Local student receives RCAF scholarship

COURTNEY McCLURE The Standard

SCUGOG: A Port Perry teenager, Madeline Baldasaro, has received the Spirits of Central Region Gliding School (CRGS) scholarship provided by the Royal Canadian Airforce Foundation (RCAF).

Madeline is one of many other Canadian students studying aviation who hopes to become a pilot one day. She grew up with pilots in her family: her father, aunt, and grandpa are all pilots.

“It was actually pretty inspirational,” she said, explaining what it was like growing up around aviation. She and her sister grew up in the cadet’s program, so Madeline thinks that helped their love for aviation and flying grow.

“It was very cool to have all the support [from her family], and just being in that environment helped not only myself but my sister make [aviation] become our hobby, too,” she explained.

She said the aviation industry is difficult to get into if you don’t know people who are already involved, so she was very fortunate to have those connections through her family.

Outside of aviation, Madeline grew up playing violin and softball in Port Perry. Now, at 18 years old, she is going into her second year at Queen’s University, where she is studying aerospace engineering. According to Madeline, aerospace engineering is like mechanical engineering, except for spacecrafts. An example she provided was plane design.

Madeline is currently at flight school, in Gander, Newfoundland, for training with 15 other participants.

She applied for the Power Pilot Scholarship (PPS) through the cadets. PPS is a seven-week course made up of ground and flying school training. At the end of the program, participants hope to earn their Private Pilots License.

The participants wake up at different times each day, and the time depends on when they fly that day. For example, if the students have to fly at 7 a.m., they will have to wake up at 5:30 a.m.

During the afternoon, the students do “ground school.” This is where they learn all of the technical information about flying and aviation, so they can complete their pilot’s license. She likened it to the Driver’s Ed manual but for planes.

“It’s really cool just to meet everybody and get to know them,” said Madeline.

She said the program is “fairly demanding”; the participants have to learn a year’s worth of information in 7 weeks.

“It’s nice to have support [from the other participants] doing it with you,” she said.

The RCAF provides scholarships to Canadians' “next generation” of aerospace and aviation “leaders.”

The cost of the PPS program is all paid for by the Canadian Military and the Department of National Defence. The scholarships are designed to support Canadian S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students studying in post-secondary education. However, they are only provided to students studying in the aviation and aerospace field, such as pilots and aerospace engineers.

To learn more about the RCAF Student Scholarship, please visit rcaffoundation.ca.