Helping the next generation soar

Before they took off from Springbank Airport, Kelly Bartley made sure her passenger understood what to expect. She was studying aviation at Mount Royal University, and she took the pre-flight briefing seriously, even though the person beside her was her boyfriend, Shaun Chornley.

Chornley, who married Bartley in 2004, remembers listening as she worked through her checklist and explained what to do if something went wrong.

“Holy cow, this is pretty serious,” he thought.

Then they were airborne, flying over Cochrane and towards the Rocky Mountains, before returning to Springbank.

“I can't believe that I'm in a plane with you, and you're flying this thing,” Chornley remembers thinking. More than two decades later, that flight remains one of his favourite memories of his soon-to-be wife.

For Bartley, being in the cockpit was the realization of a dream that was years in the making.

A dream worth chasing

Her love of flying began long before she arrived at Mount Royal. Bartley's father had wanted to become a pilot, but he couldn't meet the vision requirements. Instead, he spent more than 30 years working for Air Canada as a ground agent. Bartley grew up travelling, spending time around aircraft and discovering an enthusiasm for aviation that never left her.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba, Bartley began working for Winnipeg's Parks and Recreation department, where she met Chornley. He was her supervisor at one point, and admits they both enjoyed inventing reasons to stop by the various drop-in centres where the other would be working.

“She'd be like, ‘Do you need basketballs?’ ” he recalls. He was happy to find an excuse for a delivery.

Their friendship eventually turned into a relationship, but Bartley knew she wanted an aviation career, and she was prepared to make a significant change to pursue it.

In 2001, she moved to Calgary to study at Mount Royal, while Chornley remained in Winnipeg working as a police officer. For two years, they maintained a long-distance relationship, and Chornley frequently travelled to visit her on his days off.

At the time, in her late-20s, Bartley was the oldest student in her aviation class, but that didn't deter her.

Shaun admired the way she “just went for it and pursued her dream.”

A lasting impact on those around her

Bartley's classmates remember a close-knit group of students balancing the pressures of college courses and learning to fly, far from their families. Her warmth, humour and aviation knowledge helped her cohort through stressful evaluations.

“She held us all together with her high spirits,” her classmates wrote in a tribute that now appears on the Kelly Bartley Memorial Award page.

For Chornley, those words describe the woman he knew. Bartley could make a room full of strangers feel at ease, often using humour to break the ice. She noticed when someone was sitting alone and went out of her way to include them.

After graduating, Bartley worked in flight operations before securing a position as a pilot. She was determined to succeed in an industry where, she says, women often felt they had to prove themselves.

Chornley tells a story from Bartley's time flying in northern Canada. In temperatures around –50 °C, Bartley and a colleague discovered they needed to load a snowmobile into an aircraft. Rather than stand back, she rolled up her sleeves and helped lift it aboard.

It was the kind of challenge she took in stride, and she cared deeply about making aviation a place where other women could thrive.

When their children, Shea and Payton, were born, Bartley chose to spend less time away from home. She was later recruited as an aviation safety inspector with Transport Canada, a role that kept her connected to the industry and continued taking her to the northern communities she loved visiting.

As proud as she was of her career, Chornley says nothing mattered more to Bartley than her children.

She also wanted them to understand the world she loved: During a family trip through Calgary, she brought them to Mount Royal's aviation facilities, proudly showing them the aircraft and the place where she had once prepared flight plans.

A legacy that lives on

Bartley died in 2024 after a long battle with breast cancer. Her loss was felt far beyond her immediate family, with her husband estimating that more than 1,000 people attended her memorial service — pilots, neighbours, hockey parents, friends and former colleagues from across Canada.

“You just felt better in her presence,” he says. “And when she passed away two years ago, there was a huge void and hole in the community."

Among those determined to honour her were her former Mount Royal classmates. Together, they initiated the Kelly Bartley Memorial Award to support future aviation students and celebrate the friend whose encouragement had meant so much to them.

For Chornley and his family, the gesture has been deeply moving.

“It means everything to us,” he says, reflecting on the fact that classmates from so many years ago wanted to create something in her memory. “We're honoured, and it makes our family feel so amazing to know that her legacy is going to continue, and she'll be able to touch others through this award,” he says.

Helping future Mount Royal aviators

The award also reflects something Bartley believed in, which is making the most of an opportunity, even when taking it means stepping outside your comfort zone.

“It's never too late,” Chornley says. His hope is that students who learn Bartley's story will be inspired to follow their passions, just as she did when she moved to Calgary to become a pilot.

That opportunity is growing at Mount Royal. In October 2025, MRU opened its new Springbank Aviation Campus, with expanded hangar space, modern classrooms and additional flight simulators to support the next generation of aviation professionals.

It is the same airfield where Bartley once took Chornley into the sky, and where future students will continue to discover what is possible.

Chornley finds comfort in knowing that, through the memorial award, Bartley can still help someone else move toward a dream. This Giving Day, contributions to the Kelly Bartley Memorial Award will help ensure her passion for aviation continues to inspire future students.

When asked what he would tell Bartley about the difference she continues to make, his answer is simple.

“You're still doing it.”