Clockwise from top: A Hawk 115 over the Saskatchewan prairie; student pilots Jakob Nikolajsen, Krisztian Illes, Alex Milovan, Adam Mramor and Marty Canuel; Chief Flying Instructor Major Achim Hofmann.

Early to bed and early out; shower, get dressed–forget coffee because that can do a number on your stomach. What you need are soda crackers–lots of them–they’ll be easier to keep down while you’re being whipped through the air over the Saskatchewan prairie. Grab camera and kitbag; head off through morning frost and city of Moose Jaw to 15 Wing, location of the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) program.

Into locker room, shed clothes, get dressed second time–this time with long johns, turtleneck, socks, flight suit, insulated boots and brown leather gloves with inserts. Breathe in…breathe out. Feel ready to fly.

Attend mission briefing. Listen and learn–the tone is subdued, but clear and concise. Hear about operation, its objective and some of the unexpected things student pilots could face. Situational awareness is key. Meanwhile, the anticipation builds for a little time in the air. I’ve signed, and my doctor has signed the consent forms. An electrocardiogram back home, and the flight surgeon here also says I’m good to go.

I’ve also had a quick–notice I didn’t say “crash” course–on how to eject from a Raytheon Harvard II, a very quick and agile turbo-prop trainer that can reach 18,000 feet in less than six minutes and do sustained 2G turns at 25,000 feet.

Off to Maintenance Hangar No. 4. Walk along painted line past several planes with engines exposed. Aviation technicians–some on stepladders, others huddled beneath the planes–are busy working on the sleek, dark blue machines. These talented people work for Bombardier Inc., the Canadian company that forms a huge part of the civilian side of the NFTC story: a unique partnership between Canada’s military and private industry set up with the objective of producing highly qualified jet pilots who could–if they continue to move in the right direction–become combat-ready fighter pilots.

Enter another room and pick up torso harness, helmet and oxygen mask. The harness–nylon webbing with buckles–is what straps you into the seat of the Harvard II and connects you to the parachute stored behind your head. The helmet and the mask fit perfectly thanks to an earlier session with Aircrew Life Support Equipment (ALSE) Technician James Beresford. The helmet should feel as comfortable as a baseball cap. Remember too that leaks around the mask can cause your eyes to dry out and that would cause you to blink a lot–not good because there are more important things for the student pilot to focus on, once airborne.

Walk with pilot instructor Lieutenant Jon Setlack across windswept tarmac to flight line and awaiting aircraft. The ground crew are busy. They typically have about 12 minutes to get the plane ready for the next flight and they are usually all over it, conducting post- and pre-flight checks while the returning aircrew is still getting out of the cockpit.

Up you go, into the back seat. It’s tight–even for an averaged-sized guy. The plane shakes as it’s buffeted by strong winds. Previous flights have been delayed by the weather. Nevertheless, you concentrate on strapping yourself in, remembering what you’ve been told by Beresford and by Mario Deshaies, the NFTC’s egress instructor. “You strap yourself in from bottom to top, starting with your lower extremities. The thin blue leg lines, located on the floor in front of you, must loop through the straps around your ankles. They are there to bring your legs back and keep them in the proper position in the event you have to eject. If you didn’t have them you could severely damage your legs while being ejected.”

Besides learning how to eject and parachute, students must also master an emergency ground egress, in 15 seconds or less.

***

Canada has a long history of training military pilots, and not just its own airmen. Students from Allied countries have been training here for years. The most recognizable achievement was the World War II British Commonwealth Air Training Plan which operated from locations across Canada, and graduated thousands. The training of homegrown and foreign pilots also continued throughout the Cold War, and by as early as 1958, Canada had trained over 4,000 for its NATO allies.

The origins of the NFTC go back to 1994 when a Department of National Defence white paper called for major cuts in defence spending. Faced with drastically reducing its costs and operating with fewer people and less infrastructure, the department had to find alternatives. Around the same time, an industry team led by Bombardier Inc. submitted a proposal to provide a NATO flying training program. This became the preferred option for DND because it would also provide training for CF pilots. Add, too, the fact that the CF’s long-standing training aircraft–the Tutor–was aging.

In 1997 Treasury Board approved a submission by Public Works and Government Services, on behalf of DND, for a non-competitive contract with Bombardier to deliver the program. The NFTC concept continued to grow and that fall the government announced a $2.85 billion, 20-year contract to deliver services in support of the program. The industry team, led by Bombardier Aerospace Defence Systems Division, provides the aircraft, training material, including Flight Training Devices (simulators), aircraft maintenance, airfield and site support services.

The first students arrived in 2000 and to date participating countries include Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates, although in January, it was reported that Denmark may pull out of the program in three years.

The flight training locations–CFB Moose Jaw, located about 70 kilometres west of Regina, and CFB Cold Lake, northeast of Edmonton–offer more than 700,000 square kilometres of unrestricted air space, something many NATO countries don’t have. At Moose Jaw, 2 Canadian Forces Flying Training School is the 15 Wing unit tasked with providing the undergraduate NFTC training. Cold Lake is home of 4 Wing and the location of 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron, the unit tasked with providing all post-graduate Phase IV-related training.

At Moose Jaw the training begins with Phase II Basic Flying Training. This course is 6½ to eight months long, depending on the time of year, and is conducted on the Harvard II. It includes 94 flying hours and 36 simulator hours. Phase IIB is the Phase III preparatory course for pilots destined for fighter aircraft. It also utilizes the Harvard II, and includes 47 flying hours and four simulator hours. Phase III Advanced Flying Training is carried out on the BAE Systems Hawk 115. It lasts five to six months, again depending on the weather, and includes 71 flying hours and 31 simulator hours. Phase IV, the Tactical Fighter Lead-in Training phase is also flown on the Hawk, but at Cold Lake. It is a four-month course and includes 49 flying hours and 18 simulator hours.

In 2006, the school started with 104 Canadian students and 12 international students. Currently, there are 78 instructors.

For equipment, the NFTC has 26 Harvard IIs and 18 Hawk 115s. The Harvard fleet has just completed over 90,000 hours of flying, while the Hawk fleet has racked up more than 48,500 hours. Both aircraft types have and continue to earn good reviews from instructors and students. “On a nice cold-weather day you can feel the engine kick in and it’s great,” says 23-year-old 2nd. Lieut. Adam Mramor of White Rock, B.C. “You really don’t get a concept for what it’s capable of until you get into some of the low-level stuff (training). You’re flying over the Trans-Canada (Highway) and it takes you six minutes to get to Regina, instead of 45 minutes in a car. So you quickly gain respect for what it can do.”

As students progress, they are “streamed” to fly helicopters, multi-engine aircraft or fighter jets. The main goal is to provide fighter pilots, but NFTC also has an obligation to “feed” pilots to the other areas. In the summer of 2005, NFTC reported that successful student completions in the Phase IIA totalled 373 since the program began in 2000. Phase IIB was “failure free” with 97 completions. Phase III and IV produced 237 and 195 graduates, respectively.

Students face their biggest hurdle early in Phase II. That’s usually when they find out whether they’ve got the aptitude and the confidence to make it through.

As of last November, Mramor had been a student for a little over six months. He says it is physically demanding and mentally tough. Prior to arriving at NFTC, the Royal Military College graduate completed primary flight training, also called Phase I, at Portage la Prairie, Man. His goal: to be a military helicopter pilot. “When you come here you don’t have to be a diehard, but you do have to be willing to work hard. You have got to expect nothing but the best from yourself. Some guys will go through the course and it is easy, other guys will grind tooth and nail. I am at the point where I know it is possible to get through.”

He says the instruction is incredible. “They take the aircraft right to the limit and are always completely under control and very, very confident. I have a lot of respect for them, and they are able to assess where you are at and then push you to the next level.”

Second Lieut. Marty Canuel, 26, of Rimouski, Que., is also training on the Harvard II. “It’s a really good piece of equipment–one of the best trainers there is. The instructors have the experience and the background and they always give you lots of feedback.”

An Italian student, 2nd Lieut. Alex Milovan, says his dream is to fly fighter jets, but that will depend on the Italian military’s requirement for the types of pilots they need. The 24-year-old says the school has a good reputation. “Back home, this place is considered one of the best because it provides really good training aircraft, and instruction that is designed around the student.”

The Hawk 115 is considered to be an efficient trainer for students heading toward the fighter jet or fast jet stream. Its suitability for advanced jet and fighter lead-in training, says NFTC, eliminates the need for a third aircraft type. “This means one less aircraft conversion course and one less aircraft type to purchase, supply and maintain.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Kurt Saladana, the commandant of 2 Cdn. Forces Flying Training School, says the program is quite a bit different from the way we used to train pilots. “Now, because of the way we are set up with a civilian commercial partner providing the aircraft, the maintenance, almost all of the facilities, simulators, all the ground school, we’ve become a lot more responsible to meeting production deadlines. We have to get students in at certain times and out at certain times to make it work.” That also means meeting costs, but providing world-class training.

Initially, there were concerns. “A lot of it was the unknown,” explains Saladana. “We hadn’t really done this sort of thing before on a scale like this before. People worried about us (the CF) losing control of the quality and the standards issues or us losing control of the program, and whether or not the industry would be able to produce the aircraft that would meet our requirements…. Every now and then we wish we had more aircraft, on a winter day when the weather is bad and you have maybe three hours in the middle of the day when it is great to fly. That would be one of those occasions when you’d say gee, if we have 80 available instructors and 80 students, and if we had 80 aircraft we could all go fly, but you can’t base a flying program on that happening. You have to look at it realistically.”

It takes the NFTC about 16 months to train a pilot from the time he or she enters the door at Moose Jaw to the time he or she leaves to wings standards. Saladana says the training success rate depends a lot on how many students they can recruit and what their skill sets are.

Every participating country has to provide instructors; that is part of each country’s cost of being involved. “The feedback from that multinational participation is that the level of training is very, very good. I’m not sure if anybody from the other participating nations is prepared to step across the line and say it is the best in the world, but I am certainly able to say that,” adds Saladana.

Stu McIntosh, the NFTC’s director, says the operational training units that are receiving the pilot grads are pleased. He notes that the biggest challenges will be to maintain relevancy as new systems and new aircraft are developed.

Overall the training is considered among the best because of the facilities, the level of instruction and the availability of airspace. The latter is important to countries like Germany where it is very limited and where noise restrictions apply. Chief Flying Instructor Major Achim Hofmann certainly knows this. “The open airspace is fantastic. We just don’t have that back home in Germany.”

Saladana agrees. “The noise issue is very big in Europe, and in a lot of places in the States. Here we have people who don’t like it. A lot of the farms here are well established and they do have livestock. When they bring it to our attention we avoid (flying over) them.”

Hofmann says the facilities are second to none. He says the only minor problem lately is the weather. “In the past Moose Jaw was one of the sunniest places. That is why everybody trained here years ago. Lately we are having problems…. We just aren’t getting the same number of clear, cold good flying days.”

***

I am strapped in now. Even the little paper bag I’m to use in the event of airsickness is stowed in an accessible pocket. Lieut. Setlack says he’ll take it easy at first, and then if I’m game we can get into some more exciting stuff. I imagine experiencing a roll, cloverleaf or even a Cuban Eight (a figure eight on its side). He says all I have to do is say ‘uncle’ if my stomach or head starts to act up. I’m ready, and my camera is clicked on.

The plane’s glass canopy is down and the engine is roaring. As instructed, I remove and stow the red safety pin from the ejection handle. The aircraft shakes; it’s another strong crosswind–this one about 30 to 35 knots. Unfortunately, the aircraft is only certified to take off and land in up to a 25-knot crosswind. Setlack wastes little time in deciding to shut down. So ready…so darn close.

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