Homegrown pilot brings history, inspiration to northern Manitoba

When pilot Timothy Atik (Tik) Mason eased his Dash 8 aircraft onto the runway in the remote northern Manitoba community of St. Theresa Point last month, he carried a cargo of dreams, inspiration, celebration and history.

The 43-year-old newly minted pilot landed where he began, and in doing so, ignited the imaginations of another generation.

"That was a very special day. It was my full circle moment," he said.

Mason grew up in the First Nation, about 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg, where he first dreamed of flying a plane.

When he returned in October, it was not only as a commercial pilot for Perimeter Airlines, but the first one from a reserve the Winnipeg-based company serves in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.

And that was a cause for celebration. As Mason's Dash 8 rolled in on Oct. 19, there was a crowd of supporters cheering and holding signs.

"I didn't think it was going to get as much attention as it did. You know, it was a personal goal for me, but it really kind of turned out that it was important for a lot of people, which is really nice to see," he said.

"I mean, it definitely was not the whole community or anything like that — like I was coming out to adoring fans at a rock concert or something — but it kind of felt a little bit like that. It was quite a nice surprise."

Among the crowd were his parents, Janice and Roy, who were instrumental in seeing their son's dream become a reality — so much so that whenever Mason talks about his journey, he refers to it as something "we" did, not that he did.

"Without these people, I don't think I would ever have gotten to where I am," he said.

That larger "we" includes the community, Perimeter Airlines and the instructors at his flight school in Moncton, N.B., he said.

"This was a group effort."

St. Theresa Point is isolated and only accessible by air, or ice roads in winter, which meant Mason was introduced to planes early on.

Before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, which altered airline travel and heightened security, things were much more free in an aircraft. Kids could talk to the captain in the cockpit and that experience struck Mason deeply.

As he grew up and moved to Winnipeg, the dream became a quiet memory in his brain, but it was woken one day while Mason was working as a bartender.

One of his regular customers had a private plane and took Mason up for a ride.

"And boy, when I got up there, it just kind of brought everything back, and that's kind of just when I knew I needed to pursue that," he said.

So, at age 35, he chased the dream.

"I was a late bloomer. You can get your private pilot's licence right around the age of 16 years old and commercial licence when you're 18," Mason said. 

"So it was a late start, but once I set my mind to it, my parents and everybody was just like, we were not going to stop pursuing it until we finally reached where we are right now."

It wasn't easy at first. Mason worked two jobs to pay for the training, which he said cost close to $60,000.

Working 40-plus hours per week meant the training had to be done intermittently. In the meantime, his parents also scraped together some money and Mason applied for whatever grants, loans or other financial supports he could.

But those were few. Flight school is not considered post-secondary education, so that eliminated many scholarships.

"I was getting really tired of being rejected," he said.

Then his mom found a posting somewhere for the first Bill Wehrle Scholarship from Exchange Income Corp., which owns Perimeter and other airlines. The award is named after the founder of Perimeter.

Mason was chosen and everything "accelerated from that point on," he said.

He completed his training, became an instructor and in October made his way back to Manitoba after being hired to fly the Dash 8s with Perimeter.

"It was a goal that was a long time coming, and we finally achieved it. It's still hard for me to describe, but we made it, so it was good," Mason said.

One of the more rewarding things upon his return to St. Theresa Point was being approached by young people asking how he became a pilot. It gave Mason the chance to show them how to make it, too. 

"That was really satisfying because that's it right there — where they're going like, 'Holy crap, this guy is from my community and you know, he's doing this, and where do I even get started?'" he said.

"I get to have those conversations with them and say, well here's what I think you should focus on for the next little while. Here are some things that you should check out.

"That's one of the things that I want to come out of this is to instill that sort of — I don't know if you call it hope or anything like that — but … if they can see themselves doing something better, a better place, and I'm all for it."