International Air Cadet Exchange in Canada Benjamin Friedli and Maurus Mäder
Introduction I want to thank all the people who made this unforgettable trip possible! This summer Maurus Mäder and I had the opportunity to represent Switzerland at the International Air Cadet Exchange or short IACE in Canada. The IACE is a program in which aviation interested young people meet and visit a different country for 16 days. The purpose of the exchange is to bring young aviation interested people together and foster the international understanding and friendship. In this year s exchange in Canada there were people from, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and last but not least the United States of America. All together included the escort officers and the bus drivers we were around seventy people traveling the Canadian province of Alberta in two buses. During the whole exchange I had so many different unforgettable experiences so I decided to break down the trip into my five personal high lights.
Flight to Canada Our flight to Canada began at the airport Zurich-Kloten were Maurus and I met to catch our flight first flight. The flight schedule was to fly from Zurich to Chicago then wait at Chicago airport for about 5 hours, then fly from Chicago to Minneapolis and then finally from Minneapolis to Edmonton Canada, in total about 20 hours. Well this is at least what we expected. The first flight was with Swiss and went pretty smooth. After we have arrived in Chicago and wanted to check in for the connecting flight to Minneapolis, we found out that we had first class tickets from Chicago to Edmonton! So we were pretty excited for our flight. Because we had so much time in Chicago we decided to try to get into the delta lounge but we soon found out that we were too young to enter the lounge. After this first downer we headed first to a restaurant were we had two burgers and then we straight to the gate. We had been waiting at the gate for about an hour before we saw that our plane had a technical problem and was delayed, so we got a little nervous, because we knew we had a connecting flight to catch in Minneapolis and just one hour in between flights. We kept on waiting for the plane to arrive in the hope to still catch the flight but after a while the delay got even bigger. So we knew we had to do something because we knew we would miss our connecting flight in Minneapolis if we would get on the delayed plane. This is where our first class tickets came in very handy. So we went out to the counter and explained our situation to the lady from delta and said that we wanted to stay in Chicago and continue our flight later when we could catch a connecting flight to Edmonton. She first booked our new flights and then went on to book us a place to stay till the next flight. The place she had booked a room for the both of us was nothing less than a Hilton Hotel near the airport included were three food vouchers each valued at 15 dollars! If we would have had a normal ticket this probably would have been a complete different story, but so we went to the Hilton Hotel which had a room with two huge extremely comfortably beds ready for us. After the long flight to Chicago we slept like rocks in these beds and hardly could get up because they were so comfy.
Right after a shower and putting on our uniform we went back to the airport. Were we bought breakfast at Starbucks with our food vouchers from delta. With our bellies filled with coffee and loads of sweet pastry we went to the gate again. This time the flight was not delayed. While we waited we were watching the gorgeous sunrise over the Chicago airport. After some waiting we were sitting in our first class seats and enjoin the first class service. But right after our plane was ready to taxi to the runway we were towed back to the gate and the captain announced that we had a minor problem with the auxiliary power unit APU. They had the problem fixed quickly and we were of. In Minneapolis we then used our last food voucher in a place where we bought two milkshakes and some food. But we still had some money on the voucher and since we didn t could eat anymore to spend the remaining money we invited the woman who served us to a milk shake. After a while we got on the plane and left Minneapolis direction Edmonton, where after we landed. One of the escort officers picked us up and drove us to a military base where we would stay till the weekend.
West Edmonton mall The west Edmonton mall was the biggest shopping centre till 2004. Today it is just ranked on the sixth place worldwide, but is still the largest shopping mall in northern America. The mall contains 800 shops, an indoor water park with the world s largest wave pool, an indoor amusements park with 24 different rides and an ice rink which is also opened during summer. When we arrived at the mall on our third day in Canada we were just blown away by the sheer size of the whole complex. Before we entered the every one received a ticket which we either could use for the water park or the amusement park. I choose the water park. So I and several other cadets decided to go to the water park first and go shopping afterward. We had a great time together enjoying the rides and the wave pool. Around lunch time the other cadets decided to leave the water park and search a place to eat. I and Daco a cadet from Canada wanted to stay a bit longer and head straight to the shops afterwards because we were not really hungry. I went a bit crazy whilst shopping and spent 300 dollars for cloths and a new rucksack from north face. Luckily we just had about 2 hours of shopping left after the waterpark otherwise I probably would have spent more.
408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron The best thing of the whole trip was the visit of the 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron near Edmonton. The highlight of the visit was the short flight in a C -146 Griffon helicopter. After they had split us up into different groups. The group I was assigned to first got shown around the bases logistical part with the helicopter maintenance. After that we went to the hangar where the operational helicopter where located. We got a short safety briefing for the helicopter flight and had to wait till the helicopters came back with another group. During this time we could play around and pose with some unloaded weapons, which great fun. After the helicopters came back and had landed it was our turn. We left the hangar and headed to the two helicopters outside on the tarmac. The engines were running while we were getting on the helicopter. I got a seat on the left side of the helicopter right next to the door, which they left open during the whole flight. After every one was properly strapped we took off. I was really excited because this was my first helicopter flight. First we climb up high and flew away direction Edmonton. After a while we turned around back to the airport. At the same time we descended. At some point we were flying less than 50 meter above ground, which was one off the best experiences I have ever had. We landed about 15 minutes after we took off.
The next thing we did was trying out the night vision goggles which they are using during night operations. There were always two persons who tried the goggles and the rest of the group were waiting in the pitch black room, so the only ones who saw a thing were the ones with the goggles.
Lake Louis When we visited Lake Louis we had the rare opportunity to do whatever we wanted for half a day. I decided to join the guys from Australia and Daco from Canada on a hike. It was great fun even though we got a bit lost at some point. The thing I enjoyed was the landscape which was just gorgeous and reminded me a bit of Switzerland.
Waterton National Park Waterton National Park is a park in the very south of the province Alberta and shares a border with the US-State Montana. The program was to first visit and explores the small town of Waterton on our own and after dinner head for a boat tour on the Waterton Lake during which we actually crossed the US border. The boat trip was really cool and the scenery just so gorgeous because we started in the evening we cloud watch the sunset on the boat.
IACE Canada 2015 Videos Here are some links to videos of the 2015 IACE in Canada. The first video is from Maurus Mäder with whom I went on this exchange. The second one is another cool video made by Jérémy Faccin a French cadet and good friend of mine. Maurus Mäder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtqaq_g37y8&ab_channel=maurusmadair Jérémy Faccin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wycqtqu4cni&ab_channel=j%c3%a9r%c3%a9myfaccin Final Thoughts The International Air Cadet Exchange was a one in a lifetime experience. It was not just the amazing things we cloud do and see but even more the international friendships with people who are interested in aviation. The IACE spirit is really amazing. Everyone is very open and friendly. I now have friends all over the world some of whom I already have seen again and I am looking forward the see even more again. This includes also the host families who were just amazing and treated me like a part of their family. I also wanted to thank again all the people helped to make this trip an amazing experience. Especially I wanted to thank the IACE Association, the Air Cadet League of Canada, the Aero-Club der Schweiz and the Segelfluggruppe Nidwalden who made this trip possible.