Westview Flying Club members hope an initiative to train more Powell River pilots takes off.
After hearing expressions from residents interested in learning more about flight, the flying club decided to host an open house to determine local interest. If there is sufficient local interest, the club will look at flight instruction options.
As a new student heads skyward with flight instructor Laurel Tench for the first time, the neophyte at the controls has a real, hands-on experience as a pilot.
“They can expect to be overwhelmed at first just by what they see in the instruments,” said Tench. “That’s a very common reaction. Usually, though, I try to focus on what’s outside because the first lesson is about the aircraft attitudes—whether the nose is up or down, that sort of thing. If you’re flying visually you look at the horizon. Once you get the student looking outside they are pretty amazed.”
Probably the biggest thrill in flight is the takeoff and this is still the case for Tench, who has been a flight instructor on and off since 2003. She took a break from teaching and flew as a charter pilot but has come back to instructing.
“Every time I take off, even if someone else is flying, there’s that feeling you get with liftoff,” she said.
New students experience the sensation right away because they will typically perform the takeoff when flying first time with Tench. Depending on the student’s comfort and the smoothness of the flight, they also undertake the landing.
“I’m there, of course, and there’s a lot of talking,” she said.
The joys of instructing for Tench are the students’ joys. “Their excitement on the first takeoff and their excitement on their first solo flight is so much fun,” she said.
Tench has taught people ranging in age from mid-teens to a student in his 80s to become pilots. Westview Flying Club president Brent McKenzie’s father attained his pilot’s licence at the age of 72.
For student pilots, ground school is additional to flight school. Tench said she would consider offering it in Powell River if there were enough students. Alternatively, students typically would take courses in the Lower Mainland or on Vancouver Island.
McKenzie said one of the reasons for holding the open house, scheduled for Saturday, April 11, is to determine the level of interest in learning to fly to provide the club direction on how extensive a prospective course in Powell River would be. The open house is scheduled from 11 am to 1 pm with the presentation to begin at 11:30 am.
Trying to coordinate flight instruction falls in line with the club’s objectives. Part of the club’s charter is to assist people in the pursuit of recreational flying.
“People have approached us and asked ‘what’s it all about?’” McKenzie said. “There has been enough interest that we think there is an opportunity to see how many in Powell River are interested.”
Powell River is a great place to fly from, he said. The proximity to mountains and ocean makes for some spectacular flying.
“The glaciers in our backyard are just minutes away,” McKenzie said.
Major population centres are also close, making aircraft a quick and efficient way to get to the cities.
Westview Flying Club has been in existence since 1953. It was formed by a group of local enthusiasts flying out by Mahood’s Beach. Powell River airport was established because the aviators wanted to move into town to make air travel commercially viable. Federal funding for airport construction was available if the airport was located in a municipality.
“Club members volunteered to clear this land,” McKenzie said. Members who were involved in the club during that era speak about going and picking rocks off the runway so they could fly. That was their weekend.
“We started as a volunteer organization and we are now a non-profit organization that exists just to support recreational flight in Powell River,” he explained.
There are a couple of levels of licences available to prospective pilots, including recreational and private pilot licences. Tench will outline what is entailed in terms of the flying hours required for licensing. The financial commitment for flight training will also be spelled out.
“It’s very rough but we can provide a ballpark figure,” she said.
Transport Canada requires a minimum of 45 hours of instruction before a student can receive a private pilot licence. However, most people take 55 hours of instruction to gain the required proficiency, so that can account for variation in the cost of flight training. A private pilot licence is the stepping stone to commercial aviation.
A recreational pilot licence has a 25-flying-hour flight instruction requirement and those with recreational licences face certain restrictions compared to the private pilot licence.
McKenzie has been a pilot for many years. When he first started working and decided he was going to stay in Powell River, he was young and wanted to travel to Vancouver frequently. A return trip by road from Powell River is a 10-hour chunk out of the weekend.
“One of the guys in the mill said Vancouver is 45 minutes away by air,” he said. “That was it. Sign me up.”
It is not necessary to own an aircraft to become a pilot. The flying club has a four-seat rental airplane. Aircraft are also owned by partnerships, where several pilots purchase a share in an airplane to reduce the costs of ownership and flying.
“The question usually comes up, what does it cost if you want to own an aircraft? I liken my two-place airplane to an 18-foot boat,” McKenzie said. “My Fleet Canuck burns about five gallons per hour, or about 23 litres per hour, at 100 miles an hour.
“If people are curious about aircraft ownership, we will do the best we can to share our experiences of costs and what it takes to maintain an airplane.”
The sky’s the limit in terms of what a pilot can spend on an airplane but a cursory glance of the Internet shows there are Cessna and Piper aircraft in Canada that can be purchased from $15,000 to $35,000. Boats can easily go for the same amount of money, and in many cases, fuel costs and moorage are higher.
