Chelsea-Anne Edwards walks out on the tarmac to the plane she will fly. It鈥檚 a sun-drenched fall day and the third-year aviation student looks to the sky. 鈥淭he clouds are pretty low,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he higher the clouds, the better.鈥
There isn鈥檛 fear in her voice, though. It鈥檚 just an observation for a young woman who has been a pilot for more than a year. She circles the plane and runs her hands along the rudder and the propeller. During her pre-flight 鈥渨alk-around,鈥 Edwards looks for fuel leaks, checks for missing bolts and inspects the tire tread. She checks the front edge of the wings and makes sure the first aid kit is on board. Edwards takes off from the 蓝莓视频 Wellington Flight Centre and flies for two hours, which seems like a long time for a mid-day flight on a school day, but it鈥檚 nothing compared to the journey she started two years ago 鈥 the one that has taken her from being a high school student in small-town Ontario to a young woman on a career path to become a commercial airline pilot.