SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Seven weeks of 5 a.m. starts, eleven-hour days, and six-day weeks - not most people's idea of a summer vacation, but air cadet Charles Jensen is unlike most people.

Jensen, 17, is one of 35 cadets chosen from throughout the North and western Canada to take part in the Private Power Scholarship Course, and he is less than a week from achieving his goal.

The only Yellowknife cadet to be picked for the scholarship, Jensen estimates he has completed about 35 hours of flying, and expects to complete the seven-week program this week.

He has big dreams too, saying he wants to become an astronaut, and he has a plan to get there.

"I defiantly want to get a degree in some sort of aviation - whether it's aviation engineering or aircraft maintenance even - and just pretty much spend my lifetime around the aviation field. From there I'll try to go to the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and work my way from the bottom up," he said.

The schedule at the Regional Gliding School in Comox, B.C., is gruelling, but Jensen had to start work much earlier to even be considered.

"He's worked really hard just to get here. He had to do a lot of classroom work and studying by himself to even pass the entrance exam," said flight instructor Ian Lamont.

The students, most of whom are 17, spend their days learning theory and doing practical training in seven Cessna 172s.

Lamont said the program was particularly intense given a private pilot license usually takes three months to complete and the students are completing it in less than two.

Even though he joined the Yellowknife Elks Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron on his 12th birthday, the scholarship course is the first time Jensen has flown a plane.

Before that, he had learnt "fundamentals and leadership" for pilots.

Upon graduating on August 13 he will have obtained his power wings and a Transport Canada Private Pilot License - allowing him to fly all around Canada and the United States with passengers. No one in Jensen's immediate family are involved in aviation, but Jensen said they fully support his passion.

"They think it's really cool, and it's definitely not a waste of time," he said. "My mom, yeah she worries a bit, but my dad thinks it's one of the best things ever."

Regardless of the intensity of the program, Jensen said his fellow cadets have made all the difference.

"It's been really easy with the group of people here, because everyone's become really close friends."

Asked what he will do when he gets back to Yellowknife after graduating, Jensen said he would "probably sleep."