Canadian Forces represented at SARS Stock.

[GrahamD]

I went to the massive Rolling Stones concert yesterday (July 30) and was treated to suprise appearances by the Skyhawks skydiving team, and a CF-18.

The Skyhawks were awesome, especialy the three way Relative work involving the down plane, where all 3 are racing straight down. After the first member broke off, the remaining 2 stayed together and continued to an extremly low altitude (made me feel nervous just watching) They couldn‘t have been more than 300ft off the ground when they broke off, and they were going pretty darn fast at that point too, leaving just enough time to turn into the wind and land.

The helicopters that the Skyhawks jumped out of did a few laps around the concert at a couple of hundred feet alt. Seeing them flying in close proximity to each other, and hearing the whipping blades gave me a little rush of excitement, as I really look forward to operating out of helicopters as an infantryman. They still use helicopters to train, and deploy infantry right?

A while later, they announced an inbound CF-18, which suddenly went screaming overhead (at a pretty low altitude), and banked into a left turn and did a super tight rotation around the concert, and then flew out of sight. It was really impressive to see so close above.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions about it all.

1. Does the infantry utilise helicopters during training, and operations. And how frequently, is it rare?

2. Is there a massive amount of people trying out for the Skyhawks every year?

3. What exactly is available to the infantry, in the way of para/skydiving courses, and are they extremely competetive to get into?

4. As an infantryman, how often do you work in conjunction with the other branches of the forces, either in training, or during operations?
Could you expect to see formations of CF-18‘s overhead, and watch them blow stuff up, during an exercise?

 

[McInnes]

Just to add to the question, I was wondering what are the opportunities for Infantry Officers in the way of being in an airbourne regiment and para coarses, or officers in general i guess.

 

[MG34]

To answer your questions:

Anyway, I have a couple of questions about it all.

1. Does the infantry utilise helicopters during training, and operations. And how frequently, is it rare?

YES,quite often usually a few exercises a year and on Operations when ever you need them they are there provided they have been deployed.Kosovo was an excellent example I conducted no less than 10 heliborne missions there.

2. Is there a massive amount of people trying out for the Skyhawks every year?

Given the amount of para qualified soldiers in the CF yes they do get candidates every time they recruit,the competition is rather stiff to get in.

3. What exactly is available to the infantry, in the way of para/skydiving courses, and are they extremely competetive to get into?

Basic para,Free fall,Jump master,path finder,Free fall instr,foriegn courses to name a few.Yes very competitive and for some you must have a Jump posn in a Para Coy

4. As an infantryman, how often do you work in conjunction with the other branches of the forces, either in training, or during operations?
Could you expect to see formations of CF-18‘s overhead, and watch them blow stuff up, during an exercise?

Annually,however you will not see formations of Cf-18s doing anything,maybe 1 or 2 dropping live bombs on a major exercise,most likely though you will never see it happen due to safety concerns.

Just to add to the question, I was wondering what are the opportunities for Infantry Officers in the way of being in an airbourne regiment and para coarses, or officers in general i guess.

Same as everyone else provided you can get permission from the CO to do it as there are limited slots in Para Coys for officers,the basic Para course is open to all ranks and trades.

 

[KevinB]

To set the mood, from the 60th Anniversary Jump we had in Edmonton out of CH146‘s