Cameron-Kelly clocks a milestone year in the air
Spending a year of her life in the air?
“I love it!” said Captain Mary Cameron Kelly, a pilot with 14 Wing Greenwood’s 404 (Long Range Patrol and Training) Squadron.
May 30, on a late afternoon flight aboard the CP140 Aurora, Cameron-Kelly rolled the clock on 8,760 hours in the air over her military career.
“Now I can just relax and fly.”
Hah – Cameron-Kelly has had her logbook pencil sharpened and poised for over a year: in August 2022, she hit the 8,000-hour milestone, and figured she could make the year mark by the fall of 2024 if she got a crack at the pilot’s seat on as many training flights and airshow assignments as her squadron mates would give her.
“Congratulations, Mary,” said 14 Wing Commander Colonel Jeff Davis, visiting the 404 Squadron morning brief May 31 to look at some light-hearted pictures captured on the year-in-the-air flight, and present Cameron-Kelly with a command team coin.
“We’ll have that vision of Mary with her thumbs up, engrained in our heads. Those who fly aspire to a number. When I went through here as a young lieutenant, flying with Mary, I thought about 1,000 hours was good. Never once did I think I’d see 8,760 hours – a year in the air!
“Think about everything you do on a daily basis, and how long it would take to do that for a year.”
Davis, through his own postings at 14 Wing, has seen Cameron-Kelly fly with 404 Squadron and 405 (Long Range Patrol) Squadron.
“There is a whole history of things Mary has done in 20-plus years in Greenwood,” Davis said, including remembering his own flying time with Cameron-Kelly as they’d be getting ready to take off from somewhere, and she’d be lugging “a few things – a few extra pounds! – for the kids” up the aircraft stairs.
“On behalf of anyone you’ve ever worked with, trained, mentored – congratulations on this accomplishment.”
Cameron-Kelly, set to be inducted into the Canadian Aviation hall of fame in September, was the first female Royal Canadian Air Force maritime patrol pilot and, soon after, crew commander. When she joined the RCAF July 15, 1981, she tried to train as a pilot. She was rejected three times, working as an airframe technician, before she finally got into the pilot’s seat. Approaching 43 years in the military, she recognizes the “Operate as One” strength of the air crews and support personnel who made it all worthwhile.
“Thank you for your support,” Cameron-Kelly said. “I’ve enjoyed working with everyone, and the opportunity to teach new students – and I will for as long as I can.
“It’s been a wild ride, and I’ll take this moment in and have a look at everything. It’s a bit surreal.”
But – there’s a realness to the next number: Cameron-Kelly knows it’s been over 15 years since anyone flew a year in the air specific to maritime patrol. Her most recent milestone includes early military flying time on Tutors and Muskateers. The tight-knit maritime patrol community has it’s own “fleet thing” about a year in the air.
“I need about 300 hours more – that could be a year, a year-and-a-half away….”
