Award assists aviation pursuit
Inuvik's Alexander White among recipients of Northern Aviation Scholarship
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 16, 2014
INUVIK
Alexander White might be in the aviation business, but he's not trying to earn his wings.
Alexander White is one of seven NWT students to receive a $5,000 Northern Aviation Scholarship. It will be used to support his studies in Calgary. - photo courtesy of Alexander White
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The Inuvik native is currently studying to be a flight maintenance worker in Calgary.
He recently won his second consecutive Northern Aviation Scholarship sponsored by the GNWT, the Government of Nunavut, Discovery Air, Keewatin Air and North-Wright Air.
Seven NWT students have been awarded up to $5,000 to support their full-time studies leading to Northern aviation careers.
The scholarship is intended to develop a Northern workforce by encouraging Northerners to pursue careers in aviation and is given to students pursuing full-time studies leading to a career in Northern aviation.
White said he been interested in aviation since he was about 16, but he's avoided the "glamour" job of piloting in favour of more grounded work.
"Growing up my grandfather and father have always been working on trucks and stuff," he said. "And I always wanted to be working around planes. It felt right.
"I'm taking a maintenance program here in Calgary at SAIT Polytechnical, you know, fixing aircraft and that kind of stuff," he said in a telephone interview Oct. 8. "I'm in the last year of the program, then I have to do two years of apprenticeship.
"Living in Inuvik taught me the importance of planes. It's so far North, everything revolves around planes to get in and out."
The $5,000 scholarship "helps out a lot" with his tuition and expenses, including rent and groceries.
Even by Inuvik's Northern standards, Calgary's not an inexpensive place to live, White said.
He's hoping to return home to work in the region, he said, but "there's so much work across Canada" that it's difficult to guarantee that.
"I've considered coming back home, and I think that's probably where I will be this year, and hopefully I'll be fixing planes in Inuvik," he said.
Like many Northerners, he's not too fond of the image portrayed of flying in the North on television shows such as Ice Pilots and Arctic Air.
Reality doesn't come remotely close to planes and airlines lurching from one disaster to another, he said, nor should it.
He's studying to make sure that planes are safe to fly, White declared, and to fix them when they're not.
An aircraft maintenance engineer examines aircraft after they land, using a check list to go from tip to tail, ensuring all elements are in good working order for the next flight. If deficiencies are found, the aircraft is grounded until the issue is addressed.
