the snowbirds have been in the sky for 55 years. they bid canada day farewell (for now) | opinion
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the cf snowbirds flew over ottawa as part of the canada day ceremonies.
jean levac
/
postmedia
for generations of canadians, canada day in ottawa has included a familiar ritual: looking skyward for red-and-white jets.
with wednesday’s 1 p.m. flypast — heavy rains forced the cancellation of their 4 p.m. demonstration — the snowbirds’ iconic ct-114 tutor jets made what is expected to be their final canada day appearance, another milestone in the aerobatic team’s storied history.
it won’t, however, be the last chance for local fans to see the canadian-built jets. the snowbirds are scheduled to perform at the aero gatineau-ottawa air show sept. 18-20.
but that’s their last confirmed appearance in canada. two u.s. air shows remain in october, and there is still hope they could be cleared to perform a grey cup flypast in calgary in november.
after that, following a run of 55 years, the aircraft will be mothballed and the 431 air demonstration squadron, better known as the snowbirds, put on hiatus until new planes — turboprop swiss-made ct-157 siskin ii trainers — can replace the tutors. it’s expected that the snowbirds demonstration team won’t be flying again until the early 2030s.
at least that’s the current plan.
snowbird 11 co-ordinator: captain paul faulkner took postmedia photographer ashley fraser for a flight over ottawa in 2017. snowbird 10 co-ordinator: captain blake mcnaughton was in a second plane flying with faulkner over parliament hill.
ashley fraser
/
postmedia
canadian defence procurement has a habit of falling behind schedule, and changes in government can bring changes in priorities. but if the schedule holds, wednesday marked the beginning of the end not just of a fleet of planes, but of a distinctly canadian tradition.
you could see it on street corners wednesday, when people stopped whatever they were doing to look up and watch them fly past.
canadians love their snowbirds.
the snowbirds flew over ottawa as part of the canada day ceremonies.
jean levac
/
postmedia
former snowbirds commander and pilot dan dempsey has thought a lot about that relationship. when i asked him on canada day what went through his mind when he flew over parliament hill, his first answer was simply “pride.” but after reflecting on it — and after watching wednesday’s flypast on tv from his home in victoria — he emailed to offer a fuller response.
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“the more accurate answer would be the canadian flag,” he wrote. “that is what i see when the snowbirds do a flypast anywhere in canada. no organization flies the canadian flag more proudly or to more locations in canada than the snowbirds.”
and canadians, he says, feel they’re a part of that, which is why he believes most of us don’t think of the snowbirds as being part of the military, but rather as belonging to canada.
former snowbirds pilot dan dempsey, with golden hawk, a sabre plane, in a 2014 file photo.
kÂtÉ braydon
/
postmedia
dempsey remembers one canada day in particular. in 1990, the snowbirds celebrated their 20th anniversary and canada’s flag’s 25th as queen elizabeth watched from parliament hill. after its initial flypast, the team returned and performed the first-ever nine-plane canada burst directly over the peace tower, trailing red and white smoke.
what dempsey remembers most from that day, though, occurred after the air demonstration, when the snowbird team was brought onto the parliament hill stage that evening for an impromptu appearance. david foster introducing them and played his composition flight of the snowbirds while video of the jets was shown on a large screen.
“the thunderous and extended applause for our team that ensued that evening will forever represent the most humbling moment of my life,” dempsey wrote. “it was a proud day for all of us wearing the canadian flag on our red and blue flying suits.
“but it was so much more than that — it was a testament to how much the snowbirds mean to the people of canada as their aerial ambassadors and a symbol of national pride.”
there are numbers that support that contention: an article in rcaf today magazine in 2021 — marking the squadron’s 50th anniversary — estimated that the snowbirds had performed for more than 153 million spectators in over 460 locations in north america, including a single-day audience of 1.5 million, in huntington, california.
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the shows, however, are only part of the attraction. dempsey says meeting canadians after they land has always been important. he estimates that snowbird team members have signed well over four million autographs. at a stop last month at the canadian warplane heritage museum in mount hope, hundreds of people came just to meet the team — there was no air show. the team signed autographs for nearly two hours and delayed their departure rather than leave people waiting in line.
“that’s what the snowbirds are,” he said. “that’s who they are.”
snowbird 11 co-ordinator: captain paul faulkner took postmedia photographer ashley fraser for a flight in 2017. snowbird 10 co-ordinator: captain blake mcnaughton was in a second plane flying with faulkner.
ashley fraser
/
postmedia
one of the functions ascribed to the snowbirds is that of a recruitment tool for the canadian forces, and that was true in dempsey’s case. he was six years old in 1959 when his mother took him and his siblings to the national air force day air show at rcaf station rockcliffe here in ottawa — his father was on duty at the show as an rcaf military police officer. it was the first public performance of the golden hawks, the rcaf’s new aerobatic flying team, and dempsey says he was “mesmerized.”
four years later, a 10-year-old dempsey watched the golden hawks fly their last demonstration at mccall field in calgary, where his father took him to the fence following the show. as the aircraft taxied by, dempsey recalls the no. 7 pilot waving directly at him.
“that wave,” he says, “that was it for me. from that moment on, all i wanted to do in life was to fly in the rcaf and someday maybe make an aerobatic team.”
certainly the snowbirds have inspired generations of canadians like dempsey to become military pilots, engineers and technicians. but they’re rousing in other ways, too. i recall meeting a woman one canada day who drove to ottawa from brockville just for the flypast. she didn’t need or want any of the other canada day festivities — just the roar of the jets overhead.
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perhaps, then, the snowbirds’ larger legacy has simply been to inspire others to look skyward and imagine what they could do.
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