Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Mitchell is spending part of her summer on Vancouver Island with the hope of one day becoming a fighter pilot.
Mitchell, a member of 103 Thunderbird Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron in North Vancouver, is on a two-week general training course at Albert Head Cadet Training Centre in Metchosin, B.C., where she’s had the opportunity to participate in a field training exercise.
“This FTX (field training exercise) is great,” Mitchell said in a press release. “We had a really cool night walk last night and slept in hoochies (temporary shelters).”
Mitchell, who has been a cadet with the 103 Thunderbird squadron for a year, wants to join the Canadian Armed Forces and become a fighter pilot like three generations before her. She would be the first female fighter pilot in the family. She has already been flying at Boundary Bay Airport with the cadet program several times. Cadets can gain their pilot’s licence through the program and Mitchell will be eligible to apply in a few years.
More than 3,400 sea, army and air cadets are participating in summer training activities across B.C. this summer.
