The Darkest Dark is Colin Martin’s favorite bedtime book, so the six-year-old Sarnia resident was thrilled to meet the author Saturday morning.
“I was obsessed with Chris Hadfield,” he said shortly after meeting the well-known astronaut-turned-author from Sarnia.
Martin and the rest of his family, including 12-year-old sister Lydia, 14-year-old brother Conor and parents Derek and Jenny, briefly chatted with Hadfield as he signed copies of his books during a fly-in event at the city’s airport bearing his name.
“He’s nice,” Lydia said.
“Really down-to-earth guy,” Derek said.
“Pretty cool,” Jenny said.
Hadfield, sitting in a hangar at the airport named after him in 1997 to recognize his accomplishments as an astronaut, said he enjoyed the meet-and-greet aspect of the event.
“Really lovely to have a chance to meet so many folks from the area,” he said. “I’m delighted that the schedule worked out that I could be here today.”
He wasn’t the only member of the Hadfield family to participate in the four-hour event, called the Save Our Airport Rally, as three of his siblings and his parents were on site, too.
“My dad’s 88 and he flew that airplane in today,” Hadfield said while gesturing to a plane parked just outside the hangar.
Hadfield’s father, Roger, is said to have been the first pilot to land at the airport in 1955 and later became a fight instructor in Sarnia and a pilot with the first commercial airline serving the airport.
The event, hosted by Canadian Owners and Pilots Association Flight 7 in Sarnia, was free, but donations were collected at the entrance at the airport’s general aviation ramp behind hangers one, two and three, off Airport Road, for Pathways Health Center for Children. About 1,000 spectators came out in 2021 to check out 124 aircraft from across the province, and officials were hoping to double the crowd on Saturday.
The airport hasn’t had commercial passenger service since Air Canada pulled out in 2020, but city council agreed in May to continue subsidizing the site’s operation for three years as efforts continue to attract a new airline. Closing the airport would impact association members, corporate aircraft, search and rescue, law enforcement and other government agencies, as well as a flight school located at the site, a Flight 7 official said.
-with files from Paul Morden