Students Hit Major Milestone in BushCat Build with Airplane Taking Shape

IN PHOTO: EWFS Class of 24/25 (L-R) Ashdyn Roulette, Keyodie Myran, Mackenzie Smoke, Nya Hartie, Darius Spence, Leland Prince with two of EWFS’ founding Board Members and BushCat Build mentors Ken Baker and Josh Cordery.

SOUTHPORT, MB: Eagle’s Wings Flight School’s BushCat Build team is winding up the school year after eight months of weekly after-school workshop sessions with local high school students.  Seven students from Westpark School and Portage Collegiate Institute have been building an ultralight airplane together while gaining valuable experience using tools, reading manuals and instructions, working as part of a team, and troubleshooting problems as they arise.  The group of students ranging from 14-17 years old from local First Nations and their build mentors have assembled thousands of parts and pieces much like a large Lego project.  The team began the school year at Section #50 and finished with Section #84, the horizontal stabilizer installation, and now the airplane is really starting to take shape.

The project began in February 2024 when the kit plane arrived in crates, and it has provided a unique opportunity for local Indigenous youth to work with EWFS’s build mentors who share a passion to pass along mechanical skills and their love of aviation to young people. As they’ve assembled wings, ailerons and cockpit controls, students have become familiar with basic tools, power tools, riveting, cable tensioning, soldering, and had practice with lacing patterns as the body of the airplane is high performance fabric.

Their yearlong commitment to the build will culminate with each student taking an introductory flight lesson with one of EWFS’ flight instructors, flying up and over the City of Portage la Prairie, Keeshkeemaquah, Delta Beach, and also following the Assiniboine River out to Long Plain and Dakota Plains First Nations.  One Westpark student, who is particularly interested in learning to fly, will continue her flight lessons through the spring and summer, making her way through a ground school package and flight syllabus.

The Build class will break for the summer, and resume with the school year when the team will work on control rigging and prepare to install an engine. 

Now in its fifth year of operation and 100% volunteer run, EWFS is a local registered Canadian charity whose mission is to inspire youth to explore their innate gifts, build self-confidence, and develop practical life-skills through aviation training.  This meaningful work is made possible through local partnerships, and the generosity of corporate sponsors and personal donors.  For more information, visit www.eagleswingsflightschool.ca, and to keep up with the progress of the BushCat Build, follow Eagle’s Wings Flight School on Facebook.

A typical night in the workshop following the manual and assembling airplane components.

Pilot in Training, 16-year-old Mackenzie Smoke flew over her old school at Dakota Plains First Nation.

Students using a soldering iron to create a hole for the horizontal stabilizer installation in the airplane’s fabric fuselage.

 The BushCat’s cockpit is still at the open-air stage, but our two students are ready!