A 16-year-old Weyburn resident is well on his way to realizing his dream of becoming a pilot, and credits a pair of plane rides with a local pilot for giving him the impetus to get off the ground.

Spencer Morrissette, son of Lawrence and Belinda Morrissette of Weyburn, just began taking flying lessons at the Regina Flying Club this spring, and on Aug. 9, he took his first solo flight, passing with flying colours.

"I went up with Kevin Cooke; he was doing some aerial photography, and I just loved it. That's when I started to look into it, learning how to fly," said Spencer.

Asked what it was that caught his imagination about flying, he replied, "Just the feeling of being in flight up in the air, I thought it was amazing. I went up with him just around Weyburn and area, and the second time we went to Manitoba where there was flooding; we flew there and took pictures of that."

On the longer second flight, Cooke was able to show him all the equipment and instrumentation in the cockpit, and he even gave Spencer control of the plane for brief periods, just to see what it felt like.

"He told me you shouldn't watch the instruments all the time, you have to look around to see what's happening," said Spencer.

Cooke recommended that Spencer take flying lessons, either in Regina or Estevan. Spencer found the Regina setup much more to his liking, as he could take a portion of the lessons on-line.

Spencer learned the ropes quickly after he started lessons around the end of May, and did his first solo flight in a Cessna 150 two-seater after about 15 hours of flight instruction; he now has his student pilot's licence, which means he can go and take out a plane on his own, but he cannot have any passengers with him yet.

Doing the flight solo was much different than when he had an instructor with him, as he admitted he was nervous while he tried to remember all the things he was taught.

"The guys in the control tower were really good, they knew what I had to do," he said, adding the solo confirmed in his mind that flying is what he wants to do with his life.

"I kind of knew beforehand that's what I wanted to do. When you're up in the air, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing," said Spencer.

He originally hoped to have his pilot's licence by the end of summer, but as air cadets have been taking up time with the flying school planes, he may not be able to get enough hours for his licence until later this year.

The next step after that is to get in flying hours, and to take a commercial pilot's program from SIAST at their Kelsey campus. After that, he will need to log in 1,000 hours flying, such as by being a bush pilot, or flying a forest-fire fighting plane or a crop sprayer, before he reach his ultimate goal: a licence to fly a commercial airliner, such as with Westjet or Air Canada.

He had thought about going into the air force to fly jets, but he doesn't think the military way of life is something he wants to get into. In regards to flying with an airliner, he notes that (not unlike health care) a large number of airline pilots are approaching retirement age, so there will be lots of opportunities to get a job flying a passenger airliner.

To get his experience, Spencer thinks at this point he will go up north and put in time as a bush pilot, as accident rates seem to be higher with crop sprayers or forest-fire fighting craft.

Meantime, Spencer has a long line-up of people who want a ride once he does get his pilot's licence, starting with his family members.