Ontario’s Porter Airlines is addressing the pilot shortage situation by sponsoring an initiative by the Northern Lights Aero Foundation to attract and retain women in aviation and aerospace careers.

The Northern Lights Mentorship Program is designed to connect aspiring industry professionals with experienced ones already working in the industry. Both female and male mentors will form a network to inspire, support and guide women in their pursuit of a career in the aviation/aerospace sector.

“Women are generally underrepresented in aviation and aerospace. The Northern Lights Mentorship Program helps break down barriers by connecting women with mentors who know the industry and generally have a passion for what they do and want to share it with other aviation enthusiasts,” said Porter Airlines president and CEO Robert Deluce. “There are many opportunities within aviation, from being a pilot to a maintenance engineer or dispatcher. Having someone to help navigate the path forward is invaluable.”

Adds Joy Parker Blackwood, President, Northern Lights Aero Foundation, “It is so important, in the pursuit of bringing in and retaining more women in this industry, to have a tool whereby they can have mentors suited to their needs, whether it is in simply considering a career, the struggles in training or discovering new pathways.” Blackwood continued, ‘The new mentorship program supports our mission to create career opportunities in aviation and aerospace for Canadian women.”

The program was launched at the annual Northern Lights Awards Gala held September 29.

When Gander is mentioned to pretty well anyone, something linked to aviation will invariably come to mind. However, it’s usually related to military themes or airline stopovers. And if you were told that Gander is home to an internationally renowned flight training school that has been attracting foreign students by the hundreds over the last 10 years, you would probably be surprised, perhaps even skeptical. But there it is, Gander Flight Training (GFT), and it is attracting students from Thailand, India, Turkey, Africa and South America.

When contacted by eFlight with the question, “Why Gander?”, GFT Aerospace’s general manager Darlene Colbourne cited what she’s heard from the students, “If you can fly in Gander, you can fly anywhere in the world.”

Kenyen native Charles Onyango says, “Once you get experience from here, you really won’t have any kind of problems flying anywhere else.” Onyango original had a South African school in his sights, but friends convinced him of the benefits training in Canada offers.

Said Indian student Mohammed Fazal in an interview with CBC, “The weather is really challenging, so you can become a really good pilot.”

Above: Thai student Banyawat Chomkan celebrates his first solo.

GFT Aerospace currently has over 60 fulltime students, with almost half of them coming from Thailand. GFT has been under contract since 2007 to provide flight training to Rangsit University’s aviation diploma program. There are also five students from India and two from Colombia. Colbourne also mentions that about half of their students come from Canada.

On the flight line at GFT are 12 Cessna 150/152s, five 172s (two of which are IFR-certified), one Piper PA-44 Seminole (IFR-certified) and 5 Beechcraft 1900Ds. The latter aircraft form the core of sister company EVAS Air Tier III Air Canada Express fleet.

Exploits Valley Air Services (EVAS) was formed in 1992 when co-founder and current CEO Patrick White purchased a Cessna 150 and offered flight training at Botwood airport (CCP2) in Newfoundland. The following year White moved the operation to Gander (CYQX), where he completed the school’s first Air Cadet Flying Scholarship program. Growth has been steadily increasing since.

White’s wife and EVAS Air/GFT co-owner Florence cites tangible financial benefits to the local economy as well as students rent, eat, work and spend money in Gander.

Canada’s immigration and employment laws allow some foreign students to stay on as flight instructors, and some are able to fly right seat in EVAS Air’s charter fleet. At least one foreign student has decided to set down roots, buying a house in Gander.

Full time chemical production engineer and part time air race pilot Scott Holmes placed seventh in the first Air Race 1 event to be held in China. The November 16-18 event, dubbed the China Cup, saw 13 pilots and four countries represented in the Wuhan City event.

Entrants race around a three-mile course at altitudes as low as 33 feet at speeds in excess of 216 knots. Race rules limit engine size to 200 cubic inches.

Holmes, at 29, was the youngest participant in the China Cup. And at 350 total hours in the air, he figures he’s the least experienced as well, citing fellow competitors with 20,000 hours of airline flight time. Holmes competed in the 2017 National Formula One Air Racing Championships in Reno, Nevada, his first professional race.

Holmes told the CBC in an interview, “In Asia it’s a bit like the Wild West of Aviation. They don’t have a lot of the typical rules and laws and best practices that we’ve built in North America over the years. So we have to kind of use our best judgment in a lot of situations.” He cites smog, trees and adjacent restricted military airspace as challenges not present in the desert environment of Nevada.

The aircraft Holmes flies is a single-seat Cassutt, a purpose-built racing airplane that he has nick-named ‘Outlaw’. Built with tubular steel, plywood wings and a spruce spar, the ‘amateur-constructed’ aircraft was designed by former TWA captain Thomas Cassutt in 1951. An updated version of the racer features a taper-wing design.

Click here for a video recording of an interview with Scott Holmes.

Lawsuits were filed in a Pennsylvania court two years after the October, 2016 crash of a PA-28 Cherokee in the U.S. state which claimed the lives of three young men from the Niagara, Ontario area.

Flight instructor Rifat Tawfig, 25, was killed in the crash, along with flight training students Corey Mijac, 18, and Ben Jeffries, 19. All three were from the Niagara region, and were part of the St. Catharines Flying Club ab initio flight training program.

The Cherokee was one of five aircraft from the flying club that flew down to the southern U.S. for several days of flying. After taking off on their final leg from Richmond airport (KRIC), bound for St. Catharines/Niagara airport (CYSN), the Cherokee entered IMC on an IFR flight plan, subsequently lost control of the aircraft and crashed. A post-crash investigation determined that the aircraft experienced a vacuum pump failure.

The family of victim Mijac is suing the St. Catharines Flying Club and Aero Accessories of North Carolina, the latter being the manufacturer of the vacuum pump that failed on the PA-28. In a statement of claim, the lawsuit alleges that “Defendants Aero Accessories manufactured parts and components on the accident aircraft that failed during the flight contributing to the aircraft to crash into the ground. The vacuum pump designed, overhauled, manufactured, and provided by defendants Aero Accessories failed in flight. As a result of the failure of the vacuum pump, a number of the instruments in the mishap aircraft were inoperative or providing false information which contributed to the crash.”

On the same day, the family of victim Tawfig filed a lawsuit against the St. Catharines Flying Club, Transport Canada and the FAA, alleging the named defendants were negligent in deeming the aircraft was operational and allowing it to fly.

In the suburbs of Saskatoon, Dan Bradshaw is hard at work restoring a vintage German fighter aircraft. Already into the project for five years, the former civil aviation safety inspector for Transport Canada has plenty of experience in restoring machines, “I sort of went through my second childhood and did collector cars and things like that.”

Designed and built in the late 1930s, the Bf 109G-6 saw its first combat missions in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The aircraft continued in active service in the Luftwaffe and allied forces until the end of World War Two. Considered to be one of the most advanced fighters in its day, it was powered by a Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 liquid-cooled inverted V-12 engine. Maximum speed was 398 mph, and maximum cruise was 365 mph at 20,000 feet. Service ceiling was 39,000 feet.

The Bf-109 is the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with almost 34,000 produced from 1936 to mid-1945. However, says Bradshaw, “There’s only a couple of original [Bf] 109s flying in the world right now.” He spends a considerable amount of time on the internet hunting down hard-to-find parts, finding most success in Germany and Austria. Bradshaw also fabricates parts that he is unable to find. “This is a real labour of love, and technically demanding”, says Bradshaw, “The engine and its overhaul is a big task, and that will…probably be done in California,” says Bradshaw. “There’s some speciality shops there where that’s what they do.”

Backing the project is noted American aircraft collector Kermit Weeks, founder of the Fantasy of Flight museum located in Polk City, about 20 kilometres northeast of Lakeland, Florida.

“It’s horrendously expensive, but that’s where Mr. Weeks comes in,” adds Bradshaw, who expects his warbird to take flight in another year or two.