'Goodbye to a good friend': Snowbirds' final show to be livestreamed today

OTTAWA — Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds aerial aerobatics team are set to perform their final air show Friday in Moose Jaw, Sask., before their decades-old Tutor jets head into retirement. The RCAF is set to livestream the annual season home closer online at 2 p.m. There will still be one more chance to see the CT-114 Tutors in action before they are sent to the airbase in Trenton, Ont., for disposal.

The Snowbirds are scheduled to perform a flyover at the Canadian Football League Grey Cup game in Calgary on Nov. Philip Rochon, public affairs officer for the Snowbirds, said it’s a bittersweet time for the pilots who are saying farewell to the planes the team has flown for 55 years. “It’s like saying goodbye to a good friend,” he said.

Rochon said the Snowbirds received an outpouring of support over the summer from Canadians across the country who shared memories of past shows and their encounters with an iconic “piece of Canadiana.” “At the same time, we’re looking forward to the future with the new aircraft that was announced,” he said. “That will come online hopefully in the next few years. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next chapter of the Snowbirds will be.” Defence Minister David McGuinty announced in May that the old Tutors will be replaced eventually by the Swiss-made PC-21 Pilatus aircraft, known as the CT-157 Siskin II.

The RCAF is also acquiring those same aircraft for pilot training. While the Snowbirds were formed in 1971, the air force obtained the Tutor jets in 1963. The Snowbirds will go on a multi-year hiatus until the replacement aircraft are delivered and the team can be trained up on the new planes.

That could take until the early 2030s but there’s no set timeline. The decision to ground the team came after planned upgrades to the Tutors’ engines and escape systems meant to keep them in the air until 2030 encountered a range of problems, including parts obsolescence. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet told reporters at the AERO Gatineau-Ottawa air show last month that it’s been “heartwarming” to see how Canadians have responded over the last season.

“The Snowbirds are so much more than just an air demonstration team, obviously, and it evokes so much emotion and we all have such fond strong memories,” she said. “I really can’t overstate just how significant they ar…