Those with aviation dreams in the Kivalliq capital just got a tremendous opportunity to pursue them, as the Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway program is opening in Rankin Inlet and seeking its first students.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a fully-funded opportunity for Indigenous community members to learn and fly and build a career as professional pilots,鈥� explained Lisa McGivery, manager of Exchange Income Corporation, an acquisition-oriented company focused on aerospace, aviation and manufacturing.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really, really excited to have that program expand up there and give opportunity to more people to join the program and learn how to fly,鈥� she said.

The pathway program started in Thompson, Man., in 2022 as a response to the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action. This year, the program will be celebrating its first graduating class, with four students moving on to become line pilots and one becoming an instructor.

McGivery said the company wanted to focus on 黑料吃瓜网 communities and seeing as Calm Air is one of its subsidiaries, Rankin Inlet made sense.

鈥淚t gives a lot of the students the opportunity to fly in and out of their home communities, and that鈥檚 something that we鈥檝e seen really good success with our initial Thompson class,鈥� said McGivery. 鈥淎 lot of the students were really excited to become a pilot and be able to fly into their home communities.鈥�

Starting May, 12 students in Rankin Inlet will embark on the seasonal program, beginning with ground school lessons, including flight theory, aerodynamics, weather and aviation laws. They then move on to learning to fly and getting up into the air.

The aim after the first season is that students will be finished their recreational pilot鈥檚 license, and then in the following year, students can return to get their private pilot licence and onwards from there. Students who make it through both years will then have the option to transition to Moncton Flight College to pursue a commercial pilot licence and further training.

The only requirements to apply are a high-school diploma, be 18 or older, be in good physical health, have government identification and a Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. card.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 necessarily have to have any flight training,鈥� said McGivery. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 kind of the beauty of the program. It gives the opportunity to people who may have always wanted to be a pilot and never had the opportunity to do so.鈥�

She鈥檚 hoping to get as many applications as possible, saying that students will be selected every year for as long as the program is running 鈥� and currently, there鈥檚 no end date for it.

鈥淚 think this program is incredibly important for our Indigenous communities,鈥� said McGivery. 鈥淚鈥檓 really excited to say that we鈥檙e now seeing people get to the point of graduating, and it鈥檚 really exciting to watch them excel through the program and graduate and move forward with becoming a line pilot.鈥�

The program is named after Timothy Atik 鈥楾ik鈥� Mason, an Indigenous pilot at Perimeter Aviation whose experience inspired the project. Mason is also a Juno award-winning musician who is one of Manitoba鈥檚 few commercially licensed indigenous pilots.

Interested applicants can learn more at indigenouspilotpathway.ca.

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