In a little bit of fancy flying that was in equal measures patriotic, exact and well mannered, an Ontario pilot confirmed Donald Trump precisely what he thinks of the U.S. president’s current strikes to problem Canadian sovereignty.
Skilfully piloting his two-seater Grob G 115 in a two-hour journey round southwestern Ontario on Wednesday morning, Michael Jones used his flight path to attract out a large maple leaf and, within the course of, ship a delicate however pointed message to his U.S. neighbours.
“I’m not really happy with what’s happening across the border right now — it’s kind of sad,” stated the 70-year-old. “I just wanted to show that we don’t like to be pushed around and we’re all proud Canadians.”
London pilot flies a maple leaf over southwestern Ontario
London pilot Michael Jones flew a route within the form of a maple leaf over southwestern Ontario on Feb. 5, 2025.
The trail of the 426-kilometre flight, which started and ended at London Worldwide Airport, attracts the stem and three factors of an ideal maple leaf. The perimeter of his path covers a large swath of land between lakes Huron and Erie.
Jones, a semi-retired enterprise proprietor who’s now a part-time flight teacher and flight tester, determined to do the flight in response to Trump’s strikes to hit Canada with punishing tariffs, which have been placed on maintain as Canada and the U.S. work collectively. The president’s suggestion that Canada ought to change into the 51st state additionally doesn’t sit proper with Jones.
On a daily day, Jones, a humble man who started flying in 1977, spends extra time flying planes than the Canadian flag. However current occasions spurred him into motion.
“I don’t really have a flag in front of my house or in a car or anything like that, but I sort of feel a little patriotic with what’s going on lately,” he stated.
How he did it
Michael Jones on the controls of the two-seater Grob G 115 he piloted round southwestern Ontario on Wednesday, in a flight path that attracts out the proper form of the maple leaf. (Submitted by Michael Jones)
As soon as he had the thought, Jones received out a paper map of southwestern Ontario and plotted out a tough path that might draw a maple leaf.
From there, he used GPS software program to plot out a extra exact path with co-ordinates. Like a whole lot of grand plans, it appeared nice on paper, however the problem had solely begun. He knew that when up within the wild blue yonder, he’d need to observe these factors completely or would find yourself with a mangled maple leaf.
“There’s no autopilot, so I was hand flying the whole time,” he stated.
Jones used GPS software program to plot out the trail, however needed to observe these co-ordinates rigorously as soon as airborne whereas flying by hand. ‘There’s no autopilot, so I used to be hand flying the entire time.’ (FlightRadar24)
Jones used the intersection of Highways 401 and 402 as an anchor level for his design. He then adopted his rigorously charted path in a visit that took him nearly as far north as Lake Huron, as far west because the St. Clair River and south over Lake Erie.
Jones owns the airplane however leases it to the Diamond Flight Centre, which in flip rents it out for flight coaching.
Though Jones instructed few folks of his intentions, flight watchers instantly started to see what he was as much as when his flight path started to take form on flight monitoring web sites similar to FlightRadar24 and FlightAware.
“I was surprised when I got down,” stated Jones. “People came out of Diamond Flight Centre and said they liked my maple leaf. I didn’t really know that they were able to follow it, but they saw it happening.”
Not proud of how U.S. President Donald Trump is treating Canada, Jones used his maple leaf flight path to ship a pointed however well mannered message to folks in the USA. (Submitted by Michael Jones)
Jones didn’t share the picture of his flight on social media, nevertheless it quickly began exhibiting up there anyway.
“I’m really surprised by the amount of interest it’s gained,” he stated. “I thought I’d share it on Facebook and maybe 50 people would look at it, but it’s sort of taken me by surprise.”
Since his flight, greater than 17,000 folks have considered it on FlightRadar24.com
“I’ve been thinking about doing this for a little while, a week or so,” stated Jones.”And yesterday [Wednesday] was a pleasant, shiny sunny day, so I went up and flew the maple leaf.”
