Canadian SNR soars to second in the world

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Adawn Kelsey
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  For Air Force pilots, 3,000 flight hours in a single aircraft is a significant milestone to reach during his or her flying career. However, conquering such a flying feat means much more for the Canadian Senior National Representative of the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program. His flight hours also rank him second in the world for the most hours flown in the T-6A Texan II.

As Maj. David Smith, Canadian SNR and instructor at the 459th Flying Training Squadron, hit 3,000 hours in the T-6 his flight time continues to amass each time he roams airspace training new instructor pilots. He is proud to say he is the second to achieve such hours in the T-6, and it is neat to achieve his personal goal and reach a career milestone.

"There aren't many people who get to fly that much time in a single airframe," Smith said. "I feel really fortunate to have the opportunity to do this. The neat thing about so much time in the T-6 is the fact that it is relatively new and there are only two people in the world who have that many hours, it's not often you get to say that."

As opportunities led the Canadian SNR to attain his goal, life in the Royal Canadian air force provided an interesting fact for Smith to share.

"The Hungarian lieutenant colonel that flies in Canada as an exchange pilot, has about 50 more hours than I do in the T-6," he said. "As irony would have it, at my last assignment he lived right across the street from me."

While Smith flies by his milestone and continues training pilots as his primary flying task, his duties don't stop there.

"As the Canadian SNR I manage the Canadian student pilots training here at Sheppard and take care of their administrative tasks so they can focus at their task at hand, which is to get their wings," he said.

When Smith took on the SNR assignment at Sheppard, his task was to stand up a foreign training detachment at the 80th Flying Training Wing. With dedication and hard work, in three weeks he produced a fully operation detachment which eventually supported the increase of the Royal Canadian air force student participation in the ENJJPT program beginning in 2011.

"When I received the assignment to Sheppard, intention wasn't really to increase the student participation in the ENJJPT program," he said. "However, through circumstances beyond our control, there was a requirement to increase pilot production. Currently there are 17 pilots in training and we will place 19 through the program this calendar year."

Since there was no previous Canadian student pilot participation in the program Smith said he has been able to rely on other partner nations and senior national representatives in the ENJJPT program as he developed documentation and to point him in the right direction as he created the detachment.

"The spirit of cooperation is what made it happen in such short time," he said. "It has been a team effort. I feel lucky because I got the benefit of being the person who created the detachment, but in reality this building is full of people who actually made it happen. It is a reflection on the trademark of the program which is a gigantic cooperative effort. We are able to rely on each other when it is time to get things done and we make it happen."

In the end, Smith has considered his time here at Sheppard to be a unique opportunity he never saw coming.

"It's certainly nice to set a goal, achieve a milestone and do it here," he said. "It's been a real privilege to be here. As soon as you hit 3,000 you want 4,000 so that's the new goal. I'm very lucky, I like what I do for a living and it's easy to come to work."