By Canadian Press

Aviation community mourns death of fellow pilot in weekend airshow crash

Jul 18, 2016 | 3:25 PM

COLD LAKE, Alta. — A pilot killed during an airshow in Alberta on Sunday is being remembered a someone who loved sharing his passion for Canada’s aviation history.

Pilot and geologist Bruce Evans died when his vintage Trojan T-28 aircraft crashed in front of thousands of spectators at the Cold Lake Airshow.

The crash came as a shock to his friend Dave O’Malley who said he and others in the aviation community have been left with a feeling of “complete sadness.”

“He was just a really positive, forward-thinking, always moving, lovely man and I think that’s why it hits everybody so hard,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley met Evans many years ago when they were flying with young cadets as part of a training program to teach youth about the role of Canada’s air force in the Second World War.

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The program, run by the organization Vintage Wings of Canada, allowed young cadets to fly with professionals in restored aircrafts that were originally used as training planes during the war.  

Evans’ propeller-driven T-28 that he purchased in 2007 is one of these types of restored planes.

“He was always taking people up for rides,” O’Malley said.

“He said to me, ‘Why own a warbird if you can’t share it with someone?’”

O’Malley is among those who had a chance to fly with Evans.

The pair went on a “phenomenal” two-day cross-country trip from Calgary to Ottawa to take part in an airshow in 2012.

“He’s a geologist, a self-professed ‘rock jock’ as he calls himself, so every mine that we passed over from potash mines in Saskatchewan to the Hemlo (gold) mines in Ontario, he would circle over top of them and explain the geology to me,” O’Malley said. 

Evans was drawn to aviation at a young age, with his father working as an aircraft maintenance engineer for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

He combined his training as a geologist with his passion for planes and started the airborne geophysical survey business Firefly Airbone Surveys — a career that allowed him to travel the globe.

Evans had accumulated over 4,100 hours of flying time over his career.

He leaves behind a wife and two daughters.

The Transportation Safety Board said the cause of the crash is still unknown and an investigation at the Canadian Forces Base is underway.

The Canadian Press