She calls it a "mind-transcending" experience.
"I came down, I taxied in, shut down and was
halfway back to the hangar when I stopped and thought 'I just flew
that thing.' I looked up and I saw someone in the circuit overhead
and I said, 'I was just doing what he's doing right there!'"
The sense of awe from that first solo flight on the
CF-18 Hornet on the 17th of February nine years ago - the highlight
and ultimate goal of retired Major Deanna Brasseur's distinguished
21-year career in the Canadian Air Force - is still fresh in her
mind as she recounts her flying days.
"It's almost like an unreal experience because it
was so long in the making."
It would be ten trying, yet gratifying years from 1979 when Brasseur
was allowed to train as a pilot in the Canadian military - earning
her wings just three years later - to 1989 when she again made her
mark, internationally this time, by becoming one of only two women
in the world to fly the sophisticated yet powerful CF-18 Hornet, a
world-class jet fighter plane. Today in 1998, there are still only
three women who have earned that distinction in the Canadian Air
Force.
"It was a very significant milestone," says retired
Major Gord Welsby, who was Brasseur's Commanding Officer when she
supervised seven junior pilots on T-33 aircraft as Flight Commander
in Cold Lake, Alberta in the mid-eighties - another female first.
As a retired fighter pilot himself, Welsby can
attest to the extremely "competitive" and "aggressive" nature of the
fighter pilot world.
Only the top ten per cent of all pilots make it as
CF-18 pilots. They are also in the top ten per cent in terms of
physical fitness.
Brasseur likens the intense focus required to fly a
Hornet to playing a video game - only you're traveling at supersonic
speeds and making a mistake doesn't just result in a screen flashing
the words "game over", but well… death itself.
"You have all the buttons to control your airplane
on your throttle and control stick. All your fingers, including your
thumb, have a purpose on a button for some piece of equipment:
radar, weapons system, radio… [At the same time], you have 10 to 12
inputs [like heading, air speed, altitude] that are changing every
second, that you have to monitor and process and respond to," says
Brasseur.
And that's on top of the effects of gravity on a
pilot's body.
The aircraft is capable of a speed of Mach 1.8 -
that's almost twice the speed of sound - and can go from take-off
position straight up seven kilometres in one minute. At such high
speeds, the force of gravity multiplies and pushes down on the
pilot. The pressure forces the blood down from the eyes and brain,
causing vision loss or blackout.
To counter the effects, pilots must do what's called
a M1A1 manoeuvre - tensing all their muscles - to prevent the blood
from rushing down to the lower parts of their body. The strength
required is much like the energy exerted in an extended chin-up.
"The best way to describe it is if you ate a whole
block of cheese," laughs Brasseur. "The next day, you're going to be
pretty constipated [so] it's like sitting on the toilet and you're
constipated - that's the manoeuvre you're doing in the cockpit."
Only it's not an idle newspaper read if you care to
relax, but a quick spiral to a fatal crash.
But for Brasseur, described by one friend as someone
"who's accomplished just about everything she's set out to do", she
thrived on this "epitome of challenge, physical, mental and
otherwise" - the furthest thing from her mind when she joined the
military as a 19-year-old typist in 1972 to rebel against her
parents and run away from home.
"I just didn't know it was an option to me as a
female."
But when it did become an option in 1979, when the
Canadian military started a trial program that allowed women to
train as pilots, the route to Brasseur's ultimate goal was not
without heavy social challenges.
More detailed bio:
Major Dee Brasseur joined the Forces in 1972 as an
administrative clerk at a dental unit detachment in Winnipeg. One
year later she was accepted for commissioning under the office
candidate training program. She graduated as an air weapons
controller in July 1974. She served tours with 22nd NORAD Region HQ
at North Bay, and 23rd NORAD Region HQ at Duluth, Minnesota.
In 1979 she was accepted for pilot training. After
receiving her wings in February of 1981, she attended flying
instructor school and in June commenced a tour of duty as a flying
instructor at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. During that period she
attended Air Command Flight Safety Officer and Canadian Forces Staff
School courses and served as flight safety officer, senior course
director and deputy flight command.
She commenced fighter pilot training in June, 1988
and following the completion of the CF18 operational training in
June 1989, she served as Plans Officer with the 416 Squadron until
posting to the Directorate of Flight Safety in August 1990. More
advanced military courses followed. In August 1991, she assumed
position of cell supervisor responsible for monitoring all jet
trainer and fighter aircraft activities.
Dee retired from the Canadian Forces with 2,500
hours of flying experience. She has been active as a motivational
speaker ever since.
Recent update: In 2002, Dee joined the Force's
Reserves as a Major in charge of strategic planning, Eastern Europe.
Dee Brasseur 