed with OSRM.

The two doors this site measures from — Gander and Deer Lake — are the big arrivals. But the island’s aviation geography is older and stranger than its scheduled routes: flying boats staged at Botwood before the airports existed, and the map still carries a scatter of small strips and water aerodromes a recreational pilot can make a trip of.

The list above is exactly what OpenStreetMap holds within reach of the measured routes: registered land strips at Botwood, Fogo, Springdale and Clarenville’s corridor, and the water bases float pilots use on the Humber and in Green Bay. Each entry cites its element; each sits on or near a drive this site has already measured, so the same pages that serve a driver serve the pilot who just tied down.

What this page will never do is mirror the Canada Flight Supplement. Registrations change, strips close, fuel comes and goes — all of that is Nav Canada’s to state and a pilot’s to check, flight by flight. The map says these places exist. The CFS says whether today is the day.

The long legs — what the great circle says

Gander exists where it does because of arithmetic like this. Every distance below is pure geometry — a great-circle from door coordinates, computed, not quoted — and the aircraft that can fly each leg is your POH’s answer, never ours.

To from YQX from YDF
Blanc-Sablon, QC (CYBX) — the Labrador Straits door 335 km / 181 nm 249 km / 134 nm
Sydney, NS (CYQY) — nearest mainland 513 km / 277 nm 393 km / 212 nm
Goose Bay, Labrador (CYYR) 635 km / 343 nm 503 km / 272 nm
Sept-Îles, QC (CYZV) 854 km / 461 nm 647 km / 349 nm
Halifax (CYHZ) 814 km / 439 nm 667 km / 360 nm
Narsarsuaq, Greenland (BGBW) 1,476 km / 797 nm 1,525 km / 824 nm
Lajes, Azores (LPLA) 2,459 km / 1,328 nm 2,665 km / 1,439 nm
Keflavík, Iceland (BIKF) 2,533 km / 1,368 nm 2,635 km / 1,423 nm
Santa Maria, Azores (LPAZ) 2,714 km / 1,465 nm 2,919 km / 1,576 nm
Shannon, Ireland (EINN) 3,179 km / 1,717 nm 3,352 km / 1,810 nm
London Heathrow (EGLL) 3,773 km / 2,037 nm 3,945 km / 2,130 nm
Paris CDG (LFPG) 4,068 km / 2,196 nm 4,245 km / 2,292 nm

Read the bands and the island’s aviation history falls out of them. The Labrador coast is closer than the mainland — Blanc-Sablon at 134 nm from Deer Lake is a shorter hop than Sydney. Goose Bay at under 350 nm is why the northern ferry route (Goose — Narsarsuaq — Reykjavík) lets even short-legged aircraft cross the Atlantic in day hops. The Azores at roughly 1,300–1,500 nm are the southern crossing, the one the flying boats staged from Botwood to make. Shannon at ~1,700 nm is the classic eastbound tech-stop leg, and London at just over 2,000 nm is the distance that decides whether a jet crosses nonstop or takes on fuel where every Atlantic crossing has taken on fuel since 1938 — right here. The runways were built for that job and never shrank: 3,090 measured metres at Gander, 2,443 at Deer Lake, both cited above from the same open map as everything else on this site.

Where to go, and how to get there

  • Exploits Valley (Botwood) Airport

    A land strip in the Exploits Valley on the Botwood road, registered CCP2 — and minutes from the harbour where the transatlantic flying boats staged in the 1930s. Flying yourself into the town that invented flying into this island is about as on-theme as general aviation gets.

    YQX → Botwood — 1h 15m, 92.1 km

    This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze

  • Fogo Aerodrome

    A registered strip (CDY3) on Fogo Island itself — the one arrival that skips the ferry queue entirely. The island's measured drives, trails and iceberg water are all a short hop from the apron.

    YQX → Fogo Island — 1h 21m, 86.3 km, then a ferry

    This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze

  • South Brook Water Aerodrome

    A seaplane base on the Humber Valley water at South Brook, registered CCT5, right on the corridor every YDF drive uses. Floatplane country begins here: the lakes this island navigates by were its first runways.

    YDF → Corner Brook — 47 min, 56.9 km

    This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze

  • Springdale Aerodrome

    A province-operated strip off Route 390, the road the King's Point drive follows toward Green Bay. OpenStreetMap records the operator; everything about its current state belongs to the CFS.

    YDF → King's Point — 1h 45m, 132.7 km

    This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze

  • Springdale/Davis Pond Water Aerodrome

    The float alternative to the Springdale strip, registered CDU4 on Davis Pond — two registered ways into the same Green Bay geography, wheels or floats.

    YDF → King's Point — 1h 45m, 132.7 km

    This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze

  • Thorburn Lake Water Aerodrome

    A water base (CCW5) beside the Trans-Canada just past the Terra Nova park gate — float access to the park side of the island, with the measured drive running right past the same shore.

    YQX → Terra Nova — 1h 3m, 77.8 km

    This spot itself — navigate: Organic · OsmAnd · Apple · Google · Waze

Before you go

These change. We link the people who keep them current rather than copying numbers that go stale here.

  • Status, fuel and runway conditionAlways — checked flight by flight, never assumed

    This page records what OpenStreetMap holds: that these aerodromes exist, where, and under which registration. Whether a strip is active this season, its surface, fuel, and procedures are the Canada Flight Supplement's and NOTAMs' to state — plan with Nav Canada, not with a travel page.

    Check it now →

  • WeatherAlways

    Island weather is its own subject and every pilot already knows whose call it is. The live strips on this site report ground conditions for drivers; they are not aviation weather.

    Check it now →

  • ATC, flight information and NOTAMsAlways — Gander's airspace is worked by NAV CANADA, not described here

    The island sits under the Gander Area Control Centre and its flight information services; frequencies, procedures and the day's NOTAMs are NAV CANADA's and the CFS's to state. Weather briefings, GFAs, METARs and TAFs for every coded strip in the table are one login away on NAV CANADA's own planning site. Nothing on this page substitutes for that briefing.

    Check it now →

  • Customs — airports of entryAlways — port status and hours are CBSA's to state

    Gander's whole history is being the place transatlantic aviation clears into North America, and both doors handle international arrivals — but which services operate at which port, and when, is the Canada Border Services Agency's directory to state, never this page's. Confirm before you file.

    Check it now →

Questions people actually ask

Why does a driving site care about airstrips?＋

Because the premise is the same: you arrive, and the island is measured from where you arrive. A recreational pilot's door is just smaller — and several of the strips sit directly on drives this site has already measured, so the pages compose.

Can I charter or rent a plane at these strips?＋

This site does not recommend operators, in aviation least of all. The registrations above come from the open map; who flies from where is between you, the CFS and the operators themselves.

Which is the most useful one?＋

Fogo, and it is not close: a registered strip on the island that otherwise costs a ferry queue in each direction. Land at CDY3 and the iceberg shore, the measured trails and Brimstone Head are minutes away.

Can I hop between the island's strips — Gander to Fogo, Deer Lake to Fogo?＋

The node-to-node table on this page is built for exactly that: every coded aerodrome OpenStreetMap maps on the island, each against each, as great-circle nautical miles — including Fogo (CDY3), the two doors and the water bases. Read your leg off the table, then take it to NAV CANADA for the weather, NOTAMs and the strip's current status, and to your POH for whether your aircraft flies it with reserves. The table is the floor of the distance, never the plan.

Can a private jet land at Gander or Deer Lake?＋

The runways say yes, measurably: Gander's 03/21 is 3,090 m of asphalt (about 10,100 ft, OpenStreetMap way/154350651), with a second at 2,708 m — dimensions built for the piston airliners of 1938 and generous for anything flying now. Deer Lake's 07/25 is 2,443 m (about 8,000 ft, way/180061283). Handling, fees and slots are the airports' and FBOs' own business.

Is there a helicopter transfer or car service after landing?＋

Operators exist for both, and this site names none of them — the no-recommendation rule applies to aviation and chauffeurs exactly as it does to boat tours. Operators who want to be findable here have the partners door. What this site gives every arrival, jet or economy seat, is the same thing: the measured drive.

Every figure on this page was checked against its source on September 5, 2026.