Nearly 100 cadets take flight for the first time at CFB Borden

Cadets across North America got to soar through the sky this weekend for the first time on their own.

As part of the Blackdown Cadet summer training program, roughly 85 cadets participated in the Advanced Aviation Course at CFB Borden on Saturday and Sunday. 

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The course leverages the skills and knowledge of cadet and civilian instructors, where they learn the proper techniques to fly tow planes.

"That's why I came to the CTC," said Nimbus Lai of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. "It was an experience of a lifetime."

Cadet 1st Lieutenant Juli Vega buckled into the cockpit for the first time on Sunday. Making the trip to Borden as part of a Canadian-American exchange program, she said she was ecstatic to get real experience for the first time.

"The instructor is sitting in the back giving me instructions, bank left, bank right, here's what this does and that does," Vega told CTV News. "You're getting that real experience, very different to a simulator, and you can feel everything. I love flying, feeling the banks and stuff. There's nothing like it."

Vega added that she hopes to one day be able to fly for the United States military.

She and roughly 360 cadets will participate in a graduation ceremony later this week to complete their summer training course.