Pressure is mounting against the Canadian government’s decision to shelve the Snowbirds air demonstration team for an undetermined period until it can get new aircraft. Earlier this month the government announced 2026 will be the last year the team flies its nine Tutor jets at airshows throughout Canada and the U.S. The decision to abruptly suspend the team caught many of its supporters off guard and there is now talk of an organized lobbying effort to get the government to reverse the decision. On Tuesday, Senator Denise Batters read a letter in the Canadian Senate written to Prime Minister Mark Carney by Maj. Ian McLean, a former team lead of the Snowbirds, urging him to keep the Snowbirds flying in their current form, at least for now.
The decision surprised many because the age of the Tutors was cited even though the planes just went through a $30 million upgrade, including new glass panels, designed to keep them operational until at least 2030. There has also been criticism of the designated replacement aircraft, a version of the turboprop Pilatus PC-21 Canada will call the CT-157 Siskin II. It’s also been chosen as the RCAF’s new primary training aircraft and the first one was recently delivered. It will take about five years for Pilatus to supply the additional order to supply the Snowbirds, although there are now questions about just how many new Siskins will be in that order. There have been unconfirmed reports the next incarnation of the Snowbirds will fly as few as four aircraft rather than the nine now flown by the team.
Good. Real good. Give the Snowbirds Team some modern jet aircraft to transition to while the PC21 derivatives are used for training when they arrive. Are we a G7 country or a bush league 3rd world backwater?
Well look at how we support the military and our defense obligations. We’re honorary 3’rd world But hey we got the government we deserve
More of the clown show circus from an unserious country. We’re about to join other joke countries like new zealand and brazil with a prop (jet) demonstration team.
cue the clown car music
Mate that’s pretty harsh, maybe 200 million Brazilians should be flying a jet team but the Texan 2 team is good enough for 5 million Kiwis. Made the cover of Flying magazine a year or two back.I thought Canucks were polite!
the new zealand airforce train some of the best pilots in the world , they are only a small force . they purchase and fly what the country can afford
As a Minnesota professional pilot (ALMOST a CANADIAN!) I have admired the Snowbirds for years–having done airshows with the U.S. and Canadian teams. They project the Canadian psyche very well–instead of bluster and blaring, they let their quiet precision speak for them–they fly tighter formation than any other jet demo team I’m aware of. They are a congenial lot–at a performer’s banquet, they have offered “Buy you a Molson?”
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN–THE CANADIAN SNOWBIRDS!”
The Tutor should have been built as an all new re-engined, re-avioniced aircraft decades ago; it was not.
Aircraft such as the PC21 are now the training choice of many modern nations.
The PC21 will be a good team aircraft, provided the RCAF receives sufficient numbers to fulfill the training role and the team necessities; ten aircraft for a viable team.
‘The decision surprised many because the age of the Tutors was cited even though the planes just went through a $30 million upgrade, including new glass panels, designed to keep them operational until at least 2030.’
Whose brilliant idea was this? …to spend $ 30 million dollars in upgrades to the Tutors and to negate their own word and to move on before 2030 to an unknown arrival of propjets?
Makes no sense whatsoever.
Russ, it is oddly comforting to see that we, your neighbors to the south, aren’t the only ones whose government needs a glass navel to see out from where its head is stuck. I’ve partied with the Snowbirds (one, a distant cousin) on their visits to Airventure. They are stellar representatives of your country, and should be given whatever aircraft they want to fly. You can’t buy the PR they provide.
And Congrats! You were the top-blurb in the AOPA eBrief email today. I guess they didn’t take me seriously when I wrote them to cancel my membership, void my proxy, and stick it in their un-lit nether regions…