Grey Cup bids farewell to the Snowbirds as CT-114 Tutors make their last scheduled public flight

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds' CT-114 Tutor jets will make their last scheduled public flight at the 113th Grey Cup on Sunday (November 15). Before kickoff, nine red-and-white Snowbirds jets will fly over McMahon Stadium in Calgary as the national anthem ends, bidding farewell to a team that has served for more than half a century. The Montreal Alouettes face the Edmonton Elks at 5 p.m. (File photo: the Snowbirds' CT-114 formation.)

Taking off from Calgary airport, skimming the stadium at minimum height

According to The Canadian Press, the jets will take off from Calgary International Airport and zoom over the stadium as close to their minimum flight height of about 150 metres from the tallest point they fly over. As celebrated Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan finishes her final note of O Canada, the jets will roar over the stadium one last time. Capt. Marc-André Plante, who flies as Snowbird 8, called it the perfect sendoff: “It is Canada's demonstration team. It's Canada's football league. It's like all these things just kind of make sense, when you look at it where we just celebrate Canada as a whole.”

55 years flying only the Tutor, about 2,700 shows

Based out of 15 Wing at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, the Snowbirds have never flown anything but the Tutors. They have performed roughly 2,700 times for more than 140 million people across North America in more than a half-century of service. At the end of the year, the Tutors are to be retired and will eventually be replaced by the CT-157 Siskin II. The team is expected to be temporarily grounded until the early 2030s. Since the federal government announced the retirement plan in May, the crew has tried to fly over as many towns and cities as fuel and time allowed.

Pilot: inspiring Canadians to excel is the highest honour

Plante said flying with the Snowbirds has been the highest honour of his military career so far: “Being able to inspire hundreds of thousands of Canadians across Canada to pursue their own forms of excellence — whatever that may be, whether or not it's joining the military or doing anything else that's contributing to Canada — I think is an amazing thing to do.” After the flypast, the pilots will return to the airport, tuck the planes into a hangar and bus to the stadium to watch the rest of the game, before heading home to Saskatchewan on Monday. Plante said that on the way back to Moose Jaw, “if we have sufficient gas, we'll probably do a little flyover of our hometown,” but the Grey Cup “would be our last” invited public appearance.

Calgary photographer: the end of an important chapter of Canadian military history

William Gilson, a Calgary teacher and military aviation photographer, said the flight over the Grey Cup on Sunday “is really going to be, I feel, the end of a very important part of my life and an important chapter in Canadian military history.” He saw his first Snowbirds show at the Abbotsford airport in 1972, when he was 11, and has gone every year since, taking an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 photos of the team. He expects to add a few hundred more on Sunday. He said he is skeptical the Snowbirds will return after being grounded, and petitions have circulated to keep the team flying, including one brought to the House of Commons with more than 2,000 signatures.