Lorna Vivian deBlicquy

Lorna Vivian deBlicquy was a successful pilot both in the air and in advocating equality for women in aviation. Born in Blyth, Ontario on November 30, 1931 to Vivian Morcombe "Morrie" Bray and Nora Eileen Bray, Lorna was the youngest of their three children, following a sister, Phyllis, and a brother, Harry, who served as a bomber pilot with the RCAF during the Second World War. While attending school, Lorna worked part-time to pay for lessons and began flying a Piper J-3 Cub with the Atlas Aviation Flying School in Ottawa in 1946. She soloed at age 15 and earned a Private Pilot Licence at 16.

In April 1948, at age 17, Lorna became the youngest person in Canada to make a parachute jump. 

In 1952 Lorna earned a Commercial Pilot Licence and began her career working as a navigation clerk at Spartan Air Services. In 1953, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton University in Ottawa. That year she married geologist Tony Nichols and the couple lived in a mining camp tent near Thompson, Manitoba, for "two years, three months and fourteen days!" Lorna would say. She flew her own Aeronca Chief on floats, but was eager to use her commercial licence.

She applied for a job with Taylor Airways in Wabowden, Manitoba, flying a Waco biplane on floats to transport native people,supplies and fish, thus becoming among the first women to fly professionally in Manitoba. In 1956, Lorna and Tony moved to Sudbury, where she earned her Class III instructor rating. For five years part-time she taught students to fly with wheels, floats and skis, while teaching high school full-time at Nickel District Collegiate in Sudbury from 1956-58.

In 1962, Lorna's marriage ended and she took up barnstorming with an Aeronca Champ in rural Quebec and flew as a flight instructor at Bradley Air Services in Carp, Ontario. At the Kingston Flying Club she earned a Class II instructor rating and met Dick deBlicquy, a fellow pilot whom she married in 1963. The couple flew in the Canadian Arctic during the summer and in New Zealand during the winters of 1963-65, flying Auster, Tiger Moth and Cessna 185 aircraft on scenic flights and towing gliders. Lorna instructed at the Wellington and Marlborough Aero Clubs. During those years she flew sightseeing tours and earned a multi-engine endorsement and a Private Glider Licence. Returning to Canada, Lorna was an instructor for the Ottawa Flying Club in 1964-65. In 1966 she earned an endorsement to teach instruments and gave birth to her daughter, Elaine. The next year she flew with her baby to Resolute Bay in a Piper Apache, and having obtained a Senior Commercial Licence, was checked out to fly the de Havilland Beaver in the Arctic. Her first operation was to fly a Beaver of Atlas Aviation equipped with tundra tires to retrieve her husband and passengers from a glacier on Ellesmere Island, stranded when an engine failed on their Twin Otter.

For the next few years, Lorna and Dick flew a Twin Otter and she spent a summer flying a Beaver as air support for a Department of National Defence research program on Ellesmere Island. In 1970 she obtained a Commercial Rotary Wing licence in Ottawa flying a Bell 47 helicopter. Another summer was spent in the Arctic, and in 1970 she won an Amelia Earhart Award from the women's aviation organization, the Ninety-Nines, and used the scholarship to finance a Class I instructor rating in 1971.

Lorna was awarded the President's Trophy from the Ottawa Flying Club in 1971, and having earned a Class I IFR rating she received an Airline Transport Pilot Licence in 1972. In 1977 she was one of the first women to become a Designated Flight Test Examiner for the Department of Transport. However, she continued to see discrimination against female pilots. Applying for a position, with 6,000 hours in her log book, she was not even called for an interview when two former students were hired. The incident prompted her to speak out against discrimination, writing an editorial for Canadian Flight magazine, being interviewed on radio talk shows, and receiving national media coverage for her views.

Historian and author Shirley Smith Matheson has written of Lorna deBlicquy in her book, Flying the Frontiers,

"Her nemesis was the sociopolitical field that surrounded job opportunities for women in aviation. Designed and controlled largely by male government officials - many of whom were ex-military personnel the wording and implications contained in the regulations made it extremely tough for females to win any of the job competitions advertised by the Department of Transport."  

Lorna made her position known again when in 1976 she applied for work with the Department of Transport in flight training standards and the job went to someone less experienced. Her complaint to the Department resulted in a change of hiring policy and positive results followed. The next year she was hired as the first female civil aviation inspector in Canada, working out of the Toronto office, commuting from home in Ottawa. She was responsible for flight testing instructor candidates as well as doing commercial and multi-engine flight tests.

When Canada endorsed the position of the International Civil Aviation Organization that pregnancy is a disease, Lorna served on a Canadian committee related to pilots' medical standards. As a result, some leniency on the loss of a Category I medical classification during pregnancy was granted to women pilots.

From the late 1960s to 1977, Lorna flew a variety of aircraft including Cessna and Piper types and twin-engined Aero Commander, Aerostar and Beech 18. From 1950 to 1972 she flew in eight Angel Derby races and Powder Puff derbies, as well as the Greater Burlington Centennial Seaplane Race.

Her accomplishments resulted in many awards. In 1992 she received the Award of Excellence of the National Transportation Week. In 1993, Lorna was the first female recipient of the prestigious Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy from the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, an award established in 1927. In 1994 the Aero Club of Canada awarded the Tissandier Award to Loma for her dedication to aviation activities.

Lorna and Dick were divorced in 1993. After over 50 years of flying, she retired in 1999 and remained active with the Ninety-Nines, continuing to encourage women to pursue careers in aviation. She received honourary life memberships from the Ottawa Flying Club and the Ninety-Nines, and was the first Canadian to be inducted into the International Women in Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame. Fourteen years before her death on March 21, 2009, in 1995 Lorna Vivian deBlicquy was awarded the Order of Canada.

Lorna flew over 25 types of aircraft. Of 10,478 hours in the air as a pilot, she spent half as an instructor, over 1,500 hours on multi-engine types and over 1,300 hours testing candidates for various licence endorsements.

Lorna deBlicquy was inducted as a Member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame at a Ceremony held in Calgary, Alberta on May 30, 2014.