For the forth year running, the second year aviation students from Providence College, in association with Harv’s Air Service, embarked on the cross-country of a lifetime. All of the Providence students are Private Pilots who are building time towards their Commercial licences. A very long cross-country (over 3000 miles or 10 times the required Commercial requirement) is a fantastic way to experience different terrain, busy airspace, high altitude airports, and the decision making that can only come from planning flights out in the “real world”. Along the way they flew over the Grand Canyon, into some of the busiest airspace in the world, and underwent a transition of seasons from winter, to spring, and back to winter in the span of a week.

Experience was one reason for the trip. A second reason for the trip was the stops the group made at Tribal Air (New Tribes Mission) and United Indian Mission (UIM) in Arizona, and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in California. All of the flyers have some level of interest in mission aviation, and this was a good chance for them to meet the agencies and get an inside look at how they operate.

Pilots: Tomas Martens, Steve Bryce, Elizabeth Campbell, Jeremy King, Brennan Michaelis, Andrew Anstey, Darryl Laliberte, Matt Kornelson

Aircraft: Cessna 172’s C-GHXS, C-GDJO and Piper Cherokee 140 C-GOMI