aviation

A little piece of history can be found at the Saint John Airport this weekend.

Air Show Atlantic features many interesting planes, but maybe none more so than Larry Ricker’s.

Ricker, a pilot for 52 years with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Air Canada, flies a Nieuport 11.

It’s a seven-eighths-scale recreation of the First World War fighter, an important aircraft during the war.

“It was the first fighter for Canada,” Ricker said.

Ricker said it’s a tough plane to handle, designed just a few years after aviation first came to Canada.

He described the training that new pilots received before heading into combat, and it was not extensive.

“As early as being 15 years old with as little as five hours of flying experience,” he said.

“Five hours, one hour on the gun to learn how to shoot it and they were sent off.”

Ricker said the plane is slow, but the story it tells is about bravery and survival, how the First World War helped shape Canada.

Ricker has flown his plane “Lucie,” named for his wife, in a significant bit of history.

In 2017, he was part of a group of 10 former Royal Canadian Air Force pilots who flew their planes over Vimy, France.

It was part of a ceremony commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

“History repeats itself,” he said. “And the importance of telling the story of the lessons we’ve learned in the past is really all about preventing that same event happening again.”