Selected for the SkyHawks

I had my jump course before we went to Cyprus so I had a basic jump course before Cyprus so came back. A lot of the guys that I was working for in Cyprus had just returned from the Airborne so I had that influence of the Airborne was the place to go. That’s where you need to go so I ended up, a few of us after deployment of Cyprus ended up going straight to the Airborne Regiment and then from there jumped more and jumped more and then I ended up doing the free fall course so ended up doing military free fall. I love the falling without controlling my parachute and landing and doing that stuff so then I was put in for selection for the SkyHawks and wanted to go represent the Canadian Armed Forces at air shows and show them what we could do with parachutes and jump and it was a great experience. Air shows, talking to kids in school, did the DARE program and everything and that was great for the season and then after that I got a sense of kind of like I’m done with the infantry kind of thing of the deployments and that so I just decided I wanted to go Search and Rescue. Because growing up and finishing high school in Parry Sound there was a lot of, the Coast Guard was there and they were at that point they were doing the Search and Rescue so I saw a lot of the guys and thought some day I would like to do that. So I found myself far enough along in my career where I was like I’m going to apply and take that route now. A different air show, a different city, a different town every weekend but it was great because we meet all various types of people whether it be kids thinking about joining the military or older parents that maybe had been in the military and just to showcase what we did. At that time it was mostly people from the Airborne. Now they’ve opened up and the SkyHawks is more of across the whole forces. So the air force had their Snowbirds and the Army had their SkyHawks and we’d go do, talk to kids at school about drugs and the DARE program and work with the police and then we would go do our air show and sometimes we would have media on the plane and we would do our videos and talk and just be a presence for the Canadian Armed Forces at the air shows.

Mr. Feyko speaks about his decision to change career paths and represent Canadian Forces as part of the SkyHawks team.

Michael Feyko

Mr. Michael Feyko was born July 12, 1970 in Windsor, Ontario. Immediately out of high school, Mr. Feyko joined the military and held rank of private with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. He attended battle school in Wainwright, Alberta. First deploying to Norway, Mr. Feyko then continued on with tours to Cyprus and to Somalia. Realizing his true passion was to be a jumper and following his desire to gain a career with Search & Rescue, Mr. Feyko found himself back in Canada with the SkyHawks attending many air shows across the country. While in Edmonton, Mr. Feyko was involved in a parachute accident where he was left with a lifetime injury. With major injury to his body, Mr. Feyko rehabilitated himself back into civilian life and in 2000 a decision was made for medical discharge. With great determination and desire to continue life as it was prior to his injury, Mr. Feyko was inspired by the Soldier On program and assisted as coach of the Team Canada Golf Team leading them to five medals at the Invictus Games held in Toronto, Ontario September 2017. Now married and with a family, Mr. Feyko enjoys a career as a PGA golf pro and continues to train golfers who are part of Soldier On in preparing for the next Invictus Games to be held in Sydney, Australia.