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

Seeing pilots perform death-defying manoeuvres thousands of feet off the ground at events like this weekend’s Manitoba Airshow may seem terrifying from the safety of the ground, but for the people behind the controls, it’s just another day on the job.

“Flying started for me at a very early age,” says veteran airshow pilot Dan Reeves, who will be participating in the events at Southport Airport near Portage la Prairie.

“My father was a pilot, and I had my first flight at about four years old. I thought, ‘Why would anybody want to walk after that?'”

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

“‘Stunt’ kind of infers there’s a lack of training and production for this, but we’re very highly trained, and we practise this over and over again,” he said.

“We know exactly how the airplane’s going to operate and what we’re doing up in the air.”

Reeves has been training other air show pilots since 2016, and he said they’re all thoroughly experienced before they ever participate in a show.

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“We don’t consider it dangerous — again, it’s the training. We get up nice and high and we recover the airplane and bring it back to a normal straight and level flight and review what went wrong, what did right … then we do it again.”

Dan Reeves Airshows will be performing at the weekend-long event, along with other notable pilots and aircraft, including the Canadian Forces Skyhawks, SRC Airshows and Northern Stars Aeroteam.

The Manitoba Airshow also features an appearance by one of only two Second World War-era Avro Lancaster planes still in flying condition.

Gates open Saturday at 9 a.m. More information is available on the Manitoba Airshow’s website.