No, the twin Huey is from 433 sqn and I was with 427 Sqn. The picture was taken in Cold lake along with some of the others pics .

Known affectionately as the “Clunk” by its aircrews, or disparagingly as the heavy metal “Lead Sled” by F-86 pilots, the CF- 100 was the most effective all-weather fighter in the West’s inventory during the 1950s. (The "Clunk" nickname arose from the noise the front landing gear made as it retracted into its well after takeoff.) I worked on them in North Bay and a real pain trying to get the ejection seat in from first the wing then over the motor to finally the cock pit. They used gaseous oxygen for the crew still where the more modern A/C use liquid oxygen now.

F-104 nicknamed the widow maker because if you got a flame out the wings weren't made to make you be able to glide. it was like riding in a rocket .It was still being use when I was in Germany. As a safety systems tech in Cold lake I got to talk to a few of the pilots that flew them in Germany. They were more picky about how their helmet, chute, G suits and oxygen masks fit while the younger pilots weren't. I got to talking to a couple of them and I found out why they looked after their safety equipment were the younger ones didn't. It was because they were both forced to bail out their planes in Germany and they found out the hard way that you have to make sure everything is worn tight. Both had bailed from flame outs from bird strikes while doing low level passed at the ranges. One of them had to bail out a second time do to some other  A/C malfunction.

Their helmets for example are built from scratch and are make to fit each pilot's head. Same for their oxygen masks Many times the helmet liner has to be custom make first also by my trade because no two head are the same.

CF-101 Voodoo. Cold Lake.

Why were you as a tankie messing around with such technical things as aircraft?

CF-116 Freedom Fighter like I worked on in Cold Lake. I was on them from 1984 -89. They were retired in 1985 and replaced by F-18's  Notice the pipe sticking up coming out on the front right side. That is for air to air refueling  and to refuel them we used  Boeing 707. We flew to Germany from Cold lake and air refueled 4 of them across the Atlantic. We first stopped in Happy Valley Goose Bay Labrador before crossing over.

Here we are crossing and at one stag one of the pilots somehow stood up in the small cockpit and pulled down his flight suit and mooned us all in the 707.Flying over Greenland. if you look close at the last picture down you will see that the numbers on the planes are backward. I used side film to take these shots and when I converted them to normal pictures I put the side in backward in the copier. No windows does support my slide copier anymore an d have to by another computer with Windows 11 and another slide copier but in no rush to spend the couple of thousand dollars it would cost me. I guess I could use my slide projector and copy the pictures off the large screen or a white wall.

Here's the one where the planes seem to be going the wrong way.

CF-101 Voodoo. Cold Lake.

The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was the first rate interceptor in the 1950's. It set a world record for speed & my cousin worked on them at the US air force base at Great Falls Montana. The Voodoo was replaced by the legendary F-4 Phantom & there is one of those on static display at our local American Legion. 

Why were you as a tankie messing around with such technical things as aircraft?

Because when I was posted to an Armoured Recce Regiment after Europe I missed the tanks so much that after a few years I traded trades and become Airforce as a Life Support Tech which are also referred to as Last Change Techs because we are the ones you have to reply on encase you have to bail out of your Jet, have to stop it on a runway when the brakes can't do it, or escape from a burning passenger plane on the ground or get suck in a land or seas survival situation to survive.

No matter what I did Mark I never forgot the tanks. We still did a lot of travelled in the Airforce though. To Norway twice, to Germany again, to train twice in Kentucky/ Tennessee at Fort Campbell with the 101 Air Assault (helicopters) And down to Arizona twice with the jets training in Yuma and then in Phoenix.

I joined the military to see the world and got to do it on their buck and a military ID card. I still have never had a passport but there is so much to see in this Country still, I don't need one.

One of the more scary things I have done and didn't like was getting stuck sitting in the cock pit of a F-116 Freedom Fighter doing a run up.  That's when you are testing the engines to the point you think you will never hear again and thinking all the time what's it going to be like is these chalk chains break that are the only things holding the plane from trying to take off and I end up going through the maintenance shack directly in front of me at a 100 miles an hour. I was wondering all the time, now who's going to pay for that mess. I hope it won't be me.

Yup

It was shamelessly after the war they stole everybody's designs and ideas, just like the Chinese are doing right now. The Japanese government gave its motorcycle industry thirty years to destroy the British motorcycle industry and the subsidies to achieve it. It only took less than half that time and a combination of arrogant, useless, greedy directors and an apathetic government allowed them to.

Another ironic twist is in the 50's most Jap products were junk, even into the mid-60's. Then came some sort of revolution & everybody wanted Jap quality............in electronics, cars, motorcycles. Seems to me that China is on the cusp of change now. 

BTW, I do remember the USA Jap products, but never knew they had a Sheffield too. I have some Sheffield knives for years & now I find out they may be Jap?