Thanks to AM Radio CJAD for this interesting and barely believable information!
Famous Canadian Hosers take to the skies with Canada’s Air Force. Beauty, eh?
Over the years, there have been many celebrities who have gone for a flight in a CF-18 Hornet. Canadian rock legend, Geddy Lee of the group Rush, whose soaring and astoundingly high tenor voice carries RUSH to the stratosphere, went for a ride in 2001. The band’s next album, Vapor Trails, and the song Ceiling Unlimited was the result of Lee’s experience. Here, the Geddy Lee Hornet catches the wire at Inuvik, Northwest Territories. CF Photo by Corporal Jean-François Lauzé
Geddy is thinking “Countdown”.
The production of the RUSH album Vapor Trails has been criticized by critics and fans alike because of the album’s “loud” sound quality. Albums such as this have been mastered so loud that additional digital distortion is generated during the production of the CD. The trend, known as the Loudness War, has become very common on modern rock CDs. When asked why the album was mastered so loud, Lee shouted and answered: “What? I can’t hear you. Ever since my Hornet ride, I’ve had hearing troubles.” CF Photo by Corporal Jean-François Lauzé
Count Floyd Blood Services. Here, CC-138 Count Floyd departs from the Forward Operating Location in Iqaluit, Nunavut Territory carrying pallets of blood from the Canadian Blood Services to remote northern communities. One of the smallest units of the Royal Canadian Air Force is the northern detachment of 440 Transport Squadron at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The nickname of 440, since the Second World War, has been the Vampires, so when it came to selecting an appropriate subject for the tail of one of their CC-138 Twin Otters, they selected the Dracula-attired Count Floyd from the legendary Canadian Second City TV (SCTV) comedy show. In keeping with that SCTV Monster Horror Theatre theme, the squadron mess is called “Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of Pancakes” and the aircraft operate under the call sign “Scary.” Besides having big balls for operating in some of the most difficult weather and terrain on the planet, the 440 Vampires have shown us that they have a sense of humour. The long Arctic winters and the tough job have always made for eclectic and somewhat unorthodox pilots and aircrew. 440 Squadron operates the famous CC-138 Twin Otter to carry out its wide range of tasks. The Squadron operates these rugged aircraft, nicknamed the Twotter, in some of the harshest weather conditions on the planet and is the only Canadian Forces unit that is based full-time in the North. CF photo by Sgt Eileen Redding
Many of the Celebritail design subjects were chosen after polling pilots and aircrew from the bases where the aircraft were based. Greenwood, Nova Scotia airmen and women voted almost unanimously for the lovable character known as “Bubbles” from the hit Nova Scotia mockumentary series called Trailerpark Boys. The character known as Bubbles, played by Mike Smith, sports excruciatingly massive Coke-bottle lenses, drives around the trailer park on a go-cart, has a predilection for “kitty cats,“ lives in a tool shed and repairs abandoned shopping carts for cash. The choice of Bubbles, while wildly supported by the young airmen and women of 14 Wing Greenwood, was seen by the religious right and evangelical Christians as delivering the wrong message to Nova Scotia youth. The Trailerpark Boys series focuses on a group of ex-convict layabouts living in fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park, bent on growing weed, getting rich without effort, stealing cars, swearing and drinking – which, as everyone knows, is practically the definition of Nova Scotia Youth. Photo: Sgt Pete Nicholson, 14 Wing Greenwood
Bubbles has long been a strong supporter of Canada’s armed forces and as such, he is much loved by our men and women in uniform, especially the Royal Canadian Air Force. Bubbles made the trip to Cold Lake, Alberta to experience the thrill and stresses of flight in a Hornet. The footage was part of a comedy piece on the CBC comedy show called “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” and was broadcast to our troops in Afghanistan. Video Capture from CBC
Cheech & Chong were a Grammy Award–winning comedy duo consisting of Richard “Cheech” Marin and Canadian Tommy Chong, who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their films and stand-up routines, which were based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug and counterculture movements, most notably their love for cannabis. The Tommy Chong CC-130J Hercules (130612) has met with some degree of controversy from the Military Police, who have questioned the sense of honouring a Canadian who championed laziness, marijuana and portrayed himself as a stoned dimwit. At air shows, crews have been referring to the Herc as a “Jay” Model, and use the Call Sign “Dave.” One humorous exchange between the tower at 8 Wing Trenton and the Chong Herc reportedly went like this: “Dave 612, Tower Control. You are cleared for takeoff.” This was followed by, “Tower, …Dave’s not here.” True story. Photo credit: Cpl Darcy Lefebvre, DND
According to Wikipedia, the lifting and storing capacity of the Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King is 159 “Squares” of Molson Canadian beer (a square being Hoser parlance for a case of 24 beer bottles.) This particular Sea King carries the only Celebritail design to be of more than one person – the famous McKenzie Brothers, Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas,) of SCTV. In addition, the sides of the fuselage of the helo were used as the tail boom did not offer a good place to display the design. There is a link between the McKenzie Brothers Sea King and the Geddy Lee Hornet. Bob and Doug the crest of a fad, peaking in 1982–83, that produced one comedy album, The Great White North and a movie, Strange Brew. The album, released by Anthem Records in Canada and Mercury Records in the US, went platinum in sales, won a Grammy nomination and broke the top ten on Billboard’s Top LPs and Tapes list in March 1982. It is noted for the song “Take Off” which featured fellow Canadian Geddy Lee of the rock group Rush chorusing between the McKenzies’ banter. DND Photo
