As her flight instructor tells it, when Kaitlin Cullen, 12, was getting ready to fly a Second World War era training plane, the young girl was about already about a foot off the ground.
Christie “Krusti” Whelan, Cullen’s flight instructor, said she was elated at the opportunity.
“She was so energetic and buzzed,” said Whelan.
“I was talking to her in the cockpit and I couldn’t understand her because she was talking so fast. Just before we got started I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she was ready to go, she threw her hands up and screamed ‘Wahoo!’”
The whole flight Cullen sported a giant grin on her face, as Whelan let her fly the plane for a bit. After they landed she went over to Whelan and gave him a big hug.
“So what we did is we stood right beside the plane and both jumped up in the air and screamed and took a picture,” said Whelan.
Cullen and about 50 other cadets at the Penhold Air Cadet Summer Training Centre had the chance to learn in a PT-27 Stearman.
The one brought to the cadet camp was originally used at CFB Bowden, now the Bowden Penitentiary, during the Second World War to train pilots. It is owned by Vintage Wings, an organization that offers young people the chance to learn and be inspired by vintage airplanes.
The Yellow Wings Leadership Initiative goes specifically to cadet camps across the country with this message.
The open cockpit biplane seats two with the instructor sitting behind the trainee.
“It was really thrilling and exciting,” said Cullen, adding she may consider pursuing more training on aircraft.
She was considering not returning to cadets before she attended the two-week course at the cadet camp. But after her experience she is convinced to stick around.
Todd Lemieux, Vintage Wings board chairman, said they have been all over the country training cadets on the ancient aircraft. So far this summer 390 cadets have been up and had a chance to take the wheel of the old plane, and by the end of the summer they will have trained 500.
“We did it in Victoria; Penhold; Gimli, Manitoba; North Bay, Ontario; Gatineau, Quebec; St. Jean, Quebec; Trenton, Ontario and the last airplanes based down east are heading out to Greenville and Dover, Nova Scotia,” said Lemieux.
Though the flight is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the cadets, Lemieux said it is more than that. They spend time with the cadets motivating the kids who are in the awkward teenager stage, as well as going over the math, engineering and science that goes in to getting an airplane to fly.
“We can sit and lecture about aerodynamics, science, technology, engineering and math, but the airplane encompasses all of that,” said Lemieux. “When they get into that airplane and see all of that applied math and science comes together and they see it is an obtainable thing.”
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com