Flying high
Youngsters experience the thrill of flying from inside a cockpit at COPA For Kids
Youngsters, who have never been inside the cockpit of an airplane, were given the opportunity Sunday to experience life in the sky.
Youngsters, who have never been inside the cockpit of an airplane, were given the opportunity Sunday to experience a pilots’ life in the sky.
Cole Sinclair, 14, of Wellington, was grinning from ear to ear as the small C-GDZA aircraft revved its engines and soared into the cloudless blue sky on Sunday morning. Below a panoramic view of fields quilted the landscape, villages peppered in between, bridges, and red sand contoured the land, and above, the vastness of the sky.
Sinclair, under the watchful guidance of his instructor Dave Thomas, was given the opportunity to fly the aircraft. At With a gentle turn to the left, Sinclair cruised at 110 miles per hour over Summerside and past the Confederation Bridge. When asked what the experience of flying a plane for the first time was like, Sinclair’s eyes lit up.
“At first when I took control it was very scary, but as time went on and I became more confident it was so exciting,” he said, grinning. “I will be coming back next year, when they have it again.”
The COPA For Kids aviation program introduces – free of charge – youngsters to the wonderful world of aviation with the hope some might consider this as a career or even join the Air Cadet program.
Thomas, a pilot and co-ordinator for the Canadian Owners Pilot Association (COPA) event, has been flying planes for 38 years. He says COPA is a national program to initiate the youth aged eight to 17 to the science of flight through providing a positive aviation experience. “We want to stimulate their curiosity by first giving them a briefing through a stationary plane that they can look at, review the parts of the airplane, and then we go for a 20-minute flight.”
After going on their airplane ride, each youngster was given a flight certificate certifying that this was their first aviation experience, as well as a logbook. The COPA For Kids event took place at Summerside airport in Slemon Park on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.