was in the trust you had to have for your team.” That trust extended beyond the cockpit. Each pilot knew their safety depended on the discipline, focus, and integrity of each other. They worked together on each routine. Every manoeuvre was practiced relentlessly, with hundreds of hours of flight time, video reviews, and candid debriefs. “There was serious criticism among the guys,” Wally shares. “We didn’t always get it right.” Without simulators for the CT-114 Tutor aircraft, which the Snowbirds still use, all practice took place in the air. Ground briefings were intense with blackboard drawings and constant refinement. “We worked to get to the point where we could fly our planes within a one-foot box,” Wally explains. “That’s how tight the formation was.”
The Beauty in Trust: Wally Stone’s Journey to Mount Brydges When you meet Wally Stone, there’s a quiet confidence about him—a calm assurance shaped by a life of adventure, discipline, and deep camaraderie. From the wilds of northern Ontario to the skies above North America, Europe and the Middle East, Wally’s journey is one of trust, purpose, and belonging. Born in 1943, Wally grew up in Oba Lake, Ontario, near mile 210 on the Algoma Central Railway. His father was an Air Force pilot who joined the Ontario Provincial Air Service after serving overseas during World War II. Life was remote and rugged: no roads, no cars— just a canoe and a railway track. “We lived off the land,” Wally recalls. “It was a tremendous way to grow up, hunting and fishing from an early age.” Carolyn and Wally in their Mount Brydges home Flying was always close to Wally’s heart. At 17, he joined the Canadian Air Force, attending the Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent summers flying Chipmunks in Centralia and Harvards in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. After graduation, he trained on jet aircraft in Gimli, Manitoba, to earn his wings. Wally’s military career took him across Canada and the UK, flying everything from the CF-101 Voodoo to the Folland Gnat and the British Hawk. He held many positions, including instructing new and experienced pilots. However, his most iconic chapter began in 1979, when he joined the Snowbirds. The Snowbirds, officially known as 431 Air Demonstration Squadron and based in Moose Jaw, is a Canadian nine-pilot team that performs precision flying maneuvers and aerobatics in formation at public demonstrations across North America. After several months of training and practice, Wally flew with the Snowbirds during the 1980 and 1981 performance seasons as Snowbird 7—outer left in the formation. “As part of the formation team, you’re flying a few feet apart, performing complex manoeuvres at high speed,” Wally explains. “The beauty of that
Wally with his flying suit
Wally’s Snowbird Flight Patch
In Wally’s time, pilots could only fly with the Snowbirds for two years. When he finished his term, Wally served with NORAD and later led recruitment efforts in the Canadian Arctic, among other special projects. After retiring from the military at 55 as a Squadron Leader, he taught ground school for Bombardier in Moose Jaw, then for a British company in Kuwait, before retiring permanently at the end of 2004. “I made the most of every opportunity that came my way and enjoyed every minute,” Wally adds. Today, Wally and his wife, Carolyn, live in Mount Brydges. “Of all the places I’ve lived—from Oba Lake to Kuwait to the Arctic—Mount Brydges is the nicest, friendliest place of them all,” says Wally. Wally’s adventures are like beads strung together by trust: trust in the land to provide, his aviation training, his teammates, and in his journey from the solitude of northern Ontario to the roar of plane engines, to the quiet of small-town life. Photos courtesy of Wally Stone
Snowbirds, circa 1980. Wally is pictured third from the right
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KKD Villager November 2025
Page 19
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