The president of the Ottawa Flying Club is concerned about the future of the nearly century-old club, as its lease at the Ottawa International Airport is approaching expiry. The club’s lease of the north field at the airport is set to expire in 2028 and club president Rod Cross says it’s unclear if they will be able to keep flying after that date, which he says would cripple Canada’s aviation industry. “We have produced professional pilots, thousands of them, that have gone into Canada’s aviation industry and flown as pilots for the major airlines in Canada, and we continue to do that today,” he told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush, with guest host Graham Richardson on Thursday. “Our concern is that Transport Canada has already identified a pilot shortage in Canada. It’s getting worse.” The club has existed for 98 years, founded near the site where Charles Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis aircraft in 1927 to mark Canada’s diamond jubilee of Confederation. Cross says the club is more than just hobbyists, it is a professional career college and pilot training centre. “My concern is that we may be sleepwalking into a shortage of pilots for our country, just as with family doctors. It’s very difficult for people to find a family doctor. We’re heading down the same path for pilots,” he said. Cross says the Ottawa Flying Club is unique in that it operates at an international airport, which allows pilots to learn to deal with modern navigation systems that are unavailable at smaller airports. “Our pilots learn in an advanced environment with instrument landing systems, GPS and area navigation systems to guide you into landing, and we deal with the tower control, the air traffic controllers, and the tower with NAV Canada, so we learn our pilots learn in that professional environment,” he said. “So, when they go to the airlines to apply for work, they’ve grown up in this professional environment of flight training, and the outlying airports don’t have any of that.” At issue is a plan by the Ottawa International Airport Authority to redevelop the north field where the Ottawa Flying Club makes its home. “The airport has the major south field with the jets and the airlines and the terminal. The north field is a smaller field where we’ve been for our 98 years, and they say they want to develop the north field, and that’s perfectly legitimate,” Cross said. “I’ve been there 36 years, and I’ve been hearing that this north field, where we are, will be developed. It never has been.” In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, the Ottawa International Airport Authority said the north field is needed for a “major” airfield project. “As part of YOW’s land-development mandate, the land in the north field, where Runway 04/22 (3,300-foot or 1,006 m strip) is used exclusively for light general aviation movements, is required for a major airfield project that is now being planned,” the statement said. The airport authority’s statement does not include any details about the planned development. Cross said the club is equally in the dark. “My concern is, if there truly is a massive development project for the north field, where we are, fine. Tell us what it is. Let’s see if we can work together, work around it. Do we have to move the clubhouse, et cetera? But so far, I have no idea what the north field development is,” he said. The airport acknowledged the Ottawa Flying Club’s history, saying it predates commercial operations. “We are now, we believe, the last major airport in Canada with a permanent, stand-alone general aviation flying club onsite,” the authority said. “Through discussions with the Rockcliffe Airport, we understand that OFC would be a welcome addition to their general aviation community, and we have offered support to facilitate a move.” Cross said he hopes the airport authority and the club can find common ground. “One option is to fold, and that would be really tough… That would be emotional and nobody wants to do that. Obviously, we would look at alternatives,” he said. “There’s Rockcliffe and there’s Carp. Again, the problem is the level of flight training and the lack of the instrument landing systems and the GPS approaches to airports that we have at Ottawa International that the outlying airports don’t have, so we would lose that. Canada would lose that benefit of a professional flight training operation at a major airport.”
