A local area high school graduate has been selected to participate in a competition for the top amateur pilot in Canada.
Cole Janostin has been picked to participate in the Webster Memorial Flight Competition. He is a regional finalist representing Saskatchewan with Millenium Aviation being his designated flight training unit, although Janostin points out he's done training with a number of different companies.
He is one of nine regional finalists from across the country. This year's competition takes place in August in Winnipeg.
Janostin explains the competition has several components. There's a flight test, a simulator test and a written examination, and then "we have to do a navigational exercise which is all about your navigational skills."
There is a winner and a runner-up named once the competition is all wrapped up. The winner gets the Webster Memorial Trophy and several prizes, including a $1,000 grant towards a flight instructor rating, a position as a flight instructor with Brampton Flight Centre once qualified, a professional development day with the Snowbirds, and an Air Canada pass for two valid anywhere in the Air Canada system for Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.
The runner up receives the Eunice Carter Memorial Award and also receives a $1,000 grant towards a flight instructor rating and various additional prizes.
All participants will receive plaques, prizes and various memberships, with everyone receiving a prize of personalized lithographs from the Snowbirds.
Getting to this point is an achievement in itself for Janostin, who had to go through a major examination and beat out other provincial competitors just to be selected.
"There is a flight test with Transport Canada designated examiner," said Janostin. Once you submit that, "for each region it's the highest mark that gets picked for the national competition."
Janostin is a 2012 graduate of Hafford Central School and was a cadet in Squadron No. 43 in North Battleford for three years. He is now enrolled in the commercial aviation program at Okanagan College in Kelowna, B.C., and begins his second year this fall.
He said he earned his glider pilot's license in the summer of 2011, and then his pilot's license in 2012.
Janostin expects after his diploma program is over, "I'm probably most likely to get a flight instructor's position," he said, because "that's the easiest way to build hours before you can get a bigger job." Ultimately he sees himself working for the airlines.
He describes flying as "simply something I've always wanted to do since I was young."
The Webster Memorial Trophy Competition is an annual one held since 1932 and named for John Webster, who lost his life in an aircraft accident at St. Hubert, Que. in 1931. Webster had been practising to represent Canada in the Trans-Canada Air Pageant at the time.
His father, Dr. J.C. Webster, founded the Webster Memorial Flight Competition and named it in his memory.
The competition has been held annually since then, interrupted only briefly for the Second World War and then again in 1954. It is sponsored by Air Canada and supported by several other aviation organizations as well.
