CANADA 2002

Text: Milan Simr

In 2002, I had the opportunity to travel abroad for the first time on business – to Canada. At that time, I was a Flight Safety Inspector and was responsible for investigating the causes of air accidents at the 32nd Tactical Air Force Base in Náměšť in an effort to minimize their chances of happening in the first place. This was an opportunity to see how they do it elsewhere. The month-long stay was paid for by the Canadian Ministry of Defense and was called the Military Training Assistance Program. Familiarly called the Shadow Program after the shadowing of the same position that I held at home. Learning and having the opportunity to see how they do it elsewhere was something that didn’t need a lot of thought to jump at. And if you can also fly with your colleagues from the FOC and have the opportunity to compare our respective training protocols, it was guaranteed to be an eye opener.

The date for my stay was pegged at February 2nd to March 21st, 2002, when the average temperatures ranged somewhere between -20 and -40 Celsius. Equipped with two large suitcases, in one a uniform with winter accessories and a flight suit, in the other enough warm clothes for a month, I set off for the Great White North.

During my stay, I had the opportunity to ride in the CF-188 Hornet, CT-155 Hawk, CC-130 Hercules and CF-5B Freedom Fighter. Unfortunately, my CF-5B flight was canceled due to bad weather. I also had my eye on the CT-114 Tutor, which served for forty years, until 2000, as a training aircraft and which is still flown by the aerobatic group Snowbirds, based at CFB Moose Jaw. Unfortunately, the Tutor was assigned to the AETE test unit at the base and was currently undergoing some work. As another legendary CT-133 Silver Star flew by, I was told that I was seeing a rarity - the last flight from the 417 Combat Support Squadron, where these machines had served since 1950. They just gave me the wrong date!

The CT-133 Silver Star served with the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment for a full 46 years and was being decommissioned during my visit to CFB Cold Lake. A total of 656 CT-133s were manufactured in Canada. The last of them were retired in 2005.

The plan of the trip was as follows: The first week of my stay was in Ottawa, where the Air Force Headquarters is located. Here I was given interesting lectures on Strategic Planning, Flight Safety, and the Hornet Modernization Program, among other things. The Air Force itself has three levels of command - the headquarters in Ottawa, then the 1st Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg, and then the individual air bases. I myself visited the Bagotville and Cold Lake bases, the 1CAD headquarters in Winnipeg, and I was also at NORAD headquarters, which is the air defense network of the USA and Canada, hidden deep underground in North Bay.

After the first week, I finally moved on to Bagotville Air Base, which is in the French-speaking eastern part of Canada. The reception at the 425th Squadron was a bit lukewarm, looking at me as something a bit exotic and worthy of some skepticism, but by the time we hit the local bar in the evening, we were all good friends. The next day I could choose the type of mission, and I opted for BFM (Basic Fighter Maneuvers). I wanted to see and feel how the birds can maneuver at their mode limits. I was assigned a young man named ‘Kraut’, but he was already an instructor at the squadron and the squadron commander ‘Boss’ – a very cool older bald-headed guy who would fly against us. I was also immediately reassured that Kraut possessed the necessary know-how for the task. My ‘assistant’, who put me in charge for the duration of my stay, Captain Eric ‘Gigi’ Girard, led me to the hangar to the check seat. He told me that he had to do his internship at the headquarters in Ottawa and would not be flying for a long time, so he was happy to be able to ride along now. He returned from France, where he flew Mirages for 3 years as an exchange pilot. This system of exchanges in Western air forces is intended to familiarize members of other air forces with the training process and mission planning where certain standards may differ slightly.

CF-188B 188 927 of 425 SQN Alouette/Skylark taxis for takeoff with the author in the rear seat, CFB Bagotville in the province of Québec.

An older lady, a specialist in seats, arrived. I strapped myself into a seat intended for testing and training and I was given a flash course on the restraint systems and possible malfunctions, as well as the process of ejection and handling the safety devices. There were about five mannequins hanging next to me, crash test dummies as it were. I was told that even though the supplied seat is a good one, Canada was in the process of modifying the release system and making slight improvements. The tests were being conducted on a specially modified old CX-133, whose rear cockpit was modified specifically for testing ejection seats. In other words, similar to what we once did in the MiG-15UTI research aircraft or later the MiG-21U.

Canada, due to its location and therefore minimal threat, does not use individual shelters at airports, as we know them from Europe, but the entire squadron is housed in one large hangar. It reminded me a lot of the bowels of an aircraft carrier. The squadron had fifteen Hornets, stacked in three rows of five next to each other with folded wings. The classrooms and pilot offices were under the roof around the perimeter of the hangar, so the pilots had a nice view of the planes all day long. The walls of the classrooms were decorated with large paintings of aircraft - scenes from air combat, including quotes from flying aces, including German ones. Downstairs, the corridors were equipped with glass display cases, where there were photos, aircraft models and artifacts from the country's aviation history. A real museum. Pride in homeland permeated from every decorated wall.

First Flight in a Hornet with Kraut

The day of my first flight didn’t start off very well, with a light snowfall but heavy wind and a temperature around minus forty, the runway under poor visibility. I was all the more surprised when Kraut arrived and announced an unexpected verdict: ‘Let's go!’ When he saw my Czech winter flight jacket, he lent me one of theirs from a colleague. Finally I strapped into the seat, half frozen but happy to fly. During the debate about the prevailing ‘scythe’, the Hornet technicians proudly informed me that their machines can go down to minus fifty. On an apron full of planes, there was only our crewchief and the one from Boss’s plane, who would be our sparring partner today.

CF-188A in front of the 433 SQN Porcupines hangar, CFB Bagotville. Of note is the colorful flag on the SOP, which is usually only gray.

A Hornet taking off from CFB Bagotville, shrouded in “white snakes” - ground fog caused by strong winds.

As we taxied to the runway, I still couldn’t believe the flight was a go. Kraut told me that in these parts, they call this condition ‘white snakes’, the way the wind plays with the snow on the taxiway. In one moment, you can see the runway, in the next, just white. We stopped next to the leader on the runway, where there had to already have been at least five centimeters of snow. ‘Let's go for it!!’ Kraut exclaims from the front. ‘Get ready, it's going to be a ride!’ Boss took off and left behind some decent tracks, shortly after taking off, retracted his gear and quickly disappeared into the low clouds as he transitioned into a climb. We took off in afterburner, but compared to what I'm used to in similar circumstances with our Sukhois, I wasn’t really all that impressed. After takeoff, there was mist all around us as we climbed in wisps of clouds and I prayed that the cloud tops weren’t too high and the weather was suitable for mock aerial combat. This meant cloud cover up to 4/8 coverage, to guarantee visual contact throughout the fight. For my peace of mind, however, we flew into an area where, miraculously, it was almost totally clear, with beautiful visibility and the ground in sight, which was snow covered. Both Hornets could then go into their simulated combat exercise. I heard the familiar command ‘Fight's On, Fight's On!! Kraut threw our hornet on its ear and Boss energetically disappeared from my field of view. After a while, I fix my gaze forward, where Boss appeared, and Kraut pushed full throttle. Moving like a bullet, we passed our opponent and spinned towards each other horizontally. Sunk back into my seat, I awkwardly tried to capture a few shots. In vain, the shutter was silent, being overloaded with 5-6g turns, so I had to wait. I at least watched the control surfaces of the wing and the powerful vortices flowing around the canopy. It's an amazing feeling, the g-force on your body and the vibrations of the entire aircraft. Kraut encouraged his commander with the words: ‘Good job Boss!!’, indicative of the above-standard relations within the squadron. Then Boss disappeared by crossing over behind and deep below us. We switched to vertical, even from the back seat I could see Boss below, picking up above the snowy lake and I managed a few photos during a short dive without excessive overload.

Boss was about a kilometer away from us and went into a climb, Kraut went into afterburner and tried to get behind him. We flipped over and Boss went into a tight, horizontal turn turn. The distance between us was quickly closing, I felt a large excess of speed, but Kraut refused to let himself get caught and increased his Hornet’s energy level and set himself up for an optimal distance for firing the cannon and remarked that ‘anyone can do it with a rocket!’. At that point, I lost the target, from which I deduced that my pilot had it in front of him and was on the defensive. ‘Terminated, Terminated’ was the signal to end the fight and move on to the next setup. Then we spun around each other a few times in a vertical scissors, nobody wanting to lose. For a while, it looked like we had Boss on the bucket list, when he executed such an energetic maneuver that even my hands with the camera outstretched fell into my lap. I then tried like a proper GIB (Guy in Back) to report the location of the bandit behind us. The view from the cockpit in the Hornet is excellent, just a little physically demanding. I was a little worried that my head would freeze up in the 9 o'clock position like so many people before me. I felt beads of sweat running down my back.

Finally, it was over, we were flying home in an open formation and Kraut let me ‘borrow’ the plane for a little while. I confirmed with the familiar ‘I have control’ and I accepted control of the bird. I'm only used to type-based approaches without maneuvering the target, which we practiced in our Su-22s. You simply tilt the aircraft towards the target from the starting point, and at the right moment, you switch to the opposite tilt on the approach curve. Then you just monitor the approach speed, reduce the tilt and try to get behind the target, put it in your sights and fire at a shooting distance of 300-600 meters, so that you select at least 200 meters from the target. Boss apparently wanted to make it a little harder for me, so he started maneuvering. I wanted to keep him a little more to the side, mainly not to cover him, so I climbed and gained some distance. Boss mumbled something into the radio, which I didn’t understand, but Kraut calmed me down: ‘Go ahead... he'll be behave himself and fly straight.’ That calmed me down. But the target was almost level, so now I approached at full throttle from a wide angle. Although I correctly assessed that I'm close and that after I've attacked the target I'd switch to a run from the other side, I put the aircraft on its ear and pulled up. Unfortunately, due to the total difference in the flight characteristics of the Su-22 and CF-188, I wasn’t 300 meters behind the target on the left side, as would happen if we were sitting in a Sukhoi, but the Hornet, shaking and vibratiing, found itself in formation on the right side about 50 meters from the target!! It completely took my breath away, Kraut being the first to recover and told me that he would like to fly again for a while! I was not surprised and obliged not surprised, Boss sticking to us in a tight group with me all sweaty looking for my camera. After a while I hear Boss announce ‘RTB’  (Return to Base), an unmistakable sign that today's circus was over. He performed a rollout, Kraut told me that we are the second to land using the ILS system and that the lower ceiling was around 200 feet and visibility at some 800 meters. I said to myself, no big deal. At that time, my minimum was 500 feet and visibility was 1.5 km. Kraut hands me the controls again, this time just a straight flight above the clouds. I looked at the slightly different, simplified ILS symbols from what I was used to and after flying into the clouds, Kraut took control and landed nicely in sailor's style - no trimming, and we sat down without bouncing. Apparently the landing gear is built for that. We left the runway, just white ahead of us, only wheel tracks that led to Boss's Hornet. We stopped near the groundcrew, folded the wings, inserted the locks into the landing gear and rockets. The weather was really bad, steel-gray clouds, snowing lightly and I thought to myself that in such weather we would definitely pack it up at home and call it a day without flying. I didn’t even want to get out again, I was full of impressions, but the sharp wind brought me back to reality and GiGi helped me out of my gear. We put away our helmets, pressure pants and vests. We went to the briefing, where the entire flight was replayed, including comments from the commander, pointing out mistakes and praise during turns. It even occurred to me that I had apologized for my almost ramming. Finally, after a successful day of flying, it was time to relax a bit with a bottle of beer and a bucket of popcorn. The young people confess what they managed to do today, and I saw that the pilot community is probably the same all over the world. We ended with a game of table football and a chat about my next job. We talked about their work in Europe and about tough missions around the world.

The commander of 425 SQN, Boss, poses for me before the start of the dogfight.

A happy author after his first flight in a CF-188B with Kraut at CFB Bagotville.

On our way west, we stopped in Winnipeg, home of the headquarters of 1 CAD – the First Canadian Air Division. While GiGi went to HQ to take care of some business, he left me at the nearby ‘Heritage Park’, which houses aircraft that once served in the Canadian Air Force. I gradually took pictures of aircraft placed on pedestals like the Texan, Saber and Voodoo. I was alone in the park, bundled up in a toque and a jacket, because it was at least twenty below zero outside. I noticed a police car driving slowly behind me, watching my photographic ‘catches’. I told myself that I'm probably in a public area, so it's likely just a case of due diligence. I was standing, about to take a picture of the last beauty, a CF-104 Starfighter in gray-green camouflage, mounted on a pedestal directly opposite the headquarters building. I was looking for an angle so that the building didn’t interfere and the blue sky in the background like with the other exhibits, so I searched for a position, but in the end I give up and just took the shot. I put my camera in my backpack in time to see a guy about the size of a mountain, all in black, get out of the car about twenty meters behind me and heading my way. It flashed through my head that I must have provoked him long enough and the photo of the headquarters building must have seemed suspicious to him. He came over to me and asks me what I was doing there and demanded documents. I noticed to my amazement he was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt.

I handed him my passport and told him that I am waiting for Captain Girard. I tried to crack a joke about whether or not he was cold, but he just glared at me and asked if I had any other documents. Fortunately, another cop walked towards him and together they entered a small building where the reception and security were located. After a long twenty minutes, they both come out and I got off without being arrested with GiGi in our car. There I learned about the measures taken after September 11, 2001, when police were required to be much more vigilant and that he had to explain to the policemen at length that I really was not a threat We went to try and get our appetites back by visiting the hangar, where we are welcomed by ‘Frog’ - a display pilot of the CF-5B and a former Demo pilot on the Hornet in the 2000 season. He showed me the last two airworthy aircraft of this type and shocked me with the sentence: ‘Tomorrow we will fly in it together!’ He showed me the cockpit and HUD, explaining the symbology and what is where in the cockpit. And since we were in a civilian hangar, I could take photos to hallelujah and back including a bunch of detailed shots. The machines were in Aggressor schemes, camouflaged from below in three shades of gray and blue-gray. A false canopy was also painted on the bottom of the aircraft, where the cockpit was. A simple but effective measure to confuse the position in the heat and confusion of combate, when the bandit can be confused whether you are turning away from him or towards him. We can still see this trick on Canadian Hornets, but also in Europe, for example on Hungarian Gripens or Slovak Albatroses.

That night I couldn’t sleep much and the new day brought a beautiful frosty morning with a blue sky. We arrived at the airport and the weather suddenly began to rapidly change to the point where it started to snow. Frog showed me the old Bell phone on his desk. He picked it up and to my amazement, the thing was fully functional. He called the weather forecast tower. The final verdict was cruel: ‘You can't fly like that, there's a queue for the whole day.’ I cursed and Frog explained the rules to me. Passengers can only fly under VFR, meaning in more or less sunny weather. In the evening, Frog inviteed me to other target rich environments, first taking us to a nearby HOOTERS to get something to eat, and then on to BOOMERS - a strip bar for a drink and to massage the tired eyes. He told me what a great place he was in now. Two pilots, two machines - no operational flying, just the pure joy of flying. I quite envied him. The next day I at least get a ride in a Hercules. It was a training flight far north. The destination was a windy provincial airport with the only plane in sight at the threshold of the runway – the wreck of a Curtiss C-46 Commando transport plane. After a touch and go we flew a level flight along Hudson Bay to a nearby large lake, where they wanted to show me polar bears, but unfortunately they all must have gone south for a break from the cold. After landing I said goodbye to GiGi and got a new guide, Fuji, who would take me on to Cold Lake.

There was a promise that the next stop on my journey would truly be its highlight.

And they were absolutely right. Cold Lake is the largest air base in Canada, both in terms of the number of aircraft and units active there and the scope of training. We found a squadron of CT-155 Hawks there, ready to provide advanced training for future supersonic pilots. The largest group of pilots in the NFTC program (NATO Flying Training in Canada) was from Great Britain, but we also met pilots from Italy and Singapore. Likewise, the instructor team includes Britons, Italians, Germans and Danes, each with more than 4,000 hours of flight time. This program began in 2000 and had already trained hundreds of pilots in its courses. Intensive training is carried out at the Moose Jaw and Cold Lake bases, basic, advanced and combat, on CT-115 Hawk and CT-156 Harvard II aircraft. Individual phases last between three and five months, depending on the weather.

Cold Lake was home to the 419th Tactical Training Squadron, which at the time operated eight CT-155 Hawk aircraft under the civilian company Bombardier. It ran about seven courses per year, each with eight cadets who were destined to eventually fly fourth generation aircraft, at the time leading edge stuff.

Canada has enormous experience in training, hundreds of pilots having passed through its facilities already during the Second World War. Its biggest advantage is its area and thus the almost unlimited possibilities of training space. These are located only twenty-five kilometers north of the base. CLAWR (Cold Lake Air Weapons Range) is unparalleled with its area of ​​7,200 square kilometers and a vast number of firing ranges. You can fly here without any restrictions and there are dozens of stationary targets on the ground. Want to practice hitting an airfield? There are a few faithful simulations of entire such facilities, including runways and taxiways, planes on the ground, hardened shelters and various buildings. There is good reason why Cold Lake hosts one of the largest exercises, Maple Flag, similar to the American Red Flag counterpart. In the final phase of training, it is also possible to use functional mobile radars, mounted on Hummer off-road vehicles, imitating enemy air defense systems.

I arrived at Cold Lake on a weekend, so I finally had some time just for myself and the promise of some rest. The three weeks were so packed with programs that there was no time to rest, let alone absorb the individual experiences. Every day I was invited to someone's family or to the pub for a chat. And some beer...and then something a little harder. Tasting for the first time dishes like mussels, lobsters, smoked salmon, buffalo steaks, etc. The entrance to the base was amazing, it really is a city with everything that belongs in one. The huge area of the base was completely fenced in. We passed a gas station, a golf course, soldiers' family homes, nicely allocated in size and location according to rank and function. Countless shops, restaurants, two ice rinks, one swimming pool and lots of buildings - dormitories, capable of accommodating hundreds of people for the needs of military exercises, courses, etc.

Some rest would only benefit me. This wish came about two hours after I checked into one of the many hostels on this base. I set off alone to explore my ‘territory’ and on the way to the restaurant I encountered the history of the Canadian Air Force in the form of monuments and aircraft. F-101 Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, Dakota Pinocchio, so called because this specimen had the radar from an F-104 grafted onto its nose, supposedly for crew training. Behind the fence of the second, inner sector, home to hangars and runways, I spotted a yellow civilian Sabre with the inscription AIR SPRAY.

The good old Dakota with a radar mount on the nose from an F-104 Starfighter, nicknamed “Pinocchio.” 

I met a group of British cadets in a restaurant, sat down and we started talking. They were raw cadets, so when I introduced myself and listed the types I've flown, the L-29, 39, MiG-21 and Su-22, I was suddenly somewhat exotic and they ordered me a drink. I myself ordered a beer for everyone and to my surprise, the waitress brings over a pitcher with a liter of beer (or at least something that was yellow). I ask for a pint and she brought ten shot glasses. Well, when in Rome.... I understood that the pitcher was for all of us The group set off but told me to wait in front of the hostel at 1800h, that we would go to an aviation themed costume party. Right on time, a long limousine pulls up and glaring at me from the windows were people in wigs and painted shirts. I understood that it was them and we were going in to the city. At the ball, I met instructors from all over Europe, had some great conversation and all in a ll, just a blast of a time.

Shooting at Practice Targets

On Monday, I finally got behind the inner fence where the Sabre was parked. I discovered that it had a suspended laminate target for live fire training. It was not unlike the type that our L-39ZA Albatroses carried in Thailand. The weather was beautiful and sunny outside, but the temperature was again below minus 25. After a while of looking around, I went to warm up in the hangar, where two more targets are lying on the ground and I began talking with an older gentleman standing by the them.

An Air Spray civilian Sabre C–BGUI at CFB Cold Lake. Air Spray operated here as a contractor for live-fire exercises using a towed target. 

The author at CFB Cold Lake with the pilot of the Sabre tow plane before our flight to the firing range. Behind us are fiberglass targets for other interested parties.

He told me that he was the pilot of the yellow Sabre and that he had been flying this type for perhaps forty years. He flies for the civilian company Air Spray, which provides these special services for the Canadian army. He said that he had a few missions scheduled for the afternoon with pilots from the 410th Cougar Squadron. Imagine my surprise when they told me on the flight deck that I would be flying an aerial shooting exercise. I was assigned ‘Dewy’, who introduceed me to what what I could expect in the air. We flew in pairs with another Hornet. Unfortunately, the Sabre took off before us, so the chance for some rare photos never even presented itself. He flew himself to a designated area, released the target and unwound the tow rope to a length of about 1500 feet, started circling and waited for the fighters. We watched the video, and I was pretty surprised at how far below the aircraft the target sank.

Dewy introduced me to the Canadian pilot's qualification expansion in the form of courses and pointed to the patches on his overalls - Fighter Electronic Warfare, Advance Radar, Fighter Weapons Instructor. The conclusion was that some target shooting was a pretty routine thing for him. It was freezing outside for me, but the locals praised the same day I was experiencing as ‘warm and sunny’. I always get a chill down my spine when it's at least minus twenty-five outside and someone invariably goe to a vending machine to grab a Coke and doesn’t forget to first put a load of ice in their cup. Different country for sure!

Our Hornet is waiting n the apron, ready to go. By this time, I am able to strap in faster. I noted that there were no weapons experts buzzing about like I see at home during firing exercises.

Unfortunately, we took off individually again, apparently for safety reasons, so no photos in a tight group. We few into the designated airspace and Dewy reported from the front in an annoyed voice that there would probably be nothing to come out of the exercise today. The defogger on the windscreen is not working and I leaned to look past him as he tries to clear of the condensation manually with his hand.

Meanwhile, the first Hornet made contact with the target, took up the agreed height above it and the position outside the circle described by the Sabre. Dewy fought the ice forming on the windscreen and made an improvised scraper with something like a credit card. Resigned to the fate that we would not be shooting again, we flew in and joined the circle with our number one, which flew opposite and at our level. He went into a dive, but I could not make out the actual firing. After a while, Dewy informed me that things have improved a little and that he would try. I spotted the Sabre in the distance at a fairly high angle, the target sure to be somewhere below it. We leaned over the wing, a loud burst of about two seconds was heard that reverberated through the plane as the six-barrel 20mm Vulcan cannon in the front did the talking. We gradually took turns with the bursts, us making four and we were empty. We flew home in as a loose group. The target was in signal red-orange colors, so that it was clearly visible in the winter sky and against the ground. But I have also seen targets that are all white.

A pair of CF-188Bs with an unoccupied rear cockpit are starting their engines.

After landing, I were more Hornets on the apron getting ready to head out. The squadron uses mostly two-seat machines, as it is intended for training purposes, including incoming exchange pilots from other countries. I saw that I am not the only ‘exotic’ here, hungry for a ride, but I also met general aviation specific journalists, people from television channels who have come to do articles and reports. Of course, the personal flight experience were the proverbial icing on the cake.

As for permission to take photos, that varied from base to base. While at the ‘provincial’ base in Bagotville, there was no problem with taking photos. The best place at the airport was the control tower, under which the planes stopped for post-flight checks, folded their wings and slowly taxied to the stand. When I asked about the possibility of taking photos, the friendly air traffic controller allowed me to do so and added that she would intercede for me at home. I didn’t understand for a while until the second assistant revealed to me that the lady was the wife of the base commander. In short, you have to be a little lucky. At Cold Lake, after asking if I could take photos, three gentlemen visited me and assigned me one number on the stand. They didn’t understand why one machine wasn’t enough for me and politely explained to me that we were at the largest base and I couldn’t take photos of entire rows of aircraft, but only my own. They also skillfully positioned themselves and narrowed my field of view, so that only ‘my’ machine made it into the viewfinder.

A Flight in a Hawk with Stoner

Another day and another flight. This time with some slower competition. I met the Hawk instructor from the 419th Squadron, a giant of a man named Stoner. I would be with him for training with a cadet whose task the following day would be an introduction to the BFM fighter syllabus - the basics of fighter maneuvering. The goal was to teach the cadet to maneuver behind the target and find a way out of the approach. The target has a predetermined flight path, speed and other parameters. This makes the decision-making process easier for the fighter in the beginning, after that he just needs to follow the theory-backed experience and verify in practice that it works. We were designated as the target, the cadet to be sitting in the other plane with his instructor. I wondered if it would be a good time to ‘tidy up a bit’,  but Stoner calmed me down, saying that we would have twenty minutes just for me. I examined the canopy thinking that these boys go a little overboard with the Canadian maple symbols when it's pointed out to me that the leaf in the front of the canopy is actually splattered blood as an imitation of a bird strike. This guy thinks of everything!

After landing in a Hawk with the giant Stoner at CFB Cold Lake in Alberta.

The next day, the weather was nice, so we went for it. Takeoff was in pairs and I didn’t have a camera. I asked my instructor and he didn't look very enthusiastic, pointing out that we would be far from each other anyway and that a foreign object in the cockpit could do a lot of damage, so I left it at home. It's a shame, but if you don’t ask, you don’t find out, right?. We flew wing to wing into the zone to initiate the exercise and I regret the absence of a photo, because everything was so beautifully lit, with lakes and rocks below us. Stoner ordered the cadet in each setup what will follow and monitored his actions during the flight. Sometimes he wrote something down on the notepad on his knee.

When he is satisfied, we disengage and head back to base. Stoner turned over the controls to me and for twenty long minutes the bird is all mine. Compared to our training aircraft, the L-29 Delfin and the L-39 Albatros, I appreciate the higher engine thrust and shorter acceleration time. The plane has a swept wing and accelerates readily and noticeably after pushing the throttle forward. The view from the cockpit is good, from the rear cockpit as well, and Stoner lets me fly even at an altitude of around 300 feet. It seems to me that the Hornet hangs well in the air. I tried a few light maneuvers before we found ourselves just above the airport and I also tried a few low passes over the imitation runway. The weather was beautiful, completely clear and all around you could see beautiful lakes covered in snow, a few straight long roads stretching off before disappearing in the distance. The terrain here is relatively flat, so it is ideal for flights at low level. When I goofed up, the instructor corrected my course to the base and let me fly until landing. He gave me the recommended approach speed, he dropped the landing gear and flaps himself. The plane was stable even in a landing configuration and I had no trouble flying this phase of the flight. The runway was approaching, and in our last meter, I trimmed and let the throttle there, afraid that the plane might ‘fall’. The plane flies stretched out just above the ground, Stoner reported that we were about a centimeter above the ground, but the plane just doesn’t want to land. About a third of the way down the runway, he finally cracked and took over the controls - we were now about half way down the runway, but the runway is over 3 km long and he told me that we would better to repeat the circuit. He made a tight circuit and sat down, by himself. I remember a comment from a colleague who, while soaking in the landing, about the ‘fucking Czech landing’. As mentioned earlier...another country. After unstrapping and getting out of the plane, the necessary photo in front of the Canadian maple tree sign and off to someplace warm. Stoner was satisfied with my performance, laughed at the landing and added that he would let me solo if I learned to ease up on the throttle!

An example of the patina typical of all Canadian Hornets, mainly traces of graphite oil from the weapon pylons.

The eight Hawks were operated by a civilian company, Bombardier, with about forty employees. The 419th Squadron had its apron and buildings at the other end of the airport, away from the hangars of the 409th and 410th Hornet Squadrons. There was, and is, an extensive runway system at Cold Lake and it is used to ensure smooth operations for all squadrons based there, including the test and experimental squadrons, which used both the older Silver Star and Tutor aircraft and the newer Hornets.

The CF-188 aircraft were chosen in 1980, and 138 were delivered between 1982 and 1988. Only 80 aircraft were upgraded in two phases. The first phase was to include new software, radios, transponders, GPS, new displays, and night vision devices in 2001-2006. The second phase was to include data links, defense electronics, flight data recorders, and helmet-mounted displays in 2006-2009.

Weapon systems should include advanced multi-purpose infrared sensors, advanced AMRAAM and ASRAAM guided missiles, and precision munitions.

Cold Lake - this is the right place for the entire history of post-war aviation. You can admire all the types that saw service with the RCAF. Extremely friendly people everywhere. I just randomly remember a young local barber when I was admiring a framed pic of a Hornet in his window. He came out and surprised by my interest and my background, I finally left with the picture back to my room. The month flew by much too quickly, only memories and hundreds of photos remain. You can also enjoy a few of them here, and I hope you do.

A Tutor in the AETE experimental flight hangar at CFB Cold Lake. In the back right is a CT-133 Silver Star Mk.3 modified for ejection seat testing.