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Saturday January 30th, 3 Point Aviator at Waterloo Airport, kicked off a monthly seminar program with an exciting presentation on flying CF-104 Starfighters in Europe and 1 Canadian Air Group.
3 Point Aviator co-founder, Glen Oliphant, started the seminar with company updates. Most notable was the exciting acquisition of a Globe Swift. The aircraft, built by Temco, was restored by the Swift Foundation in 2005 and features a 180HP Lycoming 0-360 engine. This will allow 3 Point Aviator members training on a complex tail-dragger with hydraulic gears and flaps. The Swift will be on-line by late spring.
Co-Owner and coach, John Valade, continued the seminar with a great presentation on his experiences flying the CF-104 Starfighter in Eurpoe during the 1970s and early 80s. Flying with 421 Red Indian Squadron, John shared his experiences of flying the 104 on the deck at 450 knots across West Germany. Encounters with friendly aircraft as well as Eastern Block countries made for some great stories. John’s love of the CF-104 was evident as he talked about the aircrafts performance and strengths against the aircraft he came up against. He often engaged friendly F-4 Phantoms, F-16 Fighting Falcons and others. John also touched on the 104’s reputation of being a “Widow Maker” with great insight into why losses of aircraft were higher then usual.
John transitioned to the CF-18 Hornet which he flew for a time in Europe. His notes on the technological differences between the Hornet and Starfighter was very interesting and gave great insight into the challenges experienced by RCAF fighter pilots at the time transitioning from a century series fighter to a modern aircraft with a cockpit dominated by computer screens. After leaving the Canadian Armed Forces, John worked for Bombardier Aerospace as a Training Development Manager and a Training Captain on the CRJ 200.
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