Extreme makeover

The road to become a pilot isn’t an easy one. You either need to have a lot of money and free time OR be top of your class at school and be selected in special programs.

In 2018, we created a third option with the Become a Pilot program for our employees. Finding aircraft availability for the people in the program rapidly became a problem. Since Innovation is one of our six values at Nolinor Aviation, we acquired a Cessna 172 in 2019. We wanted to go further and with the help of our Nolinor Aviation maintenance management, we were able to flip an old GPS and sell it to keep improving the Cessna.

From the profit of the GPS sale, the initial plan consisted of investing in a simple avionics upgrade by installing a single Garmin G5 Attitude Indicator. We discussed at length with our long time providers Mid-Canada Mod Center “MC2” (Canada’s premiere maintenance and modification shop) about our options and the discussions turned into a surprise package that MC2 had put together for us.

In the end, the team at MC2 went beyond our wildest expectations by hooking up our company Cessna 172L with this insane package:

• Garmin G5 Attitude Indicator
• Garmin GTN750 Xi for GPS/NAV/COMM/MFD
• Garmin G500 Txi Glass Flight Display
• Garmin GFC 500 Autopilot
• Garmin GNX375 ADS-B IN/OUT
• Garmin G275 Engine Information System
• Garmin GTR 255 Comm Radio paired with GPS
• Avion Yokes with PTT, Electric Trim, Autopilot Disconnect and TOGA.

We feel grateful for the privileged partnership with MC2 and look forward to having many employees from Nolinor using this tool to get their own pilot licence. We are also planning on showcasing this one of a kind aircraft to fellow aviators around North America when air shows will be back.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Oliver Tomczak
Assit.-Director of Flight Operation / Security Director