Canada's Youngest Pilot an Israel Supporter

It’s very hard to believe that a 14 year-old Canadian-born boy who has never attended a Jewish day school can speak Hebrew like an Israeli. That’s the case of Mike Domb, a grade 9 student at Fieldstone Day School in Toronto, who is Canada’s youngest airplane pilot.

Domb, whose father is Israeli and whose mother was born in Canada, speaks fondly of Israel. “When I was a child I took many trips to Israel and about a year ago, when I was in grade 8, I decided that I wanted to live in Israel,” he says. “I had my Bar Mitzvah in Israel and afterwards I stayed at a boarding school there. I didn’t really like the boarding school in Israel and it was hard being so far away from my parents so I came back to Canada. I still visit Israel all the time because I have family and friends there and I feel very comfortable in Israel.”

When he turns 18, Mike is hoping that he can enlist in the Israeli Air Force. This is no surprise considering that despite his youth, he recently received a pilot’s license which allows him to fly solo. He started flying at the age of 12 with his uncle who is a pilot as well. His dream was to continue to fly so Mike started a ground school course at Buttonville Airport, where he studied subjects such as Aeronautical Meteorology, Aeronautical Navigation, Airplane engines and the like. In a class where most of the students were between the ages of 30 and 50, Mike finished with top marks.

After ground school, Mike began training as a pilot in the air. He learned about engine failures, spins, steep turns, how to fly without being able to see out the window, and much more. “I always planned on my 14^th birthday to fly solo and to get my license. That’s the youngest you can legally be in Canada in order to fly solo. So, on June 25, on my 14^th birthday, I went to get my license,” he explains. “It was stormy and raining and I thought I wasn’t going to fly solo. Eventually the weather just cleared and I got a very short window and I flew one circuit around the airport, about 5 minutes, and right when I landed it started to rain.”

Mike currently flies a Cessna 172 and is based out of Toronto City Centre Airport. He trains with Canadian Flyers International, which is one of the largest flight training units in Canada, currently operating out of three bases in the Toronto area. It’s not easy to fly at City Centre Airport and he explains a bit about the danger he faces: “It’s very hard at City Centre because of the planes that belong to Porter Airlines. It’s dangerous when you fly a small plane behind a large plane like Porter’s. The planes disturb the air and if you fly too close to the plane it can literally tear apart the plane and turn it over and crash in a few seconds but I really like flying at City Centre because it’s a newer airport and you really feel like you’re doing something there.”

Seeing as he’s so prone to danger while flying, a question that comes to mind is what do his parents think about it? “When I first started to fly, my parents didn’t really want me to be a pilot,” Mike says. “They said ‘it’s okay to be a pilot, but you’re too young for this right now’. I kept asking them to let me do it and in the end they let me go to ground school, and afterwards I just continued to study.”

As we’ve already mentioned, he speaks Hebrew very well and is looking forward to enlisting in the IDF when he turns 18. “I’ve always wanted to go to the army when I get older. I really want to be a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. If I don’t get accepted into the Air Force then I’ll do something else in the army but the most important thing is going to the army. It’s very important to me.”

Mike’s father, Uriel Domb, who was born in Haifa, moved to the U.S as a child, and then subsequently returned to Israel to do volunteer for service in the Israeli Air Force (IAF). He returned to Israel to fight in Lebanon, Sinai, and the Six-Day War and has been returning for volunteer service, both in the military and as a civilian up until the war in 2006. He worked on the Apollo missions, with the first landings on the moon, and worked on Israel’s Ofek and Amos satellites. Mike says that his father’s work in Aeronautics and his service in Israel have contributed to his becoming a pilot and his desire to serve in the IAF.

Another inspiration for Mike to join the IAF is a friend who taught him Hebrew as a child: “When I was a child my parents wanted me to study Hebrew, and when we were walking along Eglinton Avenue we saw stickers advertising Hebrew lessons. It was a young man who had just finished his IDF service and was on a post-army trip in Toronto. He wanted to make some money while he was here so he was teaching Hebrew. We met him and I can’t even explain how and why, but we became very good friends. I felt like he was my older brother. We kept in touch even after he left Toronto and we spoke in Hebrew on Skype and on Messenger. He went on to travel in South America and then he was an El Al pilot. In 2006 he was killed in Lebanon. I’ve kept in touch with his parents and whenever I visit Israel I stay with them for a while. I think my friendship with him also contributed to my love for Israel and my desire to serve in the army.”

Should he become an IAF pilot, Mike hopes to continue flying professionally after his army service, perhaps for El Al or Air Canada. With his enthusiasm for flying, his excellent Hebrew and love for Israel, there’s no doubt that he’ll succeed in whatever he does.