CF-18 Demo Team to perform Vancouver Island flypast Sunday

Update: The Snowbirds team will be flying over Vancouver Island on Monday as part of Operation Inspiration.

Expect to hear the roar of jet engines over Vancouver Island Sunday as the CF-18 Demonstration Team conducts a flypast to recognize the hard work and sacrifices of front-line workers.

The flypasts are part of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Operation Inspiration, which started in 2020 but was cut short following a fatal Snowbirds crash in Kamloops.

Expect to see and hear the team’s CF-188 Hornet, commonly called the CF-18, as it flies at an altitude no lower than 300 metres above the highest obstacle on its route.

At the controls will be Capt. Dan Deluce, an instructor at 410 Tactical Fighter Squadron, stationed at Cold Lake, Alta.

After taking off from Boundary Bay Airport in Delta at 1 p.m., he will perform flypasts over Nanaimo, Parksville and Tofino before travelling down along the west coast of Vancouver Island to Victoria. He should be over Greater Victoria at around 2 p.m., landing at Victoria International Airport about 2:30 p.m.

Deluce’s route will take him over Nanaimo Regional Hospital, Royal Jubilee Hospital and Victoria General Hospital.

His twin-engined, multi-role fighter jet will feature a classic hornet-grey palette with an eagle on the tail to represent vigilance, agility, readiness and speed. The feathers of the eagle are eight maple leaves, representing eight of the nine iconic Canadian Forces Snowbirds Tutor aircraft.

The ninth aircraft is missing in remembrance to all the lives lost in the past year, including Capt. Jenn Casey, who died last May in a Snowbirds plane crash in Kamloops.

Casey, the team’s public affairs officer, died when she ejected from the jet she was in. The pilot, Capt. Richard MacDougall, was seriously injured.

An investigation found a bird strike caused the plane’s engine to stall shortly after takeoff.

The underside of the Demo jet features the “missing” plane — an image of the Snowbird’s signature Speedbird image.

The CF-18 Demonstration Team was joined by the Snowbirds for a similar flypast over 13 health care centres in Metro Vancouver on Friday.

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— With a file from The Canadian Press