Wasaya Group trainees looking to the sky

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s Orion McKay is flying a Cessna 152 as part of his Wasaya Group-Sioux Lookout Area Aboriginal Management Board pilot training program.

February 4, 2010: Volume 37 #3, Page A1

“I actually just got back down 20 minutes ago,” McKay said Jan. 28 from Harv’s Air Pilot Training base in Steinbach, Manitoba. “This is my second flight I have logged in. My landings – I do good. I haven’t had any hard landings.”

McKay said he and the five other pilot trainees just finished studying meteorology and are now looking at weather maps.

“We have a big meteorology quiz coming up tomorrow morning and will be covering what we learned since we’ve been here,” McKay said. “On Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, we come in around 8:00 a.m. We finish about 10:30-11:00 and that’s when we get to do some flying after that, weather permitting.”

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the ground school is held in the afternoon and the pilot trainees do their flight training in the late morning-early afternoon.

McKay said he had always been interested in being a pilot but didn’t have an opportunity to pursue his dream because he has never lived outside his remote community.

“Never give up on your dreams, your goals,” McKay said, explaining two months ago he never knew he would be training as a pilot. “It can change in a split second. One day you may not know which direction you will be going; the next day you have a path you will be going.

Learning about aviation

“Just keep going on that path.”

McKay and a group of 31 other trainees began the Wasaya Group-Sioux Lookout Area Aboriginal Management Board training program Jan. 18 and expect to be finished in about a year.

“This particular flight project goes hand in hand with what the mission of our company is,” said Erin Anderson, human resources co-ordinator with Wasaya Airways LP.

“We are the training vehicle for all the different positions in the flight project; they range from entry level trainee positions to management trainee positions as well as the professional positions like pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers.”

Anderson said Wasaya has always been short of First Nations staff in the pilot and aircraft maintenance engineer positions over the years.

“The overall plan for the pilots is we will assist them in finding job opportunities to build up their (flight) hours so they can eventually fly for Wasaya,” said Titus Semple, SLAAMB’s project retention counselor for the Taking Flight Project, who explained Wasaya has a high turnover rate among its pilots. “They want to retain these local First Nations people to work for the company for a long time.”

Anderson said Wasaya requires entry-level first-officer pilots to have 1,000 flying hours minimum.

Pic River’s Joe Moses said he is interested in being part of the future growth of Wasaya.

“I think it is important to have the Aboriginal population a part of that,” said Moses, a marketing and sales management trainee working at the Wasaya Group office in Fort William First Nation. “You get to work with all levels of the company, and the support comes from all levels.

“That makes it an effective program.”

“The project is unique. It is a very effective way of developing people from ground level to positions in the company of significance.”

Sandy Lake’s Lloyd Meekis is undertaking the ground operations management training at Wasaya’s ramp and cargo area in Thunder Bay.

“Today is the most coldest day of the year,” Meekis said, who had previously been working with Wasaya’s cargo department. “If you’re not dressed warm, it’s best not to be out there.”

Meekis said every day is a learning experience for him; the company and the program are allowing him to grow, learn new aspects of the transportation industry and interact with other people.

“The employees make the company, and the company does make the employees,” Meekis said. “I’m grateful to be in this industry.”