‘Custodian of history’: Lethbridge pilot gearing up for multiple Remembrance Day fly past ceremonies

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — With Remembrance Day ceremonies set to take place in less than two weeks, a Lethbridge pilot is gearing up to hit the skies to help honour Canadian soldiers.

Geoffrey Brayne will take off in his 1952 Harvard MK IV aircraft on Nov. 11 performing a fly past at ceremonies in Lethbridge, Coaldale, Stirling and Raymond.

“The number of phone calls I got after we flew the Remembrance Day (was amazing),” said Brayne. “And people approaching us about just how much it meant because they had someone -- some family member -- either flying the airplane or worked on the airplane.”

“So, I realized it was significant for people to see a bit of history and a bit of connection to family members.”

It’s not the first time Brayne has taken off for these events. He’s been part of the Lethbridge cenotaph ceremony for the past four years.

“Retired Capt. David Deere with the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force), he’ll be flying the airplane and I’ll be in the back seat,” said Brayne. “He’s a retired CF-18 Snowbird pilot and now the technical pilot of WestJet.”

During the fly past in Lethbridge, the Harvard won’t be alone.

To celebrate the RCAF’s 100th anniversary, the City of Lethbridge 429 Squadron will conduct its own fly past with its C-17 Globemaster at the cenotaph.

According to Brayne, about 15,000 of the Harvard aircrafts were built, with roughly 700 still flying today.

“I love old airplanes, I love the history, particularly war birds,” he said

“We heard about this one, it was in a hanger in Tisdale, Sask.,,” he said. ”(It) had been abandoned for 25 years so we took it apart, trucked it home to Lethbridge, spent about a year with some good friends and a good maintenance department – QL Aviation -- and we restored it back to the way it was in 1966.”

He says the systems to flying the plane haven’t changed much to modern airplanes.

The Harvard was used solely in Canada to train NATO pilots during the Cold War.

While the flight on Remembrance Day will only take an hour and a half, Brayne says he’s looking forward to sharing a bit of history with southern Alberta -- thousands of feet above the ground.

“It’s part of being a custodian of the airplanes and a custodian of (southern Alberta) history... It’s nice to share,” he said.

Along with the ceremony at the cenotaph, a Remembrance Day ceremony will be held inside the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre on Nov. 11.