The Eagle has landed, actually, make that the Canadian Armed Forces Parachute Team-the Skyhawks, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, and CF-18 Demonstration Team. All three will be performing in the skies over North Bay for two days starting with Armed Forces Day at the Canadore Aviation Campus Friday morning, from 10 until 2 in the afternoon.
Saturday's events begin at 5 p.m. at the waterfront.
Captain Matthew Kutryk of Royal Canadian Air Force is looking forward to flying his CF-18 in a twilight show on Saturday.
"It's going to be a unique twilight show because it's going to be over water as well. We do train to do that, but this will be the first time actually performing that show," said Kutryk.
The CF-18 Demonstration Team pilot says he will be doing high-performance maneuvers, which will showcase the aircraft in a 'different light'. Kutryk says when all the systems are on line, it looks like a Christmas tree, with flames coming out the back. He says flying at twilight is a bit of a game changer.
"The light is much, much lower as we transition into night, those visual references are totally different. I'm using my systems a little differently. I'm seeing a much different sight picture, not seeing as much detail on the ground and not seeing the horizon in the same light as we do in the middle of the afternoon essentially," said Kutryk.
Lieutenant Jennifer Halliwell is the Public Affairs Officer with the CF-18 Demonstration Team. She explains the aircraft flown by Kutryk is painted to commemorate Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation.
"It has a beautiful stylized maple leaf, the Canada 150 symbol on top of it which really pops while it's flying, so although it looks really good from the ground, it looks way better during the performance in flight, and was painted specifically with that in mind" said Halliwell.
The bottom of the jet is still painted like an operational CF-18.
"It's still that gray colour, and that's to reflect the part that not only are we celebrating Canada's 150th, but the RCAF is a big part of that, and they have a great history overseas on operations with the CF-18's, and the bottom reflects that."
The Canadian Armed Forces Parachute Team, the Skyhawks, is Canada's only military parachute demonstration team. Sergeant Simon Laprade says the lead up to Canada150 celebrations has been very busy, but exciting at the same time.
"Everybody wants us, and they want us to represent Canada well,' said Laprade. "The Canadian flag is our canape. There will be 14 jumping. If the cloud is lower than 4,000 feet we are not able to jump and if the wind is higher than 18 knots we're not going to be able to jump."
After taking a small pause from its tour schedule to get in some extra training, Captain Blake McNaughton, Snowbird 10 with the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, says the team is back and ready to go, and it is excited about being in North Bay. He also serves as the advance and safety pilot. On performance day he monitors the show to make sure everything is safe and effective for the crowd.
The Snowbirds can perform any one of three shows, depending on weather conditions. The unrestricted high show is fully aerobatic with a lot of high vertical maneuvers. The modified high show offers a few minor adjustments depending on cloud cover. The low show is performed on days when the cloud ceiling is extremely low, but as long as it's safe to fly, they will be airborne.
"You're going to see nine plane looping maneuvers. You're going to see tight formations. You're going to see solo crosses. It's going to be looping, rolling, 300 knots down to 300 feet, it's going to be like nothing you've ever seen," explained McNaughton.
The Captain is looking forward to meeting some of the students who will be in attendance at Armed Forces Day Friday. McNaughton says for him, his career is all about the pursuit of excellence, a message he wants to share with the youngsters.
"There's nothing like going after your dream and trying to do it to the utmost of your abilities, and each day, trying to be better than you were the day before that." He went on to explain, "that's a lesson that all our youth can take on board and apply to anything they're interested in."
