Congratulations to our WO1 Matthew Davey on his successful completion and graduation of the Power Pilot Flight Scholarship course at Diamond Flight Centre in London, ON. WO1 Davey has earned his wings and now holds a Private Pilots License from Transport Canada.
Each year from approximately 8000 eligible cadets across Canada, some 250 to 300 cadets names are put forth by their squadrons and are then put through intensive tests, interviews and review boards where each facet of the cadets career, school record, interviews etc are gone thru in detail to determine a merit score and from that who in fact will earn the coveted Flight Scholarships.
For 2018 only 60 Cadets were selected for the Power Pilot Flight Scholarship from across Canada. Approximately 36 cadets from across Ontario were selected and split into 3 groups of 12 to train at 3 different flight centres. Of those 36 cadets, 2 were selected from Actons’ 197 Air Cadets: WO1 Alessio Luna and WO2 Matthew Davey. WO1 Luna was unable to accept his flight scholarship as he was selected to attend the Royal Military College where his new career would start before both the start and end date of the flight scholarship course. WO2 Davey (WO1 in June) went on to attend and successfully complete the Power Pilot Flight Scholarship course.
These flight scholarships are intense, cadets are pushed hard and much is expected of them. The 7 week course they attend is the same course any civilian would take to earn their Transport Canada (PPL) Power Pilots License, however the civilian course takes approximately 8 months to complete, whereas the cadets will have to complete the course in less than 7 weeks. To paraphrase WO1 Davey, “it was intense, stressful and the most fun, exciting and amazing time of my life so far.”