Aerographics has had a long friendship with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and any opportunity to help out at the squadron level is one we cherish—from designing merch and anniversary tributes for Ottawa-based 412 Squadron to supporting the RCAF's Centennial of Flight celebrations in 2009. We leaped at the chance to design a patch for Course 1905 at “The Big 2”— No.2 Canadian Forces Flying Training School at 15 Wing, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
We had some pretty clear creative guidance from 2Lt Edward Soye, one of Vintage Wings of Canada's Harvard pilots who took a 90 degree hard right from his wealth management career and followed his heart... to become a pilot in the RCAF. Edward explains the main image: “a bird or chick that's actively chirping. We have a habit of calling one another out when someone is late, does something silly, etc. The kids these days apparently call this "chirping", so we figured that a chirping bird - wearing a flight helmet or some other kind of pilot swag, would embody us well”
Each new course of aviators is given the task to arrange the design of their unique course patch, to be worn proudly by each of the course pilots and displayed in a glass case at the school along with the hundreds of course patches going back 75 years.
In addition, the course pilots wanted to reflect that their course number was an amalgam of two courses—"Our course is a bit of an interesting situation. 11 our of the 13 of us were originally loaded on course 1903. When they arrived in March, they were told that they had actually been delayed and therefore became course 1905 ”
The Big 2 flies the Raytheon CT-156 Harvard II training aircraft (left). All Big 2 aircraft are painted dark blue except one which is painted in the markings of a Second World War Harvard trainer (right) known to have been flown by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, the 412 Squadron Spitfire pilot who penned the famous poem High Flight
A Big 2 Instructor pilot suits up prior to flying the “High Flight” Harvard II. Painted to match the markings of a Second World War vintage trainer, this aircraft is depicted on the patch to link Course 1905 back to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of the 1940s.