Guelph, ON - Jan 31 2020

On Feb 24th 2010 a brave group of flight instructors gathered in Guelph Ontario. They were there to renew their Flight Instructor Ratings from a company that had never run a Flight Instructor Refresher Course before – hopefully TC would say the course met the standard and renew those ratings!

It did, and they were.

What started as a sound business model quickly changed into a passion for the team at Aviation Solutions. It became clear that we could have a real impact on the confidence and skills of flight instructors across the country; while at the same time moving the bar forward with respect to what quality training could and should look like at our flight schools.  Our presenters took the bull by horns and worked tirelessly to make sure each of their presentations had as much information as they could pass along (often too much as I recall.Our first course was running long each day as the team frantically tried to decide which material was not critical to cover).

I remember that first course well.  We went through 3 versions of the Training Course Outline until we had one Transport Canada was happy with.  We had nine attendees (plus one that no-showed).  The course was three days long and there was a CARs test to complete and bring to the first day (which had poor class average of 66%, including 35, 41, and 53% marks).  But it was exhilarating, fun, and transformative as we came to realize the potential positive impact on the industry if we continued to run the courses to scale.

Over the years, we’ve seen some of those impacts.  There are questions we no longer ask, because people know the right answers now.  We may even take some credit for certain flight test exercises scoring better over time as we discussed the weak performance ones and how to address them during the courses. 

We’ve put well over 2000 hours into developing the materials for the program, been granted approval to move that first day on-line (providing a much better foundation for success), moved to automated course registration and payment, and developed over a half dozen new modules to keep pace with industry needs (and the originals have all been improved over the years; they would be barely recognizable to anyone from 2010).  We’ve welcomed over 20 different presenters, representing 24 different air operators, the TSB, NavCanada, TC, and combining for 400+ years of experience.  Plus the occasional lawyer, human factors researcher, maintenance engineer, and meteorologist.

There’s been a lot of great moments over the years; being able to give back to our community through supporting causes such as the Air Cadets, Jeramiah House, Dreams Take Flight, and our own Chief Flight Instructor's Award.  There has also been recognition by way of Top 10 Under 40 lists (including a Wings Magazine cover shot), and an honourable mention in the David Charles Abramson Memorial Award.  I’ve had the privilege of participating on industry panels, as a speaker at media events, having articles published, and even been afforded the opportunity to attend and present at the TSB’s Annual Air Safety Conference.

But my favourite thing from the past decade is getting to meet flight instructors from all over the world.  Our attendees have come from across Canada – Victoria, Whitehorse, and Gander represent the furthest Canadian distances.  We have also had pilots come from China, the UAE, and elsewhere to attend our classes.  The best thing I find, is that over the course of our 47 classes, we have been able to incorporate best practices from our 700+ graduates into our program.  No longer are we limited to the great experience of our presenters; but I believe we have truly transformed into a world class program based the willingness of those presenters to search out the best way of doing things from our most valuable resource – the flight instructors who work hard everyday to ensure a safe and quality flight training system.

Therefore, I think it’s important to take this opportunity to thank those that have made such a huge impact on the flight training industry in Canada.  To our current and past presenters, Scott, Phil, Kurtis, Phil, Nick, Adam, Brett, Jean, Andrew, Mark, Alex, Kathy, Mike, Marc, Jack, Alain, Duncan, Terry, Ewan, Steve, Wasem, Doug, Brenda, Paul, Isabelle, and Sam, thank you.  Your dedication to an ideal of safe, quality, and practical training is more than just a doing a job… it is true and honest caring about our clients and industry. 

And to our clients, the biggest thank you of all as we celebrate 10 years!  You are the ones who do the heavy lifting in the flight training industry.  Your dedication, skill, drive for continuous improvement, and professionalism make it all worthwhile for our team, and me.  Here’s to another 10!