LETHBRIDGE, Alta. –

With Remembrance Day ceremonies set to take place in less than two weeks, a Lethbridge pilot is preparing to take flight to pay tribute to Canadian soldiers.

Geoffrey Brayn will take off in his 1952 Harvard MK IV aircraft on November 11 to fly past ceremonies in Lethbridge, Coaldale, Stirling and Raymond.

“The number of phone calls I received after our Memorial Day flight (was unbelievable),” Brayn said. “And people approached us to tell us how much it meant because they had someone – a family member – who flew the plane or worked on the plane.

“So I realized it was important for people to see a little bit of history and a little bit of connection to their family members.” »

This isn’t the first time Brayn has participated in these events. He has been participating in the Lethbridge Cenotaph ceremony for four years.

“Retired RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) Captain David Deere, he will be flying the plane and I will be in the back seat,” Brayn said. “He’s a retired CF-18 Snowbird pilot and now the technical pilot for WestJet.”

During the flight over Lethbridge, the Harvard will not be alone.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the RCAF^th anniversary, the 429th Squadron from the City of Lethbridge will perform its own flyover with its C-17 Globemaster at the cenotaph.

According to Brayn, about 15,000 Harvard planes were built, and about 700 are still flying today.

“I like old planes, I like history, especially warbirds,” he said.

According to Brayn, about 15,000 Harvard planes were built, and about 700 are still flying today.

“We heard about this one, it was in a shed in Tisdale, Saskatchewan,” he said. “(It) had been abandoned for 25 years, so we took it apart, trucked it to Lethbridge, spent about a year with some good friends and a good maintenance service – QL Aviation – and restored it as it was. that it was in 1966.”

He says the plane’s piloting systems haven’t changed much from modern planes.

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

Even though the Remembrance Day flight will only last an hour and a half, Brayn says he’s looking forward to sharing a little history with southern Alberta, thousands of feet above the ground.

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

In conjunction with the Cenotaph ceremony, a Remembrance Day ceremony will take place inside the Agri-Food and Commerce Center on November 11.