Catch22
Major
I've never told this story here before, and I don't know why, but here it is.
12 years ago, the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade, my family and I were invited on a tour of CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, thanks to a connection that my dad had. The connection was a female police officer who was also in the reserves. She and my dad were talking one day, and she had mentioned that she was going to go up in the back seat of a CF-18B. At the time, the F-18 was my favourite aircraft, and I absolutely loved it (still do, and there's 2 painted on my wall). So one thing lead to another and we were invited on the tour. As part of the tour, we were able to fly the simulator and sit in one of the CF-18s! This picture has been framed and sitting in my basement for years. As this was a very long time ago and as I was very young at the time, I always remembered the CF-18 I sat in as a two-seat CF-18B, and I wasn't aware that we had any other photos of the plane, as the squadron didn't want us taking too many pictures while we were on base. Well, today my dad and I were talking about it, and how I remembered it being a B, which was too bad because I thought it would be cool to do my F-18 that I just got up in that scheme, but B's are only used for training here, they aren't operational. I also didn't have a side number. My dad remembered that there was another photo of the whole squadron posed in front of the plane, and that he thought it was a CF-18A. So the hunt began, and sure enough, when we finally found the picture, it's an CF-18A, side number 739. So once my Voodoo's complete, I'll start on this. The decals are one their way from Leading Edge in Calgary (3-4 hours south of me, yet it's been a full week and I haven't gotten them yet), so I will be able to do this plane. I also have a coin that 416 had, which I'll post a picture of and the story about it later on, as well as a full flight suit and flight jacket. I plan on mounting the F-18 on a stand, and have the coin mounted within the stand. I'm hunting for a 416 patch in the house which I'd also like to mount on the stand. I have two patches that I know of right now, but they're both on the flight suit and jacket, and I'm not going to remove them. Anyway, here are the photos, and I really can't wait to get started on this project! And yes, I'm going to put my name on it.
12 years ago, the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade, my family and I were invited on a tour of CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, thanks to a connection that my dad had. The connection was a female police officer who was also in the reserves. She and my dad were talking one day, and she had mentioned that she was going to go up in the back seat of a CF-18B. At the time, the F-18 was my favourite aircraft, and I absolutely loved it (still do, and there's 2 painted on my wall). So one thing lead to another and we were invited on the tour. As part of the tour, we were able to fly the simulator and sit in one of the CF-18s! This picture has been framed and sitting in my basement for years. As this was a very long time ago and as I was very young at the time, I always remembered the CF-18 I sat in as a two-seat CF-18B, and I wasn't aware that we had any other photos of the plane, as the squadron didn't want us taking too many pictures while we were on base. Well, today my dad and I were talking about it, and how I remembered it being a B, which was too bad because I thought it would be cool to do my F-18 that I just got up in that scheme, but B's are only used for training here, they aren't operational. I also didn't have a side number. My dad remembered that there was another photo of the whole squadron posed in front of the plane, and that he thought it was a CF-18A. So the hunt began, and sure enough, when we finally found the picture, it's an CF-18A, side number 739. So once my Voodoo's complete, I'll start on this. The decals are one their way from Leading Edge in Calgary (3-4 hours south of me, yet it's been a full week and I haven't gotten them yet), so I will be able to do this plane. I also have a coin that 416 had, which I'll post a picture of and the story about it later on, as well as a full flight suit and flight jacket. I plan on mounting the F-18 on a stand, and have the coin mounted within the stand. I'm hunting for a 416 patch in the house which I'd also like to mount on the stand. I have two patches that I know of right now, but they're both on the flight suit and jacket, and I'm not going to remove them. Anyway, here are the photos, and I really can't wait to get started on this project! And yes, I'm going to put my name on it.
