Why do flight students flock to Gander? The weather, of course

It's a cool Thursday morning, and Mick has just landed a red-eye, trans-Atlantic flight — his first — from Halifax to London.

Before his day is done, he'll pilot another Boeing aircraft — this time in Thailand — for a shorter trip, just over an hour. Looking out the front of the aircraft, he can make out some of the recognizable scenes of Chiang Mai, but only barely. 

Mick, whose given name is Kaokorn Jindarongs, is using a Microsoft flight simulator; he's stuck inside, as the snow at Gander's airport is just heavy enough to ground the planes at Gander Flight Training.

Like any newcomer, Jindarongs had his battles with the weather.

"I woke up in the morning, and I saw it was like 12 inches of snow in front of the door," he said, recalling a recent snowfall. "And I cannot go outside. So I just sat in my place.…​ We never have snow in Thailand."

Mick is in his second year of schooling at Gander Flight Training, as part of a program between the flight school and Rangsit University in Thailand. In a room down the hall, eight more students from his university are studying for an upcoming test, throwing around a term familiar to anyone from Newfoundland and Labrador: de-icing.

If you fly in Gander, you can fly anywhere in the world.- Mohammed Fazal

"Once you get experience from here, you really won't have any kind of problems flying anywhere else," explained Charles Onyango, who was serving as Mick's first officer in the simulated flights.

Onyango, like many of the other students in the flight school program, says the weather in Gander is a golden ticket. It's not that he likes it. It's because it's so bad, it makes him a better pilot.

"The moment you go in any kind of environment with other pilots and they hear that you trained from Newfoundland, light bulbs go off," he said. "Training in Canada in the aviation industry, it's almost like gold."

Onyango was born in Kenya, and said he almost chose a flight school in South Africa before his peers convinced him of the virtues of training in Canada. So he's one of dozens of international students who have trained at Gander Flight Training in the last decade.

"We've also had people from Colombia, from Africa, from all over the place," added Florence White, who owns the flight school and Exploits Valley Air Services with her partner, Pat White.

Rain or shine

Gander Flight Training says it has students from India, Turkey and Morocco enrolled in its programs this year.

The students from Thailand are part of a formalized exchange program agreement with Rangsit. But there are also students, like Onyango, who find and choose Gander Flight Training on their own.

According to White, Gander has a few advantages over other flight schools.

"One simple thing is, for instance, cross-wind landings," she explained. "They don't even get to practise [in Thailand], hardly at all, whereas here it's pretty well every day you're factoring in.

"As we in the industry say, it's not a sunshine licence. They're getting to fly in real challenging conditions."

White also says co-operation between Gander Flight Training and EVAS — two companies she co-owns — helps too, giving students a path from complete beginner to commercial airline pilot.

A young crowd

Mohammed Fazal estimates he's about three months away from getting his instructor rating, and teaching others at the school. He came from Kerala, a southern province in India, to Gander to learn.

Training in Canada in the aviation industry, it's almost like gold.- Charles Onyango

"The weather is really challenging, so you can become a really good pilot," he said. "There's a saying that everyone says here: if you fly in Gander, you can fly anywhere in the world."

He calls it a great place to learn — but that doesn't mean his move was without its hiccups.

Gander's older and smaller population means he spends an awful lot of time with his classmates from flight school. He even works with some of them at a restaurant not far from the school.

"Gander's like a calm place, so mostly old people like it," he said. That doesn't offer much for a self described "party person." 

Just a bit of turbulence to get over.

"You'll get a different life. You gotta experience a lot of life, right?" he said. "You know, everything is different, and everything has merits and demerits."

Making a connection

The agreement between Rangsit University and Gander Flight Training was signed in 2007.

White calls it a financial success, and says there is a benefit to the community as well — pointing out that the students rent, eat, work and spend in Gander.

Most of the students spend about two years in the program, though a few — like Mick — make plans to stay in Canada longer than that.

White says there's a sense of celebration every time she sees a student start to make connections in the community.

"For instance, we have one of our engineers who is originally from India — just bought his first house in Gander, so he's staying," she said. "When we hear that they're entering into relationships, then we're hoping they're putting down some roots."

And for Mick, it's looking good. At least, he's got some of the local language down pat.

"A lot of variable weather, you can feel like sometime there are four weathers in one day." 

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