Written by Jenna Foster

It may come as a shock to those who hear someone in aviation say, “I have a fear of flying”, but that was my reality three years ago when I started working at Levaero Aviation. As a young woman, I had always dreamt of travelling but the idea of flying overseas would send me into a panic. Growing up, I wasn’t a stranger to aviation: My father worked at Bombardier for 35 years, and my brother is a successful pilot. Aviation was in my blood, but I couldn’t let go of the fear. Eventually, I decided I wanted a  change, so I moved to a new city and tested the waters of the aviation industry, and as the saying goes, I got bit by the aviation bug. Needless to say, my family was in shock when I decided to start a career in aviation.

A few weeks into starting my career at Levaero, I had never seen a business aircraft in person, let alone walked the apron to fly in one! One morning, I received a call from Stan, our Vice President of Sales at Levaero, asking me to join him on a quick demonstration flight, where we would showcase the aircraft and bring a client on board to experience a flight in the Pilatus PC-12. I had told no one outside of my immediate friends and family about my fear of flying- for obvious reasons, as a prospective employee – so I knew my answer had to be yes. As we all walked onto the ramp, I noticed that it was unusually windy and I began to worry if the flight would be turbulent. Little did I know, flying at a low altitude makes the plane more susceptible to mechanical turbulence, so time spent at 3,000 feet was not to my advantage.

Boarding the aircraft, I took the back seat, behind the customer, to make sure nobody could read my facial expression during takeoff. We took off at Billy Bishop Airport and flew over downtown Toronto for 15 minutes, all the while clutching the pillow that had been placed on my seat. The wind was quite strong, causing the flight to be bumpier than I had anticipated. It was of no consequence to the aircraft at all – only to this nervous flyer! When we landed, the customer turned back and asked me how I liked the flight, to which I replied, “it was amazing!” When Stan and the customer exited the plane, our pilot, John, came back and asked me the same question, and this time I answered honestly and said “I’m still shaking. I should’ve told you I had a fear of flying!”

This is when my fear of flying took a turn.

After that first PC-12 flying experience, John would ask me (without fail) if I would like to sit in the cockpit with him. He encouraged me to ask him any questions I had and made sure to answer each one with care and detail. It turned out that my fear of flying was brought on by a lack of knowledge around what actually happens in the cockpit. However, spending some time in the cockpit with the pilot allowed me to understand what goes on during the flight, which helped to put my mind at ease and ultimately, grew my love and passion for the aviation industry.

Since that first flight, I have been on multiple PC-12 flights and I no longer fear any bumps in the sky. If the pilot allows me to sit in the flight deck, I will always say yes: not only is it where I feel most at ease but watching the TCAS and spotting various aircraft in the sky is my version of ‘I Spy,’ pilot edition. While I don’t have a desire to learn to fly – I’ll leave that to the rest of my family – I am now very comfortable in the sky, and eagerly respond YES! to Stan’s invites to join a flight!