An Ontario teenager has conquered about 3,500 kilometres of what he hopes will be a record-setting solo flight across Canada.
Matthew Gougeon, 16, hopes to become the youngest person to fly an amphibious aircraft solo from coast to coast.
He took off from Tofino, B.C., in a Cessna 182 on July 12 and hopes to land in Halifax by July 20.
Flying several hours at a time and aided by good weather conditions, Gougeon has already reached Sudbury, Ont., his hometown.
“It’s been very smooth,” Gougeon said of his trek so far in an interview with CTV News Channel Monday.
Gougeon’s father is flying alongside him in a different plane, but the teen seems to have no trouble navigating the skies.
“I’ve been flying kind of all my life…I love it,” he said, adding that he wanted to embark on a solo flight because “it’s a lot more challenging alone.”
Gougeon acknowledged that flying for days at low altitudes at the mercy of changing weather patterns could be dangerous.
“But the planes we’re flying have been around since the 1950s and they’re very reliable and very well maintained, so in that aspect it’s not very dangerous,” he said.
“We also have radio communication with someone else too so if something does go wrong we can always tell someone right away and they can get help easily.”
The biggest challenge of his trip so far was landing in Victoria, B.C., he said, “just because of the sheer amount of traffic there.”
“It’s unlike anywhere else in Canada.”
Gougeon, whose career goal is to obtain a commercial pilot licence and eventually train other aspiring pilots, is blogging about his journey at crosscanadasolochallenge.ca.
He is also raising money for the Neil Armstrong Fund, which provides flight training scholarships to young people.
