Member Profile: Isaac Eshikaty

^{Written by: Amanda Poirier. Amanda flies out of Lindsay/Kawartha Lakes Municipal Airport (CNF4) and is the inaugural recipient of the COPA New Wings Scholarship, generously supported by Diamond Doors.}

 

Isaac Eshikaty’s journey into aviation is rooted in a strong family tradition and a passion for teaching, a combination that has shaped his role as an aviator and mentor for aspiring pilots.

 

Growing up in Kenya with a father who was a pilot in the Kenya Air Force, Isaac was surrounded by aviation from an early age. Isaac's younger brother, now a 737 Captain with Kenya Airways, also shares this aviation lineage. Eshikaty however never felt the call to pursue the commercial airline path and instead prefers the freedom that General Aviation allows. Isaac has found his own unique calling in aviation—teaching young minds about the wonders of flight while staying rooted in his community.

Eshikaty received COPA’s Drone Pilot Scholarship in 2023 and ran a drone program for students at Lakefield College School in Ontario, a small private school tucked away on Lake Katchewanooka. The program helped students obtain their drone licenses while also introducing them to the fundamentals of aviation. He had five students receive their drone certificate in 2024 and saw that there was a growing appetite amongst them to get into a plane and fly. “We have kids that are passionate and interested in flying, and this is where I fill the gap,” says Eshikaty.

He has evolved this program and developed an aviation club at the school, with more and more students showing interest in learning the principles of flight. Eshikaty received his PPL with W.M. Aeroflight in Peterborough, Ont. and has so far taken six of his students to the same flight school for their first ever discovery flight. “I want to support their ambitions outside of the aviation club at the Lakefield College School and get them started into real flying,” says Eshikary.

Despite the challenges of finding aircraft and resources, Eshikaty has made a lasting impact on the students he mentors. He integrates STEM education into aviation, using principles from trigonometry and physics to help students understand real-world applications in the cockpit. “My main focus of the program is to help make aviation make sense to a high schooler,” says Eshikaty. This approach to aviation education helps makes concepts like crosswind, ground speed and ETA calculations more tangible to his students.

He is also an active member of his local flying community, serving as Captain of COPA Flight 34 in Peterborough. Through the leadership of this COPA Flight, he organizes fly-ins and fosters camaraderie among local pilots. He also launched a ‘Want a Seat, Take a Seat’ initiative in which active club pilots can take others along for a ride that may have lost their medical or who no longer actively fly.

Isaac spearheads efforts to get younger pilots at a neighbouring flight school involved in the club to show them ways to enjoy aviation outside of the classroom. “A lot of these younger student pilots are heads down in the books and they’re there to get in and out to the airlines as quickly as possible. It doesn’t give them a lot of time to get into the love of flying and experience the joy of the grass strips, cookouts or barbecues,” says Eshikaty. “It’s just not on their radar. I want to be the guy that brings people across the chain-link fence.”

Ultimately Eshikaty loves the freedom aviation brings and has destinations pinned on his maps to fly to and explore. “I can fly 200 miles to get butter tarts. I can fly to Killarney for fish and chips, I can fly to Montreal for bagels, I can fly to Prince Edward County for lobster. That’s where the real joy of aviation lies.”