Brantford’s local chapter of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA), Flight 148, and the Ninety-Nines’ Maple Leaf chapter, hosted their second annual “Let’s Discover Aviation Now” event at the Brantford Municipal Airport on Saturday, September 19, 2026.
The event offers a free 20-minute introductory sightseeing flight over the region for those between the ages of 12 and 70.
While the two organizations had previously hosted their own separate but similar events in the past, the Ninety-Nines’ “Let’s Fly Now” and COPA’s Discover Aviation Day, before deciding to partner up last year.
Gord Cormick, a pilot with COPA Flight 148 and co-organizer of the event, said the pairing just made sense.
“We were pulling from the same pool of volunteer pilots, and basically targeting the same group of people, so we thought, ‘Well, we might as well combine them,”’ he said. “‘It’ll make it easier, we’ll have enough volunteers and we’ll have a bigger, more successful event.’ And so far it’s working out well.”
While the inaugural event drew around 100 people, co-organizer Cailyx Madensky, Chair of the Ninety-Nines’ Maple Leaf chapter and Vice Governor of the East Canada Section, said she was proud to announce that this year’s response was through the roof.
“We advertised for a couple of months leading up to it, and within two days of opening registration, it was completely booked with 150 participants, which is just great,” she said. “Not a lot of people know about aviation or realize it’s something that they can actually get into, so this is great for people interested in flying.”
Upon arrival, participants were brought in small groups to the Brantford Flight Centre’s ground school room for an overview of what to expect during their flights.
“The ground school is where they learn a few basic safety things, like where to go and where not to go, what to be careful of, and how to put the seatbelt on,” said Cormick. “They also get to learn about the radio usage, so things like when to talk in the cockpit, when not to talk, and when the pilot has to concentrate on what he or she is doing.”
After completing the essential safety briefing inside, attendees made their way outside to wait for their turn to explore the skies with the roughly nine volunteer pilots for the day.
Departing from Brantford, the flights headed toward Springdale, before making their way over to Waterford and back to the city’s airport.
Once safely back on ground, many participants stuck around to chat with their pilots between sessions, while others headed just down the way for a barbeque and tour of Brant Aero’s fully equipped aircraft maintenance shop.
Niharika Agarwal, who traveled from Toronto with her family for the event, said she thought the experience was amazing from start to finish.
“It was such a great experience and our pilot was amazing,” she said. “We went up to 3,000 feet up in the sky and, oh my goodness! It was just incredible. Canada has so much beauty and to see that from above was just amazing. I was just mesmerized being able to look down and see all that greenery and even Lake Erie. All I can say is wow.”
When asked if she would ever participate in another sight-seeing flight, Agarwal replied with an enthusiastic “absolutely.”
“I can’t wait to do it again, but next time I call dibs on sitting up beside the pilot,” she said with a laugh.
Before heading back home for the day, all participants received a bag of souvenirs, a first flight certificate, information on how to become a pilot, different scholarship opportunities and information about COPA, the Ninety-Nines and the Brantford Flying Club.
While Madensky and Cormick said that the overall goal of the event was to encourage people considered learning to fly, either as a hobby or a career, to take the next step and sign up for flight school; being able to share their passion for aviation and the freedom of flying with people like Agarwal and her family makes it that much more rewarding.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” said Madensky. “The smiling faces and seeing everyone have fun is the exact reason why I do this event. Even if we had only ten people sign up for flight training at the end of the day, it’s all worth it. “
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
