Hawk One – Centennial Flight

The history of the North American F-86 Sabre (and its variants like the Canadair Sabre models) is closely tied to the beginnings of the Cold War and famously with the Korean War battles with Russian MiGs. The Sabre, a swept wing, single seat air superiority fighter is long recognized as one of the finest fighter aircraft of all time and the Sabre 5 and Sabre 6 models built by Canadair at their Montreal plant are considered the most capable of all Sabres. Of the more than 9,500 Sabres constructed worldwide, more than 1,800 were built in Canada in six different variants.

The Canadair Sabre saw operational service both in Canada and with 12 squadrons at Royal Canadian Air Force stations in Europe as part of a large NATO commitment. The most spectacular paint scheme ever to grace the already graceful lines of the Sabre was the livery of the RCAF’s precision aerobatic team, the Golden Hawks. The Golden Hawks were created in 1959 to honour the 50th anniversary of powered flight in Canada and the Vintage Wings of Canada Sabre wears the same metallic gold paint scheme to  celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight in 2009.

Hawk One, a Canadair Sabre 5  takes off

 

The Snowbirds with Hawk One

 

The Centennial Heritage Flight: Hawk One, the demonstration CF-18 and Snow Bird 6

 

 

More images here

Birds over the Bay

I just happened to be merrily sun tanning on the water of the Bay of Quinte as the Snow Birds flew around practicing. Funny how I can do that!

The parade practise

Spot the zoomie at the parade practise!

 

more pictures in an album

The Air Force marches about

Yes, the a=Air Force does march, albeit in a manner that annoys soldiers and is bested by even the Navy.

 

Here we see the fine men and women of 8 Wing at CFB Trenton practising for the dedication of the RCAF Memorial Gate. The markers march in.

 

A quick walk out of the main gate to the South Side, onto highway 2 and down to the gate.

 

And the Wing marches through the gate and onto the parade square.

A busy day

A bright sunny day and everything is flying around the wing.

A CT-145 Beech Super King Air flying pilot proficiency circuits

 

A new home

An CC-130 Hercules landing as CC-130 130314, the oldest Canadian Herc is skidded  to it’s new home.

 

 

CC-130 number 130315,  the most worn Hercules in the world amassed over 45,000 hours of flight time. At cruising speed that’s enough flying time to have travelled a distance equal to the moon and back — sixty times.

 

112 images await you in a carlykb album

Parachute eating tree

This SAR tech was ambushed by a tree – a vicious tree!

Funny how he looks suspiciously like Ed Robertson of Ed’s Up and the Bare Naked Ladies…

 

Jets – nothing but

A CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A-310) landing in a secure air field.

 

CC-144 Challenger in VIP configuration,  being used for ongoing pilot proficiency flights.

The CC-130 Hercules is not a jet but what the hell – it’s awesome and this one dumped some SAR types out the back.

 

A whole pile more images await you in a girlgeekcat album

A grey day

If I was flying in an airplane that was going to land in a combat zone I’d probably be happier if it sort of blended into the sky.

 

This is image intensive but if you like combat airplanes and jets…

This won’t end well

Either I’m in the wrong place or this jet fighter is in the wrong place but either way, this won’t end well.