Alumni Stories Hilary Harris ALUMNI STORY: Hilary Harris
VFC Flight Instructor Good day! My name’s Hilary Harris and I’m an instructor at VFC. As part of International Women’s Day, I’ve been asked to tell you a bit about my experiences as a pilot. I would have never thought of being a pilot if it wasn’t for the influence of my grandfather. He was a Mustang pilot in World War II and owned an aerial surveying company after the war. He always loved flying in all of its forms, from float planes on up, and he brought me to the Victoria Airshow for an airplane ride when I was little. Lured by the promise of a free pilot’s licence, I joined 676 Kittyhawk Air Cadet Squadron. I was fifteen, and received my
10 MARCH 2021
Private Pilot’s Licence courtesy of the Air Cadets during my summer break that year. I joined the military after high school and studied engineering at Royal Roads Military College and the Royal Military College of Canada. During the summers, we began our flying military flying training with a few short introductory courses in aviation.
3 G. Needless to say, they’re fun to fly. Apart from the standard skills of instrument and visual flying, we also learned how to fly in formation and low-level navigation. After completing the course, I stayed on as an instructor and eventually taught at the flight instructor school.
I was posted to Nova Scotia at twenty-nine to fly the CP 140 When I arrived in Moose Jaw I was Aurora. The Aurora is a very twenty-two and it was the place to different aircraft than the Tutor; be for anyone who loves airplanes. I it’s a long-range patrol plane was there to complete Basic Flying designed to hunt submarines. It Training on the Tutor jet which were has four turbo-prop engines and – and still are – beautiful, sporty weighs 140,000 lbs when carrying trainers with a max speed of over its 60,000lb fuel load. It’s small by 400 kts, a max altitude of 41 000 airline standards, but it’s notable feet, and the ability to pull +7.3 / - for the proportion of its weight
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