Portage La Prairie, Manitoba

Eagle’s Wings Flight School is a 100% volunteer-run registered Canadian charity.  In February 2024, local Indigenous high school students began meeting weekly with our team to build a BushCat advanced ultralight airplane which they will one day be able to fly. 

Eagle’s Wings flight instructors provide flying experiences for local Indigenous youth and have hosted four summer flight training programs since inception in 2020.

High school students from Portage Collegiate Institute and Westpark School celebrate their progress at the completion of the program’s very first semester. (BushCat Build)

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BushCat Build Team 2025

  • BushCat Build Team 2025

    Our BushCat team has diligently met weekly on Thursdays after school to continue building our airplane.  We began the school year at Section #50 and this week students and mentors were chipping away at Section #84, the horizontal stabilizer installation.
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  • Teamwork

    We’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and mentor six local high school students from Grades 9 through 12 who represent Long Plain, Dakota Plains and Sandy Bay First Nations.

  • Working with New Tools

    With regular attendance and participation, these young people will have an opportunity to receive course credit towards their high school diploma under Manitoba Education’s Community Service Student-Initiated Project. 

  • Expert Instruction

    As they’ve assembled wings, ailerons and cockpit controls, each student has gained valuable experience using tools, reading manuals and instructions, working as part of a team, and troubleshooting problems as they arise.

  • Student Flying Ultralight

    Each student has also tried their hand at flying KF Aero’s airplane and helicopter flight simulators, and we’ve hosted a Canadian Armed Forces recruiter who helped interested students apply for various summer programs available to Indigenous youth. 

  • Learning to fly the Ulralight

    Many of our build mentors are also professional flight instructors, and they’re looking forward to getting each of our build students up in Eagle’s Wings’ Allegro 2000 advanced ultralight for an introductory flight and subsequent flight lessons as interest and time allow.

OUR MISSION

To inspire at-risk youth to explore their innate gifts, build self-confidence, and develop practical life-skills through aviation training.

OUR VISION

To see young people’s lives transformed by a renewed hope for a bright and successful future, regardless of any economic, personal, or social barriers they may face.

We are fully funded by the generosity of like-minded corporate sponsors and individual donors who share our mission and vision.

SPONSORS

Testimonials

  • “Flying was hard since I was high from the ground. Flying made me feel less afraid of heights. I might be a pilot one day.”

    15yr old EWFS Graduate from Swan Lake First Nation

  • “Before this program I didn’t have an interest in pursuing a career in aviation, I do now have an interest in becoming a pilot.”

    18yr old student pilot Long Plain First Nation

  • “On my first flight we flew over Long Plain, my brother was outside his house waving. I was amazed to look at everything: the river and the land. I saw a young eagle, and my flight instructor said, “Look at that, two young eagles learning how to fly!”

    18 yr old EWFS Graduate from Long Plain First Nation

  • “Attending virtual ground school in the spring was good, it was good to have a little bit of knowledge of what I was coming into. I was nervous before my first flight, I mean, I’m flying for the first time, how could I not be?”

    15 yr old student pilot from Swan Lake First Nation

  • “I would recommend this program to a friend because it’s a good time and I learned about a whole lot of career options in aviation if piloting doesn’t work out.”

    18yr old student pilot from Dakota Plains First Nation

  • “After my first flight I felt a bit of adrenaline, I felt proud, and I wanted to tell someone about it! I came home after my first flight excited that I get to do that again tomorrow.”

    14 yr old student pilot from Dakota Plains First Nation