Pilot lands a dream flight decades in the making

After three-quarters of a century, a former Calgary-based air cadet finally got to take to the skies in a glider.

After navigating two wars, a 75year career in aviation and adding a helping hand to one of Western Canada’s biggest aviation innovations, WestJet, 93-year-old Herb Spear finally got to pilot one plane he’s been waiting his whole life to try. A glider. “It was a great experience. I’ve often thought of doing it, but I never got around to getting into one of these things.” Spear said, as he took part in the Air Cadet League of Canada’s 75th anniversary celebration in Olds on Sunday.

Born in 1924, Spear took a liking to flying before he could walk, as his father was training to be a pilot prior to the Great Depression. But, like many other dreams, the decayed economy and subsequent Dirty 30s put an end to that ambition.

So it wasn’t until 1941, when he joined the Air Cadets at Currie Base in Calgary, that he got his first crack.

“We had about, I’m guessing, about 300 ragtag cadets. No uniforms, no officers, NCOs running it. In most cases, they (the cadets) went from the cadets to the air force.”

He, and thousands of others like him, wanted to do their part to help Canada in the Second World War.

But because of the length of training, which took him from Calgary to Montreal with a handful of stops in between, Spear never got the opportunity to fly a mission.

“After the war, the Air Defence command put up several Mustang (fighter plane) squadrons across Canada. They had one in Calgary, the 403 squadron, so I joined. I was there until 1964.”

Perhaps the most fascinating part about a 93-year-old who has seen a lot of the world from both the air and the ground, Spear seems far more comfortable while in the cockpit.

“You break the surly bounds of Earth. When you’re flying something like a Mustang, and you have a bunch of cumulus clouds around ... You can go up into the clouds and out of the clouds.” Spear said.

“There’s nobody there to tell you what to do or what not to do. It’s a great profession,” he added.

MIKE DREW Retired flight lieutenant Herb Spear, 93, returns to the ground after a flight in an Air Cadet glider at Netook Gliding Centre near Olds on Sunday. Despite a lengthy air force and civil aviation career, it was the first time he ever flew in a glider.