Young cadets at the Penhold Air Cadet Summer Training Centre are still exclaiming “awesome” over their soaring experience of flying a vintage Second World War era training plane.
The inaugural Yellow Wings Youth Leadership Initiative, created by Vintage Wings of Canada in partnership with the Air Cadet League of Canada and the Air Cadet Program, came to the Penhold cadet training centre for a week last month and 50 cadets from across the country had the opportunity of a lifetime to take control of a supervised flight in an original Boeing PT – 27 Stearman, an open cockpit two-seat biplane that was brought to CFB Bowden during the Second World War to train pilots.
“Words cannot describe how I felt when I started flying. I was so excited when I was picked to go, and after some waiting, I got to go up. I had so much energy and enthusiasm that I didn't think it was real,” said Julia Brubaker, a 14-year-old cadet from the 7 Penhold Air Cadet Squadron, on the program's Facebook site, 500 Dreams Take Wing.
Penhold was the seventh stop for the initiative on a nine-training camp tour across Canada. This week the program has its final weeklong stop at CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia.
The initiative, using six vintage training aircraft, aims to highlight Canada's rich aviation history to young cadets as well as offering them insights to the values and benefits of pursing a career in science, technology, engineering and math.
“The word is ‘awesome'. It is very interesting to hear what each one took away from it. It is unique to them. It is pretty special to be witness to that, to see what we call the ‘spark.' You just know they are going to go wherever they want to go,” said Brenda Blair, western director of advancement for Vintage Wings of Canada, of the program and the cadets' experience of flying a Stearman.
She said the cadets who went up in the Stearman with a pilot enjoyed the thrill of a lifetime.
“Because the Stearman is also dual control the pilots give the kids the opportunity to take control. The purpose of it was not to just go for a joyride, although it is joyful because it is such a different experience,” said Blair, adding that the plane has a unique seating arrangement with the instructor sitting behind the cadet. “When you normally fly everything is all sterile, and safe but not in an open cockpit plane. You feel everything.
“It is like the difference between motorcycle riding and driving a car, or flying commercially in a big Boeing 737 and flying in a Boeing Stearman open cockpit plane. You get that direct feel,” she added. “If I move my body this way the plane goes that way. You are feeling the wind, you are smelling the canola fields.”
Blair said the program in its first year has been so successful with the young cadets that it will be continued next year, and likely many years beyond.
She said donations and corporate interest are already committed to pay for the $200,000 program, adding it's certain the initiative will once again visit the Penhold cadet training centre in 2014, the final year of the air cadet summer camp.
