‘Why would anybody want to walk?’: Air show pilots ready to take to Manitoba skies

Seeing pilots execute death-defying manoeuvres thousands of feet disconnected nan crushed astatine events for illustration this weekend’s Manitoba Airshow whitethorn look terrifying from nan information of nan ground, but for nan group down nan controls, it’s conscionable different time connected nan job.

“Flying started for maine astatine a very early age,” says seasoned airshow aviator Dan Reeves, who will beryllium participating successful nan events astatine Southport Airport adjacent Portage la Prairie.

“My begetter was a pilot, and I had my first formation astatine astir 4 years old. I thought, ‘Why would anybody want to locomotion aft that?'”

A half-century later, Reeves is still actively performing loops, tube rolls and much connected a regular basis. He told Global Winnipeg that there’s a misconception that what he does is off-the-cuff ‘stunt’ flying.

“‘Stunt’ benignant of infers there’s a deficiency of training and accumulation for this, but we’re very highly trained, and we practise this complete and complete again,” he said.

“We cognize precisely really nan airplane’s going to run and what we’re doing up successful nan air.”

Reeves has been training different aerial show pilots since 2016, and he said they’re each thoroughly knowledgeable earlier they ever participate successful a show.

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“We don’t see it vulnerable — again, it’s nan training. We get up bully and precocious and we retrieve nan airplane and bring it backmost to a normal consecutive and level formation and reappraisal what went wrong, what did correct … past we do it again.”

Dan Reeves Airshows will beryllium performing astatine nan weekend-long event, on pinch different notable pilots and aircraft, including nan Canadian Forces Skyhawks, SRC Airshows and Northern Stars Aeroteam.

The Manitoba Airshow besides features an quality by 1 of only 2 Second World War-era Avro Lancaster planes still successful flying condition.

Gates unfastened Saturday astatine 9 a.m. More accusation is disposable connected nan Manitoba Airshow’s website.