Yesterday (March 22), I went on a tour with my air cadet squadron to WestJets HQ in Calgary Alberta, Canada. It was A LOT cooler than I had originally thought, here’s how my day went. All times given are in my local time (MDT).
At 5:20am I woke up and readied myself for the day. At roughly 6:00am I changed into my uniform and got a water bottle for the day. At 6:30am I was in the car driving to my cadet squadron about 30mins away. At 7:00, I arrived at my cadet squadron and went into the building so I could get checked off the attendance list, and by 7:15am we were on the road with about 48 cadets and staff total.
At 7:45am we stopped in another nearby town to pick up some cadets from our squadron, bringing the total amount of cadets and staff to 51. By 8:30am we had arrived at WestJets facilities at the south end of CYYC. I stupidly left my water bottle in the bus 
. After taking a quick picture, we headed into the main building where we were handed an ID holder to carry with us throughout the day. We were filed into a meeting room where we received a brief presentation about what to expect for the day.
We were then split into 6 groups, and handed a schedule to show where and when our group would be touring, I was part of group 3. My group was the only group to get all three tours in a consecutive order, meaning we had no breaks in between.
At 9:00am, we headed to WestJets hanger for our first tour. Immediately after entering hanger 1, we were met with the massive front end of a 737-700ng directly in front of us. Sadly, there is no photography allowed in the hanger, so I don’t have any pictures of the exterior of any planes 
. After getting a good look and some info on the plane, we headed into hanger 2, where we saw a Dash 8 Q400 getting its spoilers repaired. After taking a close look at the registration, I realized it’s the same Q400 the Infinite Flight one is modelled after! We headed over to hanger 3, where they were actively pulling in a Sunwest Aviation 737 MAX-8 to refurbish it into a WestJet MAX 8. After the plane had finished moving, we walked up the left side and crossed in front of the nose to a repurposed Q400 fuselage. It was a used for training stewards, and was signed with the names of all the stewards that had completed their course. After getting a good look inside, we headed into the MAX 8. I was able to acquire some pictures inside the MAX. The faces are blurred for privacy.
Me and another cadet in the cockpit of the MAX 8, I’m in the F/O seat.
I love those massive displays!
Standing in the back by the cockpit door.
In the aft galley.
Standing about a third of the way down the plane, facing aft.
After exiting, we did a full walk around of the aircraft. I was able to get a look inside the main landing gear bay, which was amazing! After that, we headed to WestJets 787 hanger. Unfortunately, there was no 787 for us to view. But the hanger was massive, and I didn’t have an issue picturing a massive plane like the 787 in it.
At 10:30am we headed to our next tour, which was the OCC (Operation Control Centre), it’s where dispatchers will send flight plans to pilots and monitor flights. Without it, WestJet wouldn’t be able to operate at all. Although kind of boring, it was really cool to see the heart of WestJets operations!
At 11:30am, we were brought back into hanger 2, and lead to a door that read “Q400 sim”. Yes, I got to fly in a full motion Q400 simulator. Let me say, they are easily three times the size I thought they were. Standing at the base, it was easily two stories tall. Three cadets as well as the sim operator went in. I started in a seat at the back of the sim, then after the first cadets turn was done, I moved into the F/O seat. While the other cadet was taking off, I raised the landing gear and flaps. After his turn was up, I got in the captains seat. I took off from CYVR, and climbed to 10,000 feet. Not even exaggerating the tiniest amount, it felt as if I was in a plane during takeoff. It was perfectly realistic. The operator put me on a 5 mile final for runway 35L at CYYC. Unfortunately, I was unable to land. But I got half a nautical mile from the airport, and flew a pretty stable approach. After that, we headed back to the meeting room for the rest of our day. We were handed a delicious bagged lunch, and sat down to eat.
After eating, I spent the remaining 5 hours in the conference room with fellow cadets and friends. We played a couple games of blackjack (there wasn’t any betting, we just played with the cards), and a couple other games. At 5:15pm, we were filed back into the bus and headed back home. I arrived back home at 6:30pm.
Overall, it was an amazing and unforgettable experience! Being really close to and touching commercial aircraft was so fun, it was really cool to see what keeps WestJet going at the OCC, and a flying a full motion sim for free is an unforgettable experience. I’m really thankful I was able to attend this trip!
. That coupled by a few games of poker . (Without the money ofc)