A small craft plane in Lunenburg County. Photo: File Photo
The Snowbirds were set to make an appearance over Lunenburg this week to coincide with some events celebrating the Bluenose’s anniversary, however, they ended up being replaced by some local pilots.
The Snowbirds cancelled both scheduled for Wednesday, August 25 in Halifax and Lunenburg after “unforeseen circumstances” delayed their transit schedule.
Jeremy Dann, President of the Bluenose Flying Club found out about that Tuesday night and decided to see if he could help.
“A few of our guys were out together when we heard the news and that’s when we decided to look into doing a flyover of our own,” Dann said.
Dann along with fellow pilots, Raphael Schaefer, Harry Balcome, Ralph Keeping, Mervin Zinck and Nick Wilson all agreed to take part and on Wednesday they geared up to fly out.
None of the pilots had much experience with formation flying but Dann says it is something every pilot knows a little bit about as a result of the training programs required to operate a plane. The team took extra precautions so as to ensure everything went off without a hitch.
“We formed up North of Mahone Bay and did a little practice, once we were formed up I led us to Lunenburg where we did a few loops,” Dann said.
Feedback has been positive according to Dann who says people seem to have enjoyed their attempt to fill the big shoes left by the Snowbirds absence.
While this isn’t the type of thing the Bluenose Flying Club typically does Dann says they’d be open to doing it again for a worthy cause.
