Stunt pilot ready for some ‘upside-down somersaulting’ at Wings Over Springbank
Capt. Brent Handy will put his biplane through its hair-raising paces later this month at the Wings Over Springbank Airshow.
But the Royal Canadian Air Force officer, who trains instructors overseeing the iconic Snowbirds aerial team, said piloting a replica First World War aircraft in a flypast last April to honour Canada’s Vimy Ridge centennial supplied a reality check on deathdefying.
Handy flew a replica of a Nieuport 11 biplane over the battlefield secured at great cost by Canadian and allied troops a century ago.
“They don’t fly themselves — you have to be on the controls every second,” said Handy, 39, noting that day last spring offered perfect flying conditions.
“The Battle of Vimy actually had horrid weather — rain, sleet, even snow while these pilots in open cockpits had to handle the cartridges ... and I went in there with 4,500 hours of flying experience, they were kids with maybe only four or five hours.
“It’s incredible what they did.” By comparison, Handy will be flying the friendly skies above the Springbank Airport July 29 and 30 aboard his Pitts Special, an acrobatic aircraft whose pedigree dates back to the Second World War.
The little red biplane he purchased four years ago will be taken to the limits of its maneuverability, said the 18-year military man.
“I’ll be going backwards, forwards, upside-down, somersaulting — anything I can do with it, I do,” he said
While the manoeuvres may seem almost suicidal to those on the ground, there’s plenty of method to what looks like madness, said Handy. The acrobatics are the fruit of extensive rehearsals and serial air shows, he said.
“We’re not actually thrillseekers ... I want the crowd to see something crazy and out of control, but I’ve practised it thousands of times, every manoeuvre goes exactly as I expect,” said Handy, who does eight to 12 air shows a year.
As a member of the military, he’s not only been a Snowbird but flown CF-18 Hornets, which will make appearances both in the air and on the ground at the Springbank show, said its producer, Sarah van Gilst.
“There’ll be a CF-18 from Cold Lake as a static display and people don’t get that close to that aircraft very often,” said van Gilst.
Other tarmac exhibits will be a Second World War B-25 bomber, a P-51 Mustang and an F4U Corsair, with the latter two aircraft also being piloted by aerial performers.
Van Gilst said she expects about 10,000 people to attend each of the event’s two days.
Tickets can be purchased by going to wingsoverspringbank.com.