While dropping out of a plane might not be on everyone’s bucket list, Canada’s SkyHawks jump at every opportunity.
“It was my dream to be on the SkyHawks,” said Corporal Sabrina Cloutier.
“You think free falling would be the actual feeling of falling through nothing, but you have so much wind catching you that this is what’s given us the opportunity to turn and go forward and backwards and it is an amazing feeling,” she said.
Canada’s parachute team will free-fall into the Moncton area this weekend.
The group has two jumps on Saturday: one at 1:30 p.m. at Riverfront Park and one at 4:30 p.m. for the Highland Games.
Sunday will bring three more performances: 9:25 a.m. at Riverfront Park, 1:30 p.m. at Riverfront Park and 7 p.m. in Gagetown.
“We have several different formations within our show routine and all of them are unique and display the skills of the soldiers within the Canadian Armed Forces and the crowd’s really going to love it,” said Corporal Kienan Shortt.
“My formation is called the candy cane and I’m jumping with a line of six smoke attached to my leg and I’ll be spinning around in the air, so that’s one of our formations,” he added.
“Then we have several different formations where they’re pretty much crashing canopies into each other in a controlled manner and displaying a great performance.”
On top of the jumpers, there are also members with crucial jobs on the ground. Cloutier will be the DZ Controller this weekend.
“Basically I will do the communication with the aircraft, I will communicate with and make sure of all the safety on the ground,” she said.
“I would say it is one of the most important roles for the team because if we don’t have a DZ controller, we cannot jump. It is imperative that we have someone that is able to say if the winds are too high to all of the team that is in the sky.”
Friday’s weather kept them grounded from practice jumps, but the team is feeling confident for the weekend ahead.
“We’re working in a highly dangerous environment so we really have to trust each other and the way we lower that danger is by having that 100% trust in each other and having that training, so we all have the upmost confidence in each other,” said Shortt.
The team did five weeks of training in California and multiple ground walk-throughs on Friday to be as prepared as possible.
The hope is to bring the action this weekend along with a little joy, a little excitement and a little inspiration.
“I think today’s society lives with a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety and we just give that amazing show and I feel like it kind of gives people that idea of ‘wow we can really do anything,’” said Cloutier.
The team says they’re excited to preform in Moncton and can’t wait to interact with the public once they land.
