WISH PROFILE
Gordon Helm’s Royal Canadian Air Force missions
are straight out of a spy thriller. The fighter pilot
flew patrol along the Soviet Bloc during the
Cold War, danger always a wing away.
Midair faceoffs with enemy planes –
guns facing guns – demanded nerves
of steel to veer his F-86 Sabre away
at the last possible second.
“I suppose you might consider it
tense,” recalls Gordon, who lives with
his wife Isobel at Chartwell Lancaster
Long Term Care Residence in
Lancaster, ON.
The operation helped keep the world
free – but came at an incredible cost.
Canada lost 29 pilots during that tour.
“My Dad is a Canadian hero,” says
Gordon’s son Murray.
On National Seniors Day, Gordon’s
Wish of A Lifetime came true at the
Canadian Warplane Heritage
Museum, as he copiloted a de
Havilland Canada Chipmunk, a train-
ing plane he flew in the RCAF.
“Piloting an airplane, you take off,
climb to the skies, look around you
and say, ‘I’m here!’ There’s no other
way to get there than flying,” says
Gordon, who was devastated when a
medical condition grounded him at
only 29.
He proved that once a flying ace,
always a flying ace, confidently taking
control and perfectly executing a
wingover, a steep climb and descent
maneuver.
“He was epic,” says pilot Steve Purton,
a retired member of the Snowbirds.
“84? Is that like the new 60?”
“It was the best 25 minutes of my last
10 years,” Gordon says. “The emotions
I’m feeling today are of accomplish-
ing a dream.”
Piloting an
airplane, you
take off, climb
to the skies,
look around
you and say,
I’m here!
There’s no
other way
to get there
than flying
– Gordon
Pilot Steve Purton,
Gordon and Gordon’s
son Murray.
RENDEZVOUS
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