He won loyalty through example.

For a man who did not like attention, Ulrich Bollinger was a born leader and mentor. A man whom others looked up to and paid attention to. From his time as a CT-114 Tutor instructor at Moose Jaw to the cowboy years on Starfighters in Germany to his time as Team Lead on the Yellow Wings tours of 2011 and 2012, Ulrich led by example. He was last to leave and first to arrive, no matter what transpired the evening before.

Sometimes his leadership was hierarchical. He was the boss, the boss leads. In the 1990s however, he found invisible ways to lead others through quiet mentorship from the right hand seat. In those days he was working as a cargo hauler for Knighthawk Air Express. His employer, Rob Fleck, brought four well-seasoned ex-military pilots like Bollinger into the company and split the work of one First Officer among them. They worked one week a month, flying the Dassault Falcon 20D on 12-hour days (Ottawa-Mirabel-Dorval-Wilmington IN-Winnipeg-Regina-Calgary) for a week carrying Christmas presents, auto parts, cancelled cheques and small packages before the coming of Amazon. For the other three weeks of the month he returned to making cheese on his North Gower farm.

It was gruelling work. They called themselves “condemned FOs” and an important and purposeful part of their job was to back-up and support the young Captains in the left seat — young Captains who did not hold the authority a man like Ulrich carried with him like an aura. Once, while approaching Wilmington in the Ohio Valley, (notorious for the severity of its thunderstorms) they were given instruction by air traffic control to descend from 30,000 ft to a much lower altitude and then hold until a storm had exited the area. First Officer Bollinger picked up the mic and gave a one word response to the controller: “NO”. The jet he was flying would have burned off 5 times the fuel orbiting down at the commanded altitude and Bollinger would have none of it.

Young fast-tracking captains of the day, pipelined through civilian flight schools and bush operators, and desperate to build jet hours and move on to the big airlines, would never think to question the god-like power of ATC. Not Ulrich. Lesson learned. You could question authority if it meant a better outcome for your flight and your company.

Common sense prevailed over procedure for Ulrich.

Above: Bollinger (centre) with the pilots of the Yellow Wings program in 2010, Photo: Peter Handley

On Squadron at 421, Captain Ulrich Bollinger may not have been in the command hierarchy, but he was an undeniable leader on the flight line and in the air. Bollinger was at his best as a mentor and instructor for newer pilots and was the ultimate line pilot, never bashful about calling out something he didn’t agree with. He was loved on the line for that reason. He spoke for the pilots and maintainers. He was not a leader in the traditional sense, but he set an example of fighter pilot aggression and skill for others to emulate.

The CF-104 was a hard aircraft to catch up to. Very hard. Some pilots could never get ahead of the performance envelope of that gorgeous but sometimes lethal rocket ship, but Bollinger was a recognized master of the art of flying and fighting the Starfighter. On the line, he was looked to for encouragement and advice, and in the air for for calmness and aggression. And in the bar afterward he was admired for the sheer audacity and hilarity of his antics.

When Bollinger took the lead for the Yellow Wings program in 2010, he had authority over a disparate group of pilots — young and old, men and women, confident and timid. With them, he built a squadron elan so powerful, it is felt and longed for to this day — from Calgary AB to Comeauville, NS.

He welcomed ideas and the correct application of critical thought, but failure to live up to unit standards or to pull as one meant you had lost his respect, and by default, the respect of everyone else in the unit.

He also trained other leaders — through example— to take on the mantle of leadership in the Yellow Wings program in the years following and set a standard of operation that is still in effect today. Yellow Wings has safely carried thousands of deserving youth on flights in vintage aircraft from coast to coast for nearly 15 years without any mishap. On the wings of history got the leaders of tomorrow. Thanks to Ulrich Bollinger.