Olds-Netook Airport

Olds-Netook Airport (identifier CFK6) is an aerodrome owned and operated by the Alberta Provincial Committee of the Air Cadet League of Canada. It is home to the Netook Cadet Flying Site — one of five cadet flying sites in the province that put Alberta cadets at the controls of a glider, and the only one the APC owns.

History

The name comes from the Blackfoot nee-tuck-kis — "lone pine tree".

The field dates to the early years of the Second World War. When the bulk of Royal Air Force training moved out of Britain and became part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in 1940, RAF — later RCAF — Bowden was created about 15 km to the north as the home of No. 32 Elementary Flying Training School. Netook was that school's primary relief landing field, and was used for army manoeuvres as well.

RCAF Bowden closed in September 1944. After the war the town of Olds leased the Netook property as a local airport, starting in 1951, and the Olds Flying Club operated it until moving to the new Olds-Didsbury Airport in 1982.

The Air Cadet Gliding Program began flying at Netook in 1968 and carried on there after the flying club left. The Alberta Provincial Committee bought the property in 1993 and has owned it ever since. A new hangar went up in the mid-1980s, and the site has seen continuous improvements in the decades since — eight decades on from the BCATP, it still trains young aviators.

Cadet gliding today

Through the flying season the airport hosts glider operations for the Alberta Air Cadet Gliding Program. Cadets who earn a place on a gliding course train here toward their Glider Pilot qualification, supported by APC-owned aircraft and volunteer staff. Netook flies both winch launches and aerotows, with two or more gliders on the line. It is a working aerodrome — visits are by arrangement with the gliding program only.