Airshows / Brent Handy Aerobatics The Pursuit of Passion Stretching outside his comfort zone has paid big dividends for airshow performer Brent Handy. By Lisa Gordon | Photos by Mike Luedey hen Brent Handy was 11 years old, he saw a Royal Canadian Air Cadet glider in a mall near his hometown of Wyevale, Ont., about 40 minutes northwest of Barrie. A shy kid who had yet to find his passion in life, Handy was astounded to learn that it was possible for him to earn his glider pilot licence through the Air Cadets, an organization he’d never heard about. “I thought being a pilot was the ultimate when I was a kid,” he said. “I didn’t know any pilots; nobody in our family was a pilot. I don’t think I believed I’d be able to do it.” For Handy, the Air Cadets opened up a whole new world. “It was tough for me. I was a very, very shy kid,” he admitted. “I didn’t know a single person there. I was so shy and it was such a foreign environment; kids in uniform, marching around, yelling.” Handy credits his parents for their patience and encouragement; he said they’d drop him off at meetings in nearby Midland, Ont., and wait for him in the parking lot. Sometimes, Handy would come out and sit in the car for a break. Eventually, it got better. Then, the summer after his first year in cadets, Handy was named top junior cadet. “That was the first time I felt like I had achieved something,” he said. “That was a pivotal moment in my life. From there, I really started to believe in myself. I loved flying so much that studying 24/7 was no problem for me. It was like a fire that ignited and took over my life.” W BALANCING ACT Fast forward to the fall of 2017, and that shy kid is nowhere to be found in the present-day Brent Handy, who has racked up more than 4,700 hours in the air— 52 SKIES Magazine | December 2017/January 2018 4,000 of them in jets or aerobatic aircraft. At age 40, he is just coming off his fourth season on the airshow circuit, wowing thousands of fans under his own banner, Brent Handy Aerobatics. His eye- catching red and white Pitts Special S-2B carves up the sky at nine to 12 airshows a year, most of them in Western Canada and the Northwestern U.S. What is so remarkable about Handy’s dedication to his airshow business is that he balances it with a full-time military career and a young family. Since joining the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1999, Handy has progressed steadily through the ranks, qualifying on the CF-188 Hornet fighter at age 30 and later performing as a member of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatic team for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Today, Handy is based in Moose Jaw, Sask., working as a standards and evaluation pilot for Winnipeg-based 2 Canadian Air Division. His job is to function as an independent observer of 15 Wing Moose Jaw’s Snowbirds 431 Air Demonstration Squadron. He helps implement any regulatory changes, technical orders and pilot procedures, and performs team and pilot evaluations. “In reality, when it comes to this time of year and the new pilots are around the squadron, I’m pretty intimately involved in getting them trained up,” said Handy, who flies about 150 hours per year in the team’s CT-114 Tutor aircraft. So how does he balance his full-time job, his family life—with wife Rebecca and kids Evan, 9, and Grace, 6—and his passion for aerobatic flying? There’s no doubt the man is busy. “I’m up at the crack of dawn to get in a practice flight at the municipal airport