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Over 3,000 stuffed animals were tossed onto the ice.
Among the familiar Snowbirds, old-style propeller planes and Canadian Air Force jets taking off and landing at 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Kyle Fowler’s bright yellow plane stands out from the rest.
“It’s clean and it’s sharp,” the airshow pilot said of his prized craft.
The Rutan Long-EZ is a light, fibreglass plane, weighing only 920 pounds when there isn’t any fuel in it.
It’s a nimble-looking thing, resembling a quick, agile sports car.
Airshow pilot Kyle Fowler takes his Rutan Long-EZ plane in for a landing at 15 Wing Moose Jaw on July 4, 2019. (Evan Radford/980 CJME)
Fowler will be showing off its agility and speed at the Moose Jaw airfield Saturday and Sunday for the Saskatchewan Airshow.
It’s the first time in 14 years the show has been put on.
Aviation junkies and newbie flight fans alike will see another notable bit about the plane: Its propeller sits on the back of the craft, along with its wings.
Fowler says he’ll often hear comments on that part.
“Everybody looks at it and goes, ‘It’s such a weird plane, it’s really unconventional.’ And I just say, ‘You know what? It’s really not that unconventional, because the Wright brothers, they built the first airplane, and their propellers were in the back. They had the wing in the back, with the canard (the smaller, stabilizing wing) in the front,’ ” he said. “Really, it’s kind of a conventional-design aircraft.”
Based out of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., Fowler flies for oil companies when he’s not performing at airshows.
But his true calling is the airshow industry, starting when he was a kid with his dad.
“He has been doing airshows for 20 years,” Fowler said of his dad.
The pair went to an airshow in Phoenix, Ariz., when Kyle was 12 years old; the announcer called him up on stage to call his dad’s flight. That led to him calling all of his dad’s flight.
“I grew up in the industry, and I really loved it,” Fowler said.
Airshow pilot Kyle Fowler’s Rutan Long-EZ plane sits on the runway at 15 Wing Moose Jaw before takeoff on July 4, 2019. (Evan Radford/980 CJME)
As he grew up, going to more and more shows, he spotted what would be his dream plane, the Rutan Long-EZ.
“As a kid, it was the coolest-looking airplane, it looked like a spaceship. It was completely different from everybody else,” he said.
That’s when he decided he’d buy one for himself and start performing in airshows. He started five years ago, when he found one for sale, and hasn’t looked back since.
“It’s just so much different from everything else that’s out there, and that’s what I wanted. In this industry, it’s very difficult to just come in and be a rock star,” he said.
It helps when you have a bright yellow plane that looks like a video game jet fighter.
Getting off the ground with the Long-EZ is a bit nerve-wracking and stomach-churning. When a gust of wind hits the tiny aircraft, I can feel it getting knocked around.
But once we stabilize and are 2,000 feet up in the air, it’s like a rollercoaster, just much faster.
“We’re going 160 miles per hour, and we’ll get up to 220 miles per hour per coming out of our loop,” Fowler said from the front seat of the tiny two-seat aircraft.
He takes the plane through three barrel rolls — slow, fast and four-point versions. Each time the g-force pins me back against my seat.
We hang upside down as we go, and the patchwork of green farmers’ fields spread out below for miles.
The sun beats down into the hot, all-glass cockpit canopy, but the view is worth it.
Just before we head back to the airfield, Fowler manoeuvres an intense, upside-down loop; he aims the Long-EZ down for a bit, then starts to climb way up in the sky.
We go all the way around, again hanging over the prairies. Then we come down blazing fast out of the loop to a vast expanse of green fields.
The loud propeller buzzes as we pick up speed and flatten out.
When we land, I see the appeal of smaller aircraft; the wheels barely make a squeak and it feels like a gentle nudge on the bottom of my seat.
I get out of the plane a bit dizzy, but that infamous, white paper bag remains unused and unsoiled, staying folded up in my pocket.
The Saskatchewan Airshow runs Saturday and Sunday at 15 Wing Moose Jaw from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both days.