RCAF Golden Hawks reunion/F-86 Sabre flying with Snowbirds/RCN Grey Ghosts

Wonderful (via K225)! And wonderful photos below.

Flight pioneers' last stunt: a reunion
Precursors to Snowbirds formed 50 years ago

When 300 people sit down for a gala dinner next Saturday inside an airplane hangar in Comox, B. C., among the most celebrated guests will be nine retired aviators in their 70s and 80s.

The men are some of the finest fighter pilots ever produced by Canada, an ageing band of top guns who thrilled air show crowds while flying for the Golden Hawks [more here] -- the country's first, jet-powered aerobatics team, the forerunner to the Snowbirds --from 1959-1963.

Not once in the 46 years since the Golden Hawks were disbanded have its surviving members ever held a formal reunion. On April 25, the nine pilots, including four of the original team members, plus a dozen former ground crewmen, will gather at the military airbase in Comox to celebrate their history and remember a time when Canada's air force was considered one of the best in the world.

Their reunion is only one part of the Century of Flight dinner -- a gala evening whose guests will include former air force commanders, a decorated Second World War pilot and the current Snowbirds team, all gathering to honour the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Canada [more on the Century of Flight here, here, here, here and here].

But the presence of the silver-haired Golden Hawks, plus the sight of a restored F-86 Sabre fighter jet painted in the team's colours and gleaming under the hangar spotlights, is likely to be one of the highlights of the evening.

"It was a dream of mine to get the Golden Hawks here together for the dinner, and now it's happening," said retired Wing Commander Syd Burrows, a former Sabre pilot, but not a Golden Hawks member, who is a co-organizer of the event.

"Most of these guys are pushing 80 now. Some are ailing. Some have died. I'm happy we were able to get so many together while there was still time."

The Snowbirds come to Comox every spring to prepare for their summer air show circuit. This year, the gold-coloured Sabre, owned and restored by a private philanthropist near Ottawa [video of first flight here], will join them in their shows.

"They're going to do a show for us during the reunion, and the Sabre will do its thing," says retired Colonel Ralph Annis, one of the team's original pilots.

"I haven't seen a Sabre fly with Golden Hawks colours since the team was disbanded. It's going to be quite emotional -- a gulpy situation."

Col. Annis and other Sabre veterans are living symbols of a nearly forgotten era, when Canada's air force was one of the world's strongest, with hundreds of fighter aircraft and their crews stationed in Europe on the front lines of the Cold War, sometimes with nuclear bombs under their wing. [Our great "peacekeeping tradition", eh? Bet they don't teach that in our schools].

The Sabre, manufactured in Canada, was considered the best fighter airplane of the 1950s and early '60s. When the Golden Hawks were formed in 1959 -- to commemorate the 50th anniversary of flight in Canada -- pilots such as Col. Annis jumped at the chance to join the team and show off their flying skills for Canadian audiences.

He says the Golden Hawks created and perfected some of the aerobatic stunts later adopted by other flying teams around the world. They were the first to use a pair of solo pilots in their shows, flying head-to-head loops, and they even pulled off a few signature moves -- flying with their canopies open and waving to the crowd.

While other precision teams flew a five-card formation -- five jets arranged like the dots on a playing card -- none but the Golden Hawks looped it, and rolled it.

The team also wasn't bound by the rules that now require the Snowbirds and other groups to perform their tricks a safe distance away from air show crowds and city centres.

Major Jim McCombe, who flew alongside Col. Annis, says the Golden Hawks took full advantage of this freedom, flying daringly fast and low over the heads of spectators.

"We had a very exciting show," he said. "I remember flying right down over the Calgary Stampede fairgrounds. We went back and forth over the stockyards. The crowds loved it, but the breeders and the horses and cattle weren't particularly pleased."

"It was a demanding job," Col. Annis said, "but it was also fun -- probably the finest two years of my life."

Golden Hawk in flight with Snowbirds, full slideshow at link:

And alone:

Lots more great aircraft stuff at the site HAZER'S FLIGHTLINE. Do take a look. By the way, the Sabre has always been my favourite subsonic jet fighter; the XP-86 first flew on October 1, 1947--the day, by chance, I was born.

Update: A reader in the Canadian Navy has brought to my attention a website, UNDER THE CAT, devoted the Royal Canadian Navy's only carrier-based jet fighter, the McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee--which was the last plane used by the RCN's aerobatic team "The Grey Ghosts".


Upperdate: More on the revived Golden Hawk Sabre (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

The Return of a Legend - Then and Now

The Transformation of Canadair Sabre 23314

Photo: Barrie MacLeod

By Dan Dempsey
Two photographs graphically illustrate the dramatic transformation of Hawk One from its RCAF colours at the end of its military service in Canada to its present day Golden Hawk livery. The first photograph shows the aircraft on the ramp at CFB Shearwater, Nova Scotia during Canada’s Centennial in 1967 when it was one of four Sabres that flew on the “Centennial Sabre Team” formed at the Sabre Transition Unit at CFB Chatham, New Brunswick. Just five years earlier, then sporting the Red Ensign on its tail, the aircraft served with the Golden Hawks as a training aircraft during the workups for their 1963 airshow season. At least seven former Golden Hawk pilots flew the aircraft at some point during its 16 year service career with the RCAF’s No. 1 Air Division in Europe, AFHQ Jet Practice Flight at RCAF Stn Uplands (Ottawa), Golden Hawks at RCAF Stn Trenton or Sabre Transition Unit at RCAF Stn Chatham (latterly CFB Chatham).

Photo: Peter Handley

Manufactured in 1954, the aircraft was the 1,104th [emphasis added--see here for US tactical aircraft numbers in 2054] F-86 Sabre to come off the Canadair assembly line...

And look at this photo--CF-18 with a special paint job? (via CDN Aviator):


Fighters sure do grow.

Uppestdate: A message from CND Aviator: "Mark, the CF-18 in my picture is the 2009 CF-18 demo team aircraft and is painted that way to celebrate the centenial of flight." In fact just one Hornet so painted (lovely!), based at Cold Lake--an aging bird due for retirement soon.

Uppesterdate: Lots more great photos here, "One Hawk, Nine Birds" (via K225), two I really like: