Portage La Prairie, Manitoba

Eagle’s Wings Flight School is a 100% volunteer-run registered Canadian charity.  Since February 2024, local Indigenous high school students have been 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.

Photos of the Class of 2024

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BushCat Build Class 2025/26

  • BushCat Build Class 25/26

    Our BushCat Build class has been working after school on Wednesdays for almost two months, having picked up right where they left off in the spring: installing ailerons, wing tips and brake lines on our airplane. 
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  • Teamwork

    The group is composed of seven students in grades 9-12 at Westpark School from Long Plain and Dakota Plains First Nations.  Our team is rounded out by an aircraft maintenance engineer and four professional pilots who join us as build mentors.

  • Working with Power Tools

    The group has had a chance to work with power tools, practice templating and measuring, and they are presently attaching the wing caps using Cleco fasteners and pop rivets. 

  • Learning Outside the Classroom

    This program offers a unique opportunity for students to learn outside of a traditional classroom environment.  On build nights, they get a taste for what a career in the trades might look like, and build relationships with like-minded peers as well as mentors.

  • Bonus Activities

    This year, students will progress through an introduction to flying with one of our flight instructors on Microsoft Flight Simulator between build tasks and assignments.

  • Learn to Fly

    Once they have a handle on basic manoevers, each young person will have an opportunity to fly the Grob flight simulator which military pilots are trained on at KF Aero’s Southport location, as well fly EWFS’s Allegro ultralight airplane in the spring.

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.

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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