Captain Jean-Francois Dupont
Snowbird #2
Quebec, QC
Call sign: J-F
Jean-Francois Dupont gets a little squeamish when asked which of this year’s Snowbirds are the worst at speaking French.
Glancing at the camera, and then down at his hands he declares, "On TV, it’s not nice."
The only Quebecois member of the team, he said his teammates try but perhaps not enough to establish who owns the title for the most broken “Franglais”.
"As long as they make the effort once in a while, I’m happy with that," he said, joking, "Sometimes it’s more painful to see them trying to speak French."
Hailing from Quebec City, Dupont was educated at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, got his wings in Moose Jaw and became an instructor after that. This is his second year as a Snowbird, and at the tender age of thirty, he is one of the youngest on this year’s team.
“I thought about becoming a Snowbird, initially, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon,” he said.
His youth is something he says comes with both pros and cons.
“It’s a little bit easier to absorb all of the G [forces],” he said. “I’m a little less experienced so I have to work a little harder on some stuff […] I have to rely on other people’s mistakes or experience to learn to react properly if [there are issues].”
Dupont flies in the number 2 position, which is right up front next to the team lead. He says the biggest challenge in his position is keeping the airplane stable.
“If you make a tight or wide error, you need to slowly and smoothly correct it so the guy flying off you, doesn’t get scared or react on what you’re doing.”
Flying aside, Dupont said the public interaction part of the job was at first, “a little scary,” but “as you do it more and more it’s rewarding.”
“I really love to talk with kids, and inspire kids,” he said adding that he loves hearing when people tell him that they’re inspired by the team.
Dupont’s call sign hardly even qualifies as one. There are no embarrassing or funny stories that earned him the name “J-F.”
“I’m pretty clean,” he said, adding that if his colleagues really wanted a proper call sign for him, it was possible, but “they never really tried.”
Once Dupont’s experience as a Snowbird is over he plans to quit flying jets altogether and start the training process to be a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
“It’s completely different side of flying than flying an airplane or flying a jet. Flying a helicopter doesn’t compare,” he said
Comments