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Pandemic grounds Snowbirds' training, shows

MOOSE JAW — Owing to its airborne capabilities, the novel coronavirus is making an impact thousands of feet up in the air, grounding the Snowbirds air performance squadron at 15 Wing Moose Jaw, for now.
Snowbirds
Snowbirds team lead Maj. Jean-Francois Dupont prepares for a launch at 431 Squadron, in Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw, Sask. on March 3, 2020. Photo by Master Cpl. Mathieu St-Amour

MOOSE JAW — Owing to its airborne capabilities, the novel coronavirus is making an impact thousands of feet up in the air, grounding the Snowbirds air performance squadron at 15 Wing Moose Jaw, for now.

The Snowbirds are pausing their training and delaying shows for the 2020 season.

“We don’t know how long it’s going to last. We remain very flexible, but what we want to do is protect our most important asset, our people and everybody else,” said Maj. Jean-Francois Dupont in an interview this week.

He’s the team lead with the Snowbirds, also referred to as the 431 squadron.

The training pause is to help promote social distancing measures and flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections as the virus spreads across the country, he said.

Along with the nine pilots who perform the aerobatics shows across North America each year, the squadron is made up of roughly 75 ground crew and support members.

“Currently all of our people are on duty, but they're in their homes. If we need to be called to do something then we can go back to flying,” Dupont said.

The squadron’s normal performance schedule was set to start in early May, with the first show originally planned for Selfridge American Forces Base in Michigan; now that show is to be held the weekend of June 6 to 7.

The shows nearest to southeast Saskatchewan this year are to be held in Thompson and Portage la Prairie, Man. on June 17 and the weekend of June 20 and 21, respectively.

That’s assuming social distancing and crowd gathering directives are by then lifted. On March 30, the Manitoba government’s public health order came into effect; it prohibits people gathering in groups larger than 10 people, in public and in private settings, indoors and outdoors.

The Snowbirds have 29 shows scheduled across North America for the 2020 season. None are slated for Saskatchewan; last July, Moose Jaw hosted the Snowbirds and the first Saskatchewan Airshow in 14 years.

Among the squadron’s schedule is a Canada Day performance in Ottawa. Its last show is set for the weekend of Oct. 10 to 11 in Houston, Tex. That state has reported more than 7,200 COVID-19 infections, with 140 deaths due to the virus.

Dupont said the current group of pilots was “progressing very nicely” in its training. “We were about three-quarters of the way to where we needed to go with it.”

Each year, “a formation could be slightly different, but the skills required to fly that formation is roughly the same. So for the senior pilot returning, often the training to get to those different formations is very minimal.”

The Snowbirds welcomed three new pilots to the team for the 2020 season, which meant they first needed to learn basic formations and then move to advanced ones, Dupont said.

All nine pilots fly a Canadair CT-114 Tutor jet, a subsonic jet-trainer, according to the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. The jets are designed and built in Canada.

During a performance, pilots reach a maximum altitude of 6,000 feet, or 1,828 m. They can push their jets’ speeds up to 590 km/h, or 320 knots.

Pilots who join the Snowbirds are Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, having several years’ worth of experience flying aircraft.

For example, Dupont previously flew with the Snowbirds for three seasons, from 2010 until the end of 2012. Prior to that, he worked as a pilot trainer and instructor on the CT-156 Harvard II.

Prior to returning to 15 Wing Moose Jaw to re-join the Snowbirds in 2018, he flew a transport and rescue helicopter, a CH-149 Cormorant, out of Comox, B.C., on Vancouver Island.

He, along with the other members of 431 squadron are now at home self-isolating, until they get the go-ahead to resume training.

Dupont said approximately half of the members are living at the 15 Wing Moose Jaw base, while the other half is at their homes in Moose Jaw.

He insisted that despite the headaches of stopping training and confining themselves to home, it’s a relatively painless transition for the unit’s members.

“In perspective, stopping what we’re doing right now and helping stop the spread of the virus; it’s not a huge deal compared to what other people are going through, when they’re sick or when they don’t have a job,” he said.

Evan Radford is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the Regina Leader-Post