They caught the “bug” when they were kids, thanks to their dad.
And now, Dave and Drew Watson of Edmonton are living a dream.
They are two of the pilots who will be performing at the Wings Over Springbank Airshow July 29 and 30.
Each flies a Harvard – a plane used extensively as an advanced trainer for Second World War.
“When my dad started flying, we did a lot of backseat flying with him and we just loved it. I loved it so much it was the first thing I did when I got out of tech school was get my pilot’s licence,” Dave Watson said.
“Flying these things, for my brother and I, has been a dream of ours since we were kids,” added Drew Watson, the younger of the two brothers.
So what is it about flying that they love so much?
Drew likens it to golf.
“It’s the challenge,” he said. “It’s never a perfect game and it’s always getting the better score, so I do the same thing.”
For Dave, it’s an escape.
“When you’re in the cockpit and aloft, it seems like all the worries of the world are down below you. You’re free,” Dave said.
Sarah van Gilst, the producer of the Wings Over Springbank Airshow, said all pilots share a love of flying.
“There’s an old cartoon that was floating around that says, ‘Mommy I want to be a pilot when I grow up,’ and the mom says, ‘I’m sorry son – you can’t do both.’ So they’re little boys who get to play with their toys when they’re grownups.”
And van Gilst said those grownups get to know each other quite well on the airshow circuit.
“We are family,” van Gilst said.
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