CIAS AirShow

[robbreid]

My first suggestion is we fire whoever is in anyway connected to this airshow, and we hire whomever is connected to the Abbotsford Airshow.

I will assume, during the last three days of blazing sunshine, that just about everyone going to the CNE went in record numbers - so somehow on paper the airshow probably looks like a great success.

Is it lack of money, insurance, or just very poor public relations arranging aircraft???
Is there anyone out there who can defend this airshow??, if not we may as well just cancel it, rather than watch a very slow, painful death.

The Americans sent a single F-16, plus of course a spare we don't see, and tankers to fuel them we don't see, two very old T-38's that did two circuits at plus 1500feet, I mean how long ago did we scrap our F-5's, and a beat up C-130 from the Air National Guard in Niagra Falls.

Canadian Armed Forces - a single Hornet, an Aurora that refused to do a flyby, by the Island Airport on his exit, and the Snowbirds. If it wasn't for the Snowbirds, there wouldn't be a show.

Then you have some great performers, like Rick Volker, that get thrown in a lame duck show.
Ah the good old days, Bob Hoover, Don Plumb, Golden Hawks, Blue Angels, Royal Air Force!!

And what did the Americans send to Abbotsford, http://www.abbotsfordairshow.com/partic ... craft.html

I was at the Saturday show, I am holding back big time, suffice to say, I doubt I'll be attending any future shows, unless I have a 500mm lens!!

The kindest words I have, is it was the 'worst' airshow I've ever attended, and I've been to many airshows over 50 years!!!

[Hotel Tango]

You should have seen the Portage La Prairie show a couple of years back... first time I was just wishing they would just land the friggin planes and go home! There was these two guys who would pretend their plane was breaking up by throwing tires out of the plane then try to touch down on a mobile home. THEY WERE HALF THE SHOW! When you finally thought they were done they came back!

Even the snowbirds sucked, worse show I have ever seen them perform!

[Spokes]

Well, even the Abbotsford Airshow this year wasn't all that great. Not as good as past years, thats for sure.

[ScudRunner]

I was hoping to see the V-22 Osprey at the Abbotsford airshow this year but it was a no show, it was ok not nearly as good as previous years but I figured the yankee pilots need a break from there 5 thour of duty in Iraq. But there was B-52 and the C-17 wich I havent really had a good walk around of before.

BUTT!!! if you want an Aviation geeks wet dream!!! head down to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio, 3 massive hangers of planes that start with the Wright flyer to the F-22 Raptor! even have the predator and the Global hawk B-2 heck the B-52 and the B-36 look tiny in those hangers. You name it they got it. It took me 6 hours to walk around and I didnt even get to see the "presidential hanger" (bring Passport, or a US Drivers licence otherwise your a terrorist and wont be aloud to see it )

its really an Amazing museum and its all Free!! And they plan on adding a 4th hanger soon theres 2 707 and even a Junkers Tri Motor outside.

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/

[no name]

It depends on what you were looking for. If you were looking for boom and zoom, this was not a great show. The last two years were much better. (I have only gone the past 3 or 4 years - I drive down from Ottawa because our shows aren't that great now.) Last year, the Raptor made it for me. This year...there wasn't much at all.

Years ago, Ottawa used to feel like a US Air Force base with a few Canadian aircraft sprinkled in. We had everything from the A-6 to the F-117 and heavies too like the B-1, B-52, and C-5's on the ground and in the Air. There was one year where we had the Snowbirds and the Thunderbirds. I even remember watching a MiG-29 demo. Now? Maybe the Snowbirds and the CF-18. The shows are NOT what they used to be. I have to agree, I was disappointed today...

[Invertago]

Not to worry, with the second cold war coming, the shows will get better, thats what kept them going great in the 80's anyhow!

[Hedley]

You should have gone to the Quebec City airshow, where
the USAF Thunderbirds, USN Blue Angels, RAF Red Arrows
and Snowbirds all performed Personally, I think
Skip Stewart put on a pretty damned good show, there,
too, but maybe that's just my Pitts bias showing!

I suspect you would be very, very surprised as to how
performers are chosen by airshow operators. Sometimes
this shows, and sometimes it doesn't.

Personally, my favorite airshow routines I saw this
summer, in no particular order:

- Red Arrows. What a show.

- F-22. Tailslide!

- Sean Tucker and 3 monoplanes doing dissimilar
formation aerobatics. No one here can possibly
comprehend how difficult that was.

- Rob Holland in the MX2. I personally think any
airshow operator is crazy to hire anything but
an MX2 (or MXS) flown by someone like Rob
or Gary Ward.

If any of the above had been at the CIAS, it
might have helped. But see comment above
in paragraph #2.

[2milefinal]

I have to say it was pretty disappointing.
....I thought the three Harvards were kinda cool.

[Guido]

By the sounds of it, the Brantford Airshow had nearly the same lineup... I happened to be helping to run a camp right next door the airport and saw the rehearsals and the show while sitting in the lifeguard chair beside the pool (to see over the trees). The CF188 was awesome, plus the F-15s did some really gnarly tricks. Hell, they even had a B-25 doing some flybys with the Harvards nearby...

quite a day. Sorry to hear you guys didn't get a good one in YYZ.

[Hedley]

Try a T33/CF100/Mk5 F86 /Banshee all doing a barrel roll together

I'm amazed the brass allowed that to happen. Got any photos?

Remember what happened when they tried to just get a straight
and level photo of an XB-70 with an F-104? You never see
dissimilar military jets even taking off or landing in formation.

And you must admit that a draggy biplane leading 3 slick monoplanes
would be "interesting"! With respect to power, the lead would
have to be formating on the wing aircraft. And the overlapping
speed range of the piston aircraft would likely be much smaller
than the jet aircraft.

My personal favorite was their 1/2 cuban 8 (with no half roll) to exit
inverted, then a push through the vertical to the 45 down (outside
1/2 cuban 8, no half-roll) - basically the first half of an upward
outside loop.

I doubt any western military formation has ever performed that
particular maneuver.

From a sentimental standpoint, probably the neatest formation
I saw this year was at OSH - a teen-series fighter jet with
a P-51 (Snort) and a P-38 (steve hinton?) - nothing radical,
just nice station-keeping, trading the lead back and forth
amongst the 3 aircraft (MUCH more interesting than the
typical 2-plane "heritage" flight) and after they separated into
a tailchase, the P-38 actually did a full roll from the surface,
which is considerably different from how WWII "warbirds"
are typically flown these days!

[C-FABH]

Photos? I have some which I belive you have seen

Those are my favourite kind of photos! But seriously, stories like Clunckdriver's makes me wish I was around to see "the good old days" where an airshow meant spectacular flying rather than a beer tent.

[robbreid]

Heritage Flight photos

[goates]

It was certainly a little disappointing and I don't think I'll be back to see it again. At least not any time soon.

Of course it didn't help that the last airshow before this one I attended was at Nellis AFB last year. Plenty of aircraft from WW1 through to the F-22, a CF-18 and a couple great civilian performers. The heritage flight consisted of a P-51, F-4, A-10 and the F-22. It looked like the P-51 was going flat out while the F-22 was flying at idle. And the show was free too.

http://aviationnation.org/08/photos/07_sagar/

Wish I had been able to make it to the Quebec show. The Red Arrows looked amazing.

[linecrew]

Sigh...what I wouldn't give to see a CF-100 in the circuit again.

[freakonature]

Many moon's ago we had a yearly Sunday airshow. The highlight of the show was PWA deplaning and then doing a twenty minute show with their 737. Then load up and head off to the next stop.

[no name]

not assembling the CF100 which was moved from CYOW as its a "warlike image"

Is that why it left? There used to be a Voodoo and a Canuck on the grounds at Uplands, but then they suddenly vanished. I thought the Voodoo was moved to the war museum. (I have always wanted to see a Voodoo in the air; I guess I am too young to have witnessed it.) There is a CF100 on the ground , on its belly as a matter of fact, lying in a heep outside of the new hangar at the aviation museum. It almost looks like trash to be picked up; they should really move it or do something with it.

[chuck130]

Airshows draw the military exhibitors (at least the ones who have the option of showing up or not) by how well they are treated when they get there. I suspect the T.O. airshow doesn't do a very good job of this, and word gets around! The Abbotsford airshow after-hours functions are legendary, same with Sourdough. Hence the turnout from the military guys who have to go through all the approval process to go.

[C-GPFG]

Airshows draw the military exhibitors (at least the ones who have the option of showing up or not) by how well they are treated when they get there. I suspect the T.O. airshow doesn't do a very good job of this, and word gets around!

Please elaborate. What is your connection to the CIAS?

[Hedley]

the "Brass" led this kind of fun!

Well, maybe some, but I doubt all. A friend of mine use to do a
neat airshow routine in a CF-100, but as soon as the brass heard
about the particulars of it (no spins below 10,000 feet!), that
was the end of that.

Reminds me of this guy, whom I doubt many people
here have ever heard of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Olds

Olds formed a demonstration team for the F-101 using pilots of his wing, apparently without command authorization, and performed at locales in Europe. He asserted that his superior at Third Air Force attempted to have him court-martialed, but the commanding general of USAFE, Gen. Gabriel P. Disosway, instead removed him from command of the 81st TFW, canceled a recommendation for a Legion of Merit award, and had him transferred to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.[40]

Here's a most un-Canadian thought:

Olds expressed his philosophy regarding fighter pilots in the quote: "There are pilots and there are pilots; with the good ones, it is inborn. You can't teach it. If you are a fighter pilot, you have to be willing to take risks."[4]

[chuck130]

None whatsoever, save for spectator in years past. I have however brought aircraft to the airshows I mentioned, mostly because of glowing peer reviews.

[linecrew]

not assembling the CF100 which was moved from CYOW as its a "warlike image"

Is that why it left? There used to be a Voodoo and a Canuck on the grounds at Uplands, but then they suddenly vanished. I thought the Voodoo was moved to the war museum. (I have always wanted to see a Voodoo in the air; I guess I am too young to have witnessed it.) There is a CF100 on the ground , on its belly as a matter of fact, lying in a heep outside of the new hangar at the aviation museum. It almost looks like trash to be picked up; they should really move it or do something with it.

They were taken down from the old base after the base had closed.

The Voodoo went to Hamilton and has been restored for static display back on it's gear:



The CF-100 is in pieces and is in storage at the Rockcliffe aviation museum along with it's concrete block. It was supposed to be put up outside as a gate guard at the museum...I suspect that the delay is what Clunkdriver is talking about since it is a scary war icon.

[no name]

Wow, it looks great. A hell of a lot better without bird shit and nests all over it. A much better tribute!