After more than 55 years of service, the Sea King went out in style.
Two days of retirement festivities for the helicopter known as the workhorse of the Royal Canadian Air Force included a military parade and ceremonial flypast at its home base, 443 Squadron in Patricia Bay near Victoria.
Captain Don Leblanc said he’ll never forget his first flight in one of the machines more than three decades ago.
“It was nerve wracking but also exciting, especially when you do your first touchdown and everything is good,” the 33-year Sea King pilot told Global News.
During its five-plus decades in action, the Sea King fleet racked up some 550-thousand flying hours.
“At a hundred knots an hour, that’s the equivalent to 7,200 laps around the globe,” said Royal Canadian Air Force Commander Lieutenant-General Al Meinzinger.
The first search and rescue Sea Kings arrived at Shearwater, Nova Scotia on Aug. 1, 1963, and were expected to serve primarily as submarine hunters in an effort to deter the former Soviet Union from violating Canadian sovereignty.
The venerable choppers were initially placed on aircraft carriers but when the large warships were scrapped in the 1970s, the Sea King was modified to land on smaller, less stable warships during the most adverse conditions.
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“If anything the Canadian Armed Forces have shown how to fight with helicopters from the back of small naval ships and to do so in absolutely appalling weather anywhere around the world,” said Frans Jurgens of Sikorsky Aircraft, the Sea King manufacturer.
“It’s been a good machine,” recalled Sea King pilot Captain Troy Maa.
“It did everything that we needed it to do.”
“If you have a job to do then you call us and then if we can’t do it, then nobody can, because the Sea King is so versatile. She will do it all,” added Leblanc.
In its later years, the aging aircraft experienced mechanical problems that led to forced landings and crashes. In February 2003, a Sea King crashed on the deck of warship HMCS Iroquois – and in November 2012, another made an emergency landing in the middle of a Halifax business park.
Ten Canadian air crew members died in crashes or mishaps while operating Sea Kings over the past 55 years.
The mission to replace the Sea Kings with Sikorsky Cyclones has been plagued with delays and cost overruns. The new fleet is expected to be fully operational by 2021 – and Jurgens told Global News the Cyclone will be a “quantum leap in capabilities.”
The Sea Kings at 423 Squadron(12 Wing Shearwater) on the east coast were retired in January 2018. The Sea Kings at Patricia Bay will remain in operation until the end of the year as crews from 443 Squadron are trained to fly the new Cyclone.
“It’s going to be bittersweet for sure,” said Maa.
The Royal Canadian Air Force invited former military members to join current pilots like Maa and Leblanc for Sea King retirement celebrations on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2018.
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For Leblanc, saluting the Sea King is like saying farewell to an old friend. The veteran pilot said he will also be calling it a career after his last flight later this month.
“I’m retiring my wings with the aircraft, a bit of an homage and respect that the old girl always brought me home. So it’ll be a bittersweet moment. It’ll be very emotional, there’s no doubt about it.”
–With files from Canadian Press
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