Les CT-114 Tutor (SNOW BIRDS) sont là pour rester!

Video from the channel AIR - la série télé sur l'aviation about Canadair CT-114 Tutor, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 8:17. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.

This is a report from the AIR series at 15 Wing Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan), home of the Snowbirds. A former military pilot visits the base, goes through the Tutor's checklist, which he says is the 2020 edition, and starts the engine with the team's help. Interviews with Snowbirds pilots are interspersed among those scenes.

15 Wing is the Canadian Armed Forces' flight school, through which every future military pilot passes. The Snowbirds were born there, on the initiative of a school commander, which is why they remain based there. One pilot notes that the province is sunny and flat, which helps with training. He adds that spring training takes place in Comox (British Columbia), where there is more relief, water and mountains. Another pilot says he started in the Cadets, in Greenwood, where he took his first glider flight. The report also mentions the staffing shortage affecting both the Forces and civilian companies.

The Tutor was designed as a trainer. It is fully aerobatic and well suited to formation flying, and its speeds are two to two and a half times those of an equivalent civilian trainer. It remains in service thanks to its good flying qualities. On its replacement, the visitor says the matter has been discussed for 25 or 30 years and that the Snowbirds will keep flying the aircraft for several more years.