Prairie President Mark Maxwell (left), Dallas Derksen, Prairie College flight school director, and Brad Bell, Mission Aviation Fellowship president, lean into their shovels Sept. 7 as the college and its partner Missionary Aviation Fellowship conducted the groundbreaking for a $6 million aviation training centre expansion.
ECA Review/D. Nadeau
Big days don’t get much bigger than this for Prairie College’s Three Hills aviation training program.
Big is big.
How about a $6 million expansion to provide more space for classrooms, office, storage, simulators, aircraft maintenance, and a student lounge.
The big day of big dreams was the Sept. 7 groundbreaking with the school’s long-time aviation partner, Mission Aviation Fellowship Canada (MAF), at the Three Hills municipal airport, east of town.
This is no armchair partnership—MAF Canada, headquartered in Guelph, Ont. is going 50-50 on the new facility cost.
In his comments, college President Mark Maxwell said the expansion is necessary: aviation enrolment is strong and growing, “we are bursting at the seams”, and more space is needed for aircraft maintenance and mechanic training.
MAF chief executive officer Brad Bell said it has been and continues to be an honour to partner with Prairie. In referencing MAF’s 24-country presence, he said its 120-plane-strong mission aviation activities are not hindered by a lack of money, but by a shortage of pilots and mechanics.
Established in 1992, the Prairie Aviation Training Centre uses eight airplanes and engages the services of more than 20 personnel.
The expression “doubling” served two purposes at Saturday’s groundbreaking—the expansion allows the school to double its annual intake of student pilots and mechanics and, both Maxwell and Bell anticipate the expansion will double the aviation school’s production of mission pilots and mechanics.
Prairie Aviation program founder Dean Covert said in an interview from his Saskatchewan home that he was pleased to hear about the expansion. “I was just a tool in the Lord’s hand,” he said, “and any positive outcome from my efforts in the 1990s was totally from God.”
David Nadeau
ECA Review
