Father and daughter used same plane to learn flying nearly 30 years apart
Almost 30 years to the day that her father earned his wings, 19-year-old Mackenzie Littleton has become the newest member of the local flying community.
Mackenzie was taught and tested on the exact same airplane her father used.
With four daughters, including a triplets, Kent knew there was a good chance that one of his daughters would want to learn to fly.
One of the triplets, Mackenzie, became the first to take to the skies, enrolling in flight school at the Aurora Aviation Academy in Vernon.
A sailing coach with many years of sailboat racing experience, Mackenzie saw the direct connection between flying and sailing, leveraging her on-water knowledge to succeed as a pilot.
Kent began his journey as a pilot in 1991 by enrolling in flight school at Shuswap Air in Kamloops, where he learned on a Cessna 172 Skyhawk II.
After several years of flying for personal enjoyment, Kent took a long break as the realities of raising triplets and a fourth daughter grounded him.
After a long hiatus from flying, Kent returned to the skies, with Mackenzie eager to join him whenever possible.
When Kent registered Mackenzie for flying school in Vernon, he had no idea the plane she would be learning on would be the same craft he had perfected his skills on decades earlier.
A review of old photos confirmed that Mackenzie would be honing her skills on the same little orange and white plane (C-GWJZ).
Mackenzie’s dedication to flying can be seen by her tremendous
volunteer efforts in the past two years.
A member of the Kelowna and Vernon Flying Club’s, Mackenzie volunteers annually at the COPA for kids’ event, was the youngest board member of the Kelowna Flying Club, is a member of an international woman’s pilot organization started by Amelia Earhart called the 99s and is currently registered for the Aviation Maintenance Engineering program at Okanagan College in September.