Fedak briefs Rotary Club on 3CFFTS

Lt.-Col. Peter Fedak of 3CFFTS in Southport came to speak to the Portage Rotary Club, Tuesday, about a number of new initiatives going on at the military flight training school.

Fedak, the commandant of 3CFFTS, had come to speak to the club approximately one year ago about his goals for his then new position, which included integrating members of the school as well as their families into the wider community.

He is continuing on that mission now one year later, where a Military Family Resource Centre has been created to help military families in particular to get involved in the community.

“When they arrive, what I’m trying to do is make sure that positive image of Portage la Prairie is portrayed, all of the resources are available to them to see what can be done, so they will choose to live here,” said Fedak. “For me that’s a win on both sides – my officers are here in town they’re not worried about that drive home, plus the families are close by and they get involved in all of our social events and everything as well.”

The Centre with its four staff will support families by connecting them with local resources such as jobs, schooling, childcare, fitness facilities, homes, and even social and mental health resources. It can be challenging for families who have moved from across the country and have a family member in the military who can be called away from home.

“I do send my pilots away for three or four days at a time, that’s always when something breaks, that’s always when something goes wrong, so where do you find those resources? You don’t have that family link here…but that’s where this MFRC and now the Morale and Welfare Services are there to give that support structure to help our families integrate into the community then to provide links to resources if they don’t have them already,” said Fedak.

Fedak also announced that there would be changes coming to the night flying program which sees helicopters flying over homes in the early hours of the morning.

“We have a lot of places we’re not allowed to fly at night just because as we fly along it does annoy people. It’s in the summer – when we start flying at 10:15 p.m. and they land at 2:15 a.m. that’s right in the middle of the night in the middle of the week. In the winter the problems go away because we’ll fly from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” said Fedak.

He notes that 3CFFTS is cognizant of the noise and the disruptions they make and are hoping to improve things.

“For us moving a couple of trips onto the Jet Ranger, which is much quieter, and also eliminating one trip all together. That’s three less trips, that’s 172 less flights on the 412 at night across the year, which will hopefully make an impact,” said Fedak. “We’re also going to look at changing where we go and try to find a place where they can always go at night…and that’s where they’ll always go to do their landings and circuits rather than picking random locations. Then we can just mitigate the noise impacts.”