NitroWings (PHP-Fusion test site)

Hi, and welcome to my website.

My name is John and I was born in Bermuda in 1956.

In 1958 we moved to Curaçao, then to Aruba in 1960, and back to Curaçao in 1961 until 1968.

In early 1968 we moved to Canada, and I grew up in Toronto (Etobicoke) & Sudbury, both in Ontario.

When I left school, I got a job as an aircraft mechanic for a small commuter airline in northern Ontario called norOntair (see pictures) which flew Twin Otters, initially operating out of Sudbury and then Timmins... and no, I never met Shania.

During my above time as an aircraft mechanic, although the Twin Otter was my main responsibility as an aircraft mechanic, the following are also aircraft that we had, and that I was an aircraft mechanic on:

● Beechcraft	Beech 18
● Cessna	Cessna 310
	Cessna 337 Skymaster
	Cessna 402
● Consolidated	PBY-5A Canso (Catalina)
● De Havilland Canada	DHC-2 Beaver
	DHC-3 Otter
	DHC-6 Twin Otter
● Douglas	DC-3 Dakota

In 1974 I joined the Canadian Armed Forces (also referred to as the Canadian Forces, but what is now the Royal Canadian Air Force), and the following are places where I was stationed at:

1974-1975

Various training bases in Canada

1975-1979

Canadian Forces Base CFB Shearwater, Nova Scotia, Canada

CP-121 Tracker

◄ ...more pictures

CT-133 Silver Star (T-bird)

◄ ...more pictures

CH-135 Twin Huey

CH-124 Sea King

1979-1983

Canadian Forces Base CFB Baden-Söllingen, West Germany with NATO

CF-104D Starfighter

◄ ...more pictures

1983-1984

Canadian Forces Base CFB Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba, Canada

CT-134 Musketeer

CH-136 Kiowa

CT-114 Tutor

1984-1984

Canadian Forces Base CFB Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada

CP-121 Tracker

◄ ...more pictures

1984-1985

Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada

CP-140 Aurora

◄ ...more pictures

1985-1989

Canadian Forces Base CFB Comox, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

CP-140 Aurora

◄ ...more pictures

CP-121 Tracker

◄ ...more pictures

CT-133 Silver Star (T-bird)

◄ ...more pictures

1989-1990

Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada

CP-140 Aurora

◄ ...more pictures

Canadian Armed Forces bases undergoing training:

Deployments in Canada:

Canadian Forces Base CFS Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada (NORPATs)
Canadian Forces Base CFB Montréal, Québec, Canada (1976 Summer Olympics)
Canadian Forces Base CFS St. John's (Torbay), Newfoundland, Canada (FISHPATs)
Canadian Forces Base CFB Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada (NORPATs)
Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), Canada (NORPATs)
Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit), Baffin Island Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), Canada (NORPATs)
Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada (FISHPATs)
Sandpit, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada (FISHPATs)
Maps of some of the above places (work in progress)

Deployments in the USA:

Deployments worldwide:

US Naval Air Station NAS Bermuda (formerly Kindley Air Force Base) (decommissioned and closed 1995)
US Naval Air Station NAS Lajes (Portuguese Air Base Lajes), Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal

Attachments in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany with NATO):

1982 Canadian Starfighters Air Demonstration Team

Deployments and Air Shows flown in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany with NATO):

Belgian Air Foce Base Kleine Brogel, Belgium (operational)
Canadian Forces Base CFB Baden-Söllingen, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 1994)
Canadian Forces Base CFB Lahr, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 1994)
French Air Foce Base Dijon-Longvic, France (decommissioned and closed 2016)
Royal Air Force Base RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, England (operational)
Toulouse–Blagnac Airport (Airbus), France (operational)
US Air Force Base RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, England (operational)
US Air Force Base Bitburg AFB, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 1994)
US Air Force Base Ramstein AFB, West Germany (operational)
US Air Force Base Rhein-Main AFB, Frankfurt Airport, West Germany (operational)
US Air Force Base Sembach AFB, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 2012)
US Air Force Base Spangdahlem AFB, West Germany (operational)
US Air Force Base Wiesbaden AFB, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 1992)
US Air Force Base Zweibrücken AFB, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 1991)
West Germany Luftwaffe (Air Force) Base Jever, West Germany (decommissioned and closed 2013)
West Germany Luftwaffe (Air Force) Base Nörvenich, West Germany, (operational)

I retired early from the Canadian Armed Forces & moved back to Bermuda in 1990, to start a second career in IT... as there's not much call for hunting Soviet submarines on civvie street.

I was in Bermuda for more than 31 years, working in IT for various companies, including 13 years with IBM Bermuda (a division of IBM Canada) servicing (repairing) ATM cash machines.

Although in the 1990s I had a part-time job flying a local Bell JetRanger, taking people on helicopter tours around Bermuda. But the helicopter was sold in 1998 due to no business, and I spent the remaining decades in Bermuda flying a desk

.

I retired in August 2021, having reached age 65, and as it was too expensive to retire in Bermuda (according to some sources, Bermuda is the most-expensive place in the world to live), I relocated back to Canada, and am living now in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

That's me in the left pic at the top in the 1990s... Captain John - Bermuda Helicopters Ltd. (in civilian flightsuit, NOT military flightsuit), and me today.

That's about it for me...