Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Eight people with their eyes on the skies got a little help with the costs of becoming a pilot as they each received $5,000 bursaries last week.

A handful of the sponsors and recipients were at the Adlair Aviation hangar July 27 for the presentation of $5,000 bursaries to future pilots. From left: Carmen Loberg, president of Norterra; recipient Angela Tucker; recipient Toby Stefure; NATA president Paul Laserich; recipient Jessica Kokoszka; assistant deputy minister of Transportation Daniel Auger; and recipient Pierre Corriveau. - Christine Grimard/NNSL photo

A total of $60,000 was awarded this year as part of the Aviation Career Development Program, with $40,000 awarded at a presentation at the Adlair Aviation hanger July 27. The program is a partnership between the Department of Transportation, Canadian North, and the Northern Air Transport Association.

This year, Discovery Air and Adlair Aviation also contributed, leading to the highest amount given since the program's establishment in 2001.

Half of the eight recipients this year were women. One of the recipients, Angela Tucker, said she's surprised at how many other women are interested in aviation.

"There are a lot more than what I thought," said Tucker. "I didn't know any female pilots."

Born and raised in Yellowknife, Tucker is starting her two-year aviation diploma at Mount Royal College in Calgary this fall.

Jessica Kokoszka worked for the past two years at Air Tindi in accounts payable. She said she's known she wanted to work in aviation all her life, and after one special flight she realized she wanted to fly the planes.

"I took one flight in the cockpit and I realized it's what I wanted to do," said Kokoszka. She starts her first year at the Edmonton Flying Club for pilot training this fall, and wants to return to Yellowknife and fly for Air Tindi.

A condition of the bursary is that potential pilots intend on returning to work in the NWT once they've finished with their studies.

Tuition can cost as much as $20,000 a year for recipients like Pierre Corriveau, who's attending the University of Western Ontario to study commercial aviation management.

He said the $5,000 is a welcome help to cover those costs.

The price will be worth it for Corriveau, who's dreamed most of his life of becoming a pilot. Having grown up in a community in northern Quebec, the only way for Corriveau to get anywhere was to fly.

"Since I flew so much getting out of there and coming back, I just started enjoying it," he said.

The program is run yearly, and Corriveau plans on applying every year to get some help with his tuition.

Applicants must be residents of the NWT for a minimum of two years and be accepted to an academic or technical aviation program.