Climb aboard a tactical-transport helicopter at CFB Gagetown

403 Squadron is the only RCAF unit in all of New Brunswick. I think when most people in New Brunswick think of the military, they think of Base Gagetown. They think of the Army Training Centre that's here. Airspeed's alive. Left door closed. Right door closed. Roger. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Webb. I'm the commanding officer here at 403 Squadron at CFB Gagetown. So 403 Squadron as it is today, we train all the tactical helicopter pilots and flight engineers. for service in supporting the Canadian Army with flying operations. We've been here since the 1970s. We stood up in 1941 in England for the Second World War, flying Spitfires. We were in Calgary in the 40s and 50s, stood down in the 60s and re-brought up in 1968 and moved here in the early 1970s and haven't moved since. So we're the training squadron. For all the tactical helicopter pilots and flight engineers, they have all come through here at some point. Okay, you guys ready to see what 15 feet looks like? All right, let's go. Let's go. Clear right. Clear left. Clear left. What you'll see is Aaron's going to take us down below the treetop level. So what you'll see is the treetops above us as he's going down this section. Don't close the barrier. Roger. This is where we want to be. You can't see us when we're down here. Gene, you asked me earlier about stalk and strength on the flies. So you can imagine low level, that's a stalking group. We're hiding ourselves, we're being below the trees, so the threats can't see us, and we get ourselves in to do that strike we're talking about there, too. Okay, gang, so this is going to be that confined area I talked about. So we're going to come up to the top of it, and we're going to basically bring ourselves down like that. Feel free to look out the windows as we go in. 30, tail clear here. 420. Clear left. Clear right. 4, 5, 3, 2, 1. Steady forward. Roger. 85. 80% there. 50 above the ground. Roger. I'm looking to make sure that where we're going is safe, and I'm using a technique called voice marshaling to aid the pilots in the landing of the aircraft in that confined area. That's a confined area landing, and that's an example of one of the things that they just couldn't do in a tactical environment without a flight engineer in the back. So, at a certain point they're slowing down, but they're going at a high speed, so the tail comes down, the nose comes up, and the pilots literally cannot see where they're going. The flight engineer is talking to him in a very specific language exactly what to do and how we're going to do it, all the way until we get descending into the area. Almost be like parking your car with your eyes closed and somebody's talking to you about how to drive. Alright. Good luck. You want to be as close to those trees and obstacles as you can to reduce the signature that you present to our potential threats. You don't get lit up by enemy radar or get lit up by enemy surface-to-air fire, small arms, larger weapons or missile systems, that sort of thing. They have a harder time tracking you, they have a hard time seeing you, and they have a harder time shooting you, which makes you live a day longer in the battlefield. Roger, I'll just do a low-level return. Clear to left. Advisory, Wolf. In the same way we lock our doors when we leave our house every time, even though there may be no threat to someone coming in, you still lock it anyways because you want to feel safe and secure. And that's what having a military like this does. It should make us all feel safe and secure, but making sure that others look at this and say, you know what, Canada's got its stuff ready to go.