A young pilot in Campbell River has made Canadian history as the first student to fly solo in an electric plane.
Catherine Check says she’s wanted to be a pilot since she was five years old. On December 18, she flew Sealand Flight’s fully electric training plane solo, a Canadian first for a student.
She says the solo flight was an incredible experience.
“It was just so crazy because especially being a female in aviation, it’s very rare that people get a chance like this,” she says. “I was only a little bit nervous, but going up there, I knew that it was safe, because this is just really a state of the art technology at this point.”
Sealand is the first flight school in Canada to offer primary flight training on an electric airplane, under a special trial program with Transport Canada. They are using a Velis Electro, which made history this summer when an air cadet took it on its first commercial flight.
Check had high praise for her instructor, Ian Lamont.
“After sending students solo in conventional airplanes for over 20 years, it was exciting and rewarding to watch Catherine solo in an electric airplane for the first time,” Lamont says.
Regulators and the aviation industry are watching the electric airplane training flights closely to see how aviation can adapt to the emerging technologies involved in electric-powered flight.
In addition to primary flight training in the Velis Electro, Sealand Flight offers electric sightseeing experiences for the public, and Electric Airplane Differences Training for licensed pilots.
