Snowbirds and more ready to rock Red Deer Regional Airshow

However, festivities get underway on both days at 10 a.m., with static displays, food trucks, a STEM area, face-painting, a market, autograph sessions, beer gardens, and more.

The Snowbirds, including Capt. Iain Muir’s #7, fly during the Snowbirds Hometown Show on 11 July 2026 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. It marked exactly 55 years since the teams first performance in 1971. (Image Credit: Department of National Defence/Canadian Forces Snowbirds)

Friday night, from 6-9, all the same will be available to check out, just without the planes up in the sky.

Organizers strongly recommend you get your tickets ahead of time.

For Capt. Muir, this show, and one next week in his hometown of Grande Prairie, do carry a lot of weight.

“This is my first year on the team, and getting here has been about five or six years. I started at the Royal Military College of Canada, got my degree in aerospace engineering, then started my flight training in the military, which puts you back and forth between bases. I got the opportunity to teach [basic flight training] at the school in Moose Jaw, and that’s how I got enough hours to be able to try out for the team,” Muir told rdnewsNOW and The Everything Red Deer Podcast.

“I take a lot of responsibility, and I want to try and make it the best I can in the [Tutors’] final year. I hope to get a phone call whenever the new aircraft are up and running, and come back to the team. I’ve told our commanding officer that as well.”

When the Snowbirds will return is actually unknown, though it will likely be sometime after 2030.

The Government of Canada said this past May the Snowbirds would go on hiatus, with the 1960s-launched Tutors eventually replaced by the CT-157 Siskin II, which is a variant of the Pilatus PC21.

For now, the entire team, including Muir, is enjoying the ride.

They’ve performed more than a dozen times this season already, from Canada Day to the first World Cup game in Toronto, and several airshows. They’ve even been seen a couple of times south of the 49th parallel.

The entire 2026 schedule can be seen here.

“If you come to an airshow, or you see planes flying, and it gets you excited, then that is probably a field you should be looking into,” on his message to kids looking for a career.

“I saw a glider when I was a kid, and that excited me. I was super interested in that and it’s kind of what drove me down this path – just a glider near a ski hill.”

He was also a pretty big fan of the roller coasters at West Edmonton Mall, which explains his comfort level with being upside down and in control of a speeding jet.

Then there’s Jimmy Hrymack, who has long piloted the Harvard aircraft.

A restored Harvard-built plane, the ‘370,’ can be seen outside the Red Deer Regional Airport, and has a strong historical bond with the area going back to the former CFB Penhold.

The restored Harvard plane outside Red Deer Regional Airport, as seen in 2023. (Image Credit: Google Maps)

“It [the Harvard] was a bit of a tricky airplane to handle on the ground, so it made an ideal trainer during wartime. Obviously, they had to rush things along, so if you had the aptitude to handle a Harvard on the ground, you could transition easier to the high-performance fighters and bombers,” explains Hrymack, who’s been flying for 45 years and was once an instructor on the same Tutors the Snowbirds have long used.

“The Harvard is kind of my home. I’m more comfortable in the air than driving on the QEII or the Deerfoot. It’s been my life. It’s just what I do.”

Jimmy Hrymack with the Harvard aircraft he’ll be flying in the Red Deer Regional Airshow. (Image Credit: Supplied)

You can catch the full conversation with Capt. Muir, as well as the airport’s Ashley Reierson, and Harvard airplane pilot and performer Jimmy Hrymack on the July 23, 2026 episode of The Everything Red Deer Podcast — anywhere you get your podcasts!

by Josh Hall

Snowbirds and more ready to rock Red Deer Regional Airshow

What's Trending