THRILL OF A LIFETIME
Citizen photographer Ashley Fraser slipped the surly bonds on the weekend with Snowbird 11 co-ordinator Capt. Paul Faulkner ahead of Sunday’s Aero150 air show at Gatineau Ottawa Executive Airport that also featured the Patrouille de France.
When you wake up with a smile on your face before your alarm goes off, you know you must be excited for something. Saturday will be a day I won’t forget anytime soon.
Snowbird 11 co-ordinator Capt. Paul Faulkner opened up his passenger seat in the Canadair CT-114 Tutor jet so I could get a chance to feel some Gs.
I showed up in the morning at Ottawa-Gatineau Executive Airport and met Cpl. Marc-André De-Serres. I tried to keep a cool face as he took me and another member of the media through safety procedures and scenarios. I was warned in advance I might start to get a little nervous in this fitting and training session. Hearing all the possible situations that could occur — a crash onto water, a crash on land, a crash in a wooded area — made my heart beat a little quicker, but I was still smiling.
I won’t be telling my mom those “what ifs”.
When the school side of things was over, everyone signed off, saying I was fit to fly. Now, a big pair of nervous eyes joined the smile. I had no idea what it was going to feel like or what I was really getting myself into.
I got strapped into the Tutor with the help of many on hand who were quick to give instructions on where to step and to refresh my lessons on what needed to be clipped and locked to what. Then it was go time.
The plane turns on a dime and just like that we’re rolling out to the runway, right behind Snowbird 10 co-ordinator Capt. Blake McNaughton.
Within seconds, we’re in the air. The pilots’ precision and meticulous attention to detail eases the nerves I think I’ve done a decent job hiding.
Once in the air, I tell Faulkner, “I feel like a kid.” It’s as if we’re weightless and floating. Weightless, that is, until the tight corners or when we speed up to catch the other Tutor. At one point, it feels like we’re children playing tag in a park, but the Snowbirds’ park is the clouds.
When prepping for the flight, the pilots asked if we had brought our boarding passes. The other reporter and I looked at each other, a little puzzled. The “boarding pass” was a small motion-sickness bag in case we vomited. After landing, Faulkner signed my empty bag, saying he’d known I wouldn’t get sick.
It was such an incredible opportunity. Words cannot truly express what I got to feel and just how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to fly with the members of the Snowbird team, a day in the clouds.