FORMER GOLDEN HAWK DEAD

[John Swallow]

LCol Fern Villenueve, the lead pilot of the first RCAF Golden Hawk team has died aged 92.


He was born 2 July 1927 in Buckingham, Quebec (now Gatineau, Quebec) died 25 December 2019 after bein involved in a car accident the day before.


He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1950 and flew for 32 years as a military jet fighter pilot


He was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006.

One of the reports indicated that he'd flown (!) in the morning of the 24th and was involved in a car accident in the afternoon

Old VHS film of the team:

[Colonel]

[img width=500 height=293]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... B_3590.jpg[/img]

What a nice old guy.  Great stick.  Never stopped flying.

[quote]learned to fly as a civilian in a Piper J-3 Cub ...
flew for 32 years as a military jet fighter pilot ...
squadron leader three different times, on the CF-104 and the T-33 and CF-101 ...
logged more than 13,000 hours.[/quote]

That's a lot of years, and a lot of hours for a fighter guy. 

He just loved to fly.  He used to fly in and visit my old friend Dave O'Blenis. 

[img width=500 height=428][/img]

Eric cut Fern off in the pattern.  Dave was horrified.  Fern laughed.

Canada's Bob Hoover:

[img width=500 height=305]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a2/51/3d ... bae573.jpg[/img]

Got this from Dear Old Dad, whom is greatly saddened by Fern's passing:

[quote]I may have told you that I was invited to be part of Villeneuve’s start up of The Golden Hawks . Of course I accepted.  Then a week or two later the airforce heard that Mary and I were getting married. They said I could not do that at the same time.  I would have to choose.  The rest is history.  Your’s and mine.[/quote]

[Four Bars]

Several years ago, I was honoured to act as Lead with Fern on my wing. It was amazing to watch, I couldn’t shake him or make him drop out of position. It was as if he was anticipating my every move.

[anofly]

Met him a few times in the last 4 or 5 years. I always liked those swifts! he was often in his. Actually met him about a year back in tillsonburg on a sunday morning . He was having breakfast, with the swift sitting outside. I shook his hand and thanked him for his service.