The Canadian Forces Snowbirds air demonstration team took to the skies for the team’s final airshow on October 19 at their home base, 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Sask.
“Typically, this show has always been for family and friends,” Captain Thomas Edelson, the Snowbirds’ Public Affairs Officer, told the Moose Jaw Times Herald. “It’s kind of a unique event.”
The show was also a farewell to pilots and technicians who are leaving the team and a welcome to the new members of the 2013 team. Normally, personnel serve with the Snowbirds for a two-year period.
The Commander of 1 Canadian Air Division, Major-General Pierre St-Amand, praised members of the Snowbirds in a recent message that invited interested and qualified Royal Canadian Air Force personnel to apply for the 2014-2015 team.
“Selection to become a member of 431 Air Demonstration Squadron (Snowbirds) is recognition of one’s flying skills and team work,” he said.
“It also represents an acknowledgement of one’s professionalism and suitability to become an ambassador for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Forces.”
The nine show team pilots for 2013 are (in the group photo from left to right) Capt Guillaume Paquet (Snowbird 9), Capt Denis Bandet (SB6), Capt Gregg Wiebe (SB4), Capt Padruig MacIntosh (SB2), Major Wayne Mott (team lead – SB1), Capt Iain Cummings (SB3), Capt Trevor Shawaga (SB5), Capt Regan Wickett (SB7) and Capt Brent Handy (SB9)
