It's going to be hard for Jo-Anne Deschatelets to top the excitement of her 14th birthday.
The Timmins air cadet is celebrating today (Feb. 8). Yesterday afternoon she took to the sky in a Bellanca Scout two-seater aircraft, and even got to take over the controls.
“This is the perfect birthday,” she said after the flight.
Deschatelets is one of about 90 air cadets from Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Englehart, and Iroquois Falls taking part in Operation Aurora this weekend.
The youth flights are taking off from the Victor M. Power Airport, with Timmins being the third Northern Ontario stop for Operation Aurora. Depending on weather there will be flights today and Sunday as well.
“The Bellanca Scout is one of the airplanes that the air cadet gliding programs uses as a tow plane. It’s primary purpose is to tow gliders into the air at both our gliding school and our gliding sites, but we are able do use it to do familiarization flights with the cadets directly in the airplane as passengers,” said Maj. James Lawson.
He explained the pilots are showing the cadets what an aircraft circuit is.
"They’ll have an opportunity to put their hands and feet on the controls and get a sense of how the airplane is actually flown,” he said. “They’ll listen to the radio, so they get a sense of the communication that needs to happen for a pilot, and they’ll get a sense of just how power aircraft operates in the air with all the gauges and instruments.”
This weekend's flight wasn't the first time Deschatelets been in the air, but she was still giddy with excitement before and after the experience.
“Every time it happens I can never explain it, because it’s something so different. You’re like flying up there and you see everything that’s so little and it’s in such detail and you never thought you’d see that much detail so nicely. And it’s beautiful, and you see the forests and all the houses with snow on it, and you’re controlling it and then when you’re turning over you can see everything at an angle and it’s so cool, it’s so pretty. It’s just so cool and amazing,” she said.
She has been in the cadet program for five years.
At first, she joined Navy League and has been in the air cadet program for two years.
“My twin sister’s doing sea and I knew that if me and Jeannine were in sea cadets we’d be fighting for when we got higher up for who was going to get which position. Plus I was more interested in aerodynamics and airplanes, not so much sea, so I decided air cadets was going to be the way to go,” she said.
During the Operation Aurora flight, she said they flew over her house and school (O'Gorman Intermediate) and she discovered the Hollinger Open Pit.
“It was so fun,” she said. “When we first went up it was a little scary because we went straight up and then we started going around, and then he explained to me how the controls work and how to do turns. And then after he let go, I flew the plane for a while.”
When it was over, she was ready to head back up.
“I would 100 per cent fly again even in the freezing cold like this today, I would go again if the opportunity came,” she said.
From her experiences with the air cadets program, Deschatelets sees a future in aviation.
“I’m definitely interested in becoming a pilot when I grow up. I’m fine with doing anything, I’m not sure how I would do as a mechanic, but anything in aerodynamics...I would be so happy to do,” she said.
While Lawson said operations like this aren't a recruiting for any part of the aviation idustry, it gives them the opportunity to see different aspects of the industry.
“The Canadian cadet organization is a federally-funded youth organization that is beneficial to all youth in Canada and is open for everyone to join. We provide a lot of opportunities such as this within the air element of the program, but also within other areas there are hands-on experiences that cadets can receive," he said.
