Local air cadet earns pilot scholarship

This photo shows Flight Sergeant Addison Mabee of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets at her glider training school in Mountainview last year. She earned a scholarship for her glider license, and is hoping to gain a pilot’s license this summer. (Contributed Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

A member of the 153 Varnavair Royal Canadian Air Cadets is one of an elite few who earned a scholarship that will give her a pilot’s license.

Flight Sergeant Addison Mabee, 16, of Delhi has been in cadets for four years.

“I heard through a family friend the cadet program was a great way to get into a leadership role in the community,” she said of the original reason she joined. “I stayed because of the opportunities it gave me and the ability to get my pilot’s license.”

It’s Mabee’s goal to join the military after she is done school, and do something in aviation. Mabee said she knew she wanted to be a military pilot two years ago when she took her first glider flight.

Last summer, Mabee earned her glider pilot’s license. She applied for a scholarship and went to Trenton for seven weeks last summer to earn her license to fly the non-powered aircraft.

“They really want you to succeed,” she said of the glider training process. “It was a very positive environment. Every day they talked about how they wanted you to succeed.”

She has since earned her solo status by travelling every weekend to Centralia and Chatham to fly gliders. The next step in this process is her familiarization license, which will allow her to take passengers up.

“I help put cadets in the glider and discover their love for aviation,” she said of the weekend flights. “I hopefully get to fly once or twice per day.”

This summer’s scholarship and training will involve flying daily for five hours and five hours of ground school. There are 11 exams and two flight tests. The process started with ground school last October, which lasted until January. In February she wrote a qualifying exam. The application process looked at her marks and also what else she accomplished in cadets. Mabee completed marksmanship, biathlon and effective speaking to that end. An interview followed in March, and she found out recently she was successful.

After finishing secondary school, Mabee hopes to enlist, and go to Royal Military College to earn a degree in aeronautical engineering. That will be part of the pathway to fly fighter jets.

“It’s a challenge because not enough women want to do it,” she said. “The reason women don’t do it is because it’s a male-dominated field.”

There have only been seven female fighter pilots since the first in 1989,

With Canadians paying attention to what the country’s next fighter plane will be, this pilot hopeful weighed in, saying she hopes for F-35s.

Captain Mike Neff, commanding officer of 153 air cadets, said Mabee is not the first Tillsonburg cadet to earn her pilot’s license. There have been five before her, of which one was female. Although none of those cadets had the aspiration to fly in the military, Neff knows one flies for Air Canada now.

“We always tell them they get as much out of it as they put into it,” he said. “Obviously she put the effort in and sees the fruits of her labour.”

The Royal Canadian Air Cadets are open to youth from 12 to 18. There is no cost and uniforms are supplied. The program offers summer training opportunities, and the ability to be on staff in the summer as a paid job.