Taking care of my father right now, farm land our family owns has part of CFB Moose Jaw's landing lights on it, our land there is overflown every day. Even in the city where my father's other home is, there is constant noise from the Hawks and Snowbirds - sound of freedom, to me it's never a bother, it's good times.Originally Posted by jutes
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A couple years ago my uncle was working on one of our fields, and found a bag laying in his path. It had in it a bunch of CF Uniforms and assorted Snowbird memorabilia/etc. He took it to the base, turns out a hatch had popped open on a Tutor after take off the previous year, and the bag fell in our field. The officer to whom it belonged was very happy to get it back, as it had some of his ID and other stuff you really want to keep track of.
I posted this vid in the thread earlier, it in the vid you can clearly hear the engine pop from the bird strike, compressor stall or some other failure, but at 1:34 forward in this vid, it's pretty loud/evident around 1:39 or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Og_7sqU7s
Be nice if the team got some newer/better aircraft, doubt it'll happen anytime soon. It's my parent's home squadron, my dad worked with the base quite a bit at the end of his career in law enforcement, and my mother taught at the base much of her career. She's buried in the cemetery right next to the base, for the last 2 years, and when she was buried as the day the Snowbirds did their handover to new pilots, and during one of their flights they saw 150 of us crowded at my mothers gravesite during her interment, and did a missing man flyover right over our heads. I wrote to the squadron and base commander a letter from our family about this, and what it meant - it was read my the Snowbirds leader to the entire team, they have it up on one of their walls, plus it was published in the CF Military Family Magazine. Gives some perspective on what the Snowbirds mean to the locals if nothing else IMO -
Also, regarding the noise from jet engines breaking windows- Perhaps, under certain conditions, on the ground in the exhaust path of these engines, perhaps a window could be broken as Andy is suggesting. I will say that having had thousands of Ct114, Hawk, CF5, and CF18s fly RIGHT over our home, one time Hornets doing a simulated attack on the base at CFB Moose Jaw in the 80s, going very high subsonic right on the deck, right over our property/farm home which again, has part of the landing light system for the base installed on it - we've never had windows break. As Jutes said, helicopters are much more noticeable, back when CFB MJ had a helicopter detachment, part of their route/training took them right over my father's farm home property. Back then he didn't have a home in the city, and the helos would always wake him up when he was sleeping on night shift. He called, then went to the base and asked them to stop doing it - the very next day they overflew the house so low I thought they were going to hit us. 2 helos, shook the hell out of the house. Ha ha, and ha. Pops didn't think it as cool as I did, obviously. They eventually did move their route a bit and stopped overflying us nearly every week day.Lt. Halliwell,
It's my hope that you will be able to forward this message to the Base Commander Col. O'Reilly, as well as all the members of 431 Squadron, in addition to anyone involved in any of the operations of 15 Wing CFB Moose Jaw.
My mother was buried today, Oct 30, 2017, in the cemetery just to the North of CFB Moose jaw. Much of her family rests there already, including her father who was a member of the RCAF during the Second World War, and served as a radio tech, frequently flying in Lancasters constructed here in Canada among other aircraft, often doing hops out over the Atlantic in various other aircraft as well, and he was very, very proud of his Air Force and the entire RCAF.
My mother also taught school children of many of the members of 15 Wing in the 1980s as a teacher at the elementary school on base.
Today, during the burial, we saw a 2 ship of the Harvard IIs overfly during the burial service just as it began. Shortly after, we heard a number of the CT114s in formation, and as I quickly looked over my shoulder, I saw the 5 of them in a close equidistant formation. Two of the aircraft then banked slightly to adjust the formation to make a "missing man" formation, so much as can be done without a vertical maneuver from one of the aircraft, but it was very evident to every family member and friend there for my mother that the Snowbirds had intentionally made a gap, simulating a missing plane with the gap in between the 2 aircraft on the left, and the 3 on the right. They also briefly engaged their smoke system for a second or two just as they passed over head.
This was an incredibly respectful act, one of kindness, from these 5 members of 431, which was obviously just a spur of the moment decision on their part, honoring my mother, whom they would have had no idea of just how many years she spent working at CFB Moose Jaw, helping teach and raise the children of the brave men and women of the CF posted to 15 wing during those years.
I was a piper in the local drill pipe band in the 1980s here myself when we lived here for one of several stretches while I was growing up, and remember playing as a solo piper for the Battle of Britain's 50th anniversary mess dinner - how a General who had flown in for the event in the back seat of one of our CF188Bs, and how kind he was to me after I piped in the port (and drank my first glass of alcohol, ever, doing a toast with him in front of a lot of kindly laughing pilots seeing the look on my now red face). He later had his front seat pilot take me out to the parked Hornet and gave me a tour around it and inside the cockpits.
The act of 5 pilots today brought this great memory of my own back, and I'll not be forgetting it, or especially the incredible act of kindness shown for my mother today as she was laid to rest, next to her sister, mother, and RCAF veteran father. My mother loved the Snowbirds, even as she lay dying this last year bedridden as I cared for her, whenever the roar of the Snowbirds returning could be heard out her window, she would immediately call me to go outside and describe to her what I saw.
Please, if you are able, forward this or pass it on verbally to the members of 431, as well as the 2 pilots flying the Harvards as well, and of course the Base Commander Col. O'Reilly, with our heartfelt thanks. They brought smiles to the faces of many people in pain today. I don't have words to express what it meant for my family.
With thanks and respect,
Regarding Mover - he is a great guy, I know him from Digital Combat Simulation, he helps run and commentate on the DCS Folds of Honor competition. His book series are decent too, his last couple of books have been really good IMO, and he was the best seller in his category on Amazon a short time ago.
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