Aviation training centre takes flight

September 14, 2007
Winnipeg Free Press
Written by: Kevin Rollason

$14-M military flight school opens at Southport

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE -- With the unveiling of two plaques by civilian and military officials, this community's historic connection with training the country's military pilots has become safe for at least another generation.

Almost 20 years after the military abruptly closed its decades-old CFB Portage air base and turned it over to civilian contractors -- and two years after a tense battle with Quebec-based Bombardier over who would operate the private military flight school at the Southport Aerospace Centre -- the $14-million Canada Wings Aviation Training Centre officially opened on Thursday.

Housed inside the newly christened Hilly Brown Building, named after the country's first Second World War flying ace and a local boy born in Portage, schooled in MacGregor and raised in Glenboro, wannabe pilots with the Canadian Armed Forces will come for their first year of training on simulators, single-engine planes and helicopters, graduating with their wings. They then return a year or so later for further training before being assigned elsewhere in the country for specialized training on specific military aircraft.

Excellence

"This is a school of excellence," said Barry Lapointe, president of Kelowna Flightcraft, one of the members of the consortium that makes up Allied Wings, which was awarded a 22-year, $1.77 billion contract to conduct pilot training and support services for the federal Department of National Defence in 2005.

"Our military is playing an active role around the world and we want to give our students the best possible training."

Federal Tory MP Brian Pallister (Portage-Lisgar) said he saw it as the culmination of efforts made by the local volunteer group "Save the Base", which feared the community was going to lose its air base entirely when the military announced they were pulling out during the late 1980s.

"Today is a joyous day in many, many ways," Pallister said.

During an earlier tour of the facility, members of the media were shown the three flight simulators -- each costing $15 million -- for the three aircraft the centre currently trains for, the single-engine GROB G 120A, the Bell 206B Jet Ranger helicopter, and the two-engine Beechcraft C-90B.

Inside, student pilots are given a realistic 180-degree view of airports across the country while two of the simulators actually move to follow the actions of the students.

Maj. Craig Weir, inside one of the simulators as part of his training to go from flying helicopters to planes, said "I'd say it is the best sim (simulator) I've been in to date.

"You can do things on this you can't do with a real plane -- which is nice."

Other areas of the facility include student classrooms, each with connections to allow the students to plug in their laptop computers to access class manuals. The facility trains pilots to the military's standards.

Mark David Brown, Hilly Brown's nephew and one of the pilot's extended family named after him, said the entire Brown family is grateful for the naming of the building.

"We're very honoured and very pleased," Brown said.

"It's also very appropriate, because not only was he in the Battle of Britain and France, but he also was involved with pilot training, which is what will happen here."

Brown, who was born in 1911, joined the Royal Air Force in 1936 after learning to fly at the Brandon Flying Club. He was named an ace after shooting down five enemy planes and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after destroying a total of 16 aircraft.

Before being killed during military action near Sicily in Nov. 1941, he was credited with downing more than 20 enemy aircraft.

Mark Brown said he doesn't remember his uncle, who never married, but he has seen a photograph of him in his uncle's arms when he was a young child.

A theatre in the training centre was named the Glen Ellwood Theatre. Ellwood, who was born in Portage in 1918 and died in 1999, enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force in June 1941, and graduated as a navigator. He flew four bombing mission tours, for a total of 120 missions, and was one of only three Canadians to survive going on that many tours.

Craig Matthews, Ellwood's son-in-law, said when he asked Ellwood before he died why he volunteered for so many tours, the response was: "The job wasn't finished."

"Glen wasn't one to seek the limelight... he did appreciate a pat on his back and that's what he has received today."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

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