Abbotsford Airshow

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:21 pm

Ok, so driving home form work (short day

) I see this plane taking off from YXX. It looks like a 737, either westjet, or just out of maintance from Cascade. Oh, there it goes, leveling off at a couple thousand and turning back for the airport, must be out of Cascade doing a test flight. All of a sudden what's this? Two F-117s drop out of the soup and into a wide circuit!

Line up looks pretty good this year, anyone else going this weekend?

http://www.abbotsfordairshow.com/2006/performers.html

jspitfire · Post by **jspitfire** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:43 pm

I'll be there saturday. Sounds like its going to be a good show.

hey mellow pilot, by any chance did I do King air sim with you this past year?

Norskman · Post by **Norskman** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:57 pm

Try to get a few pics for us. I hear how fantastic it is, and I never can get out there to see it!

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:11 pm

A couple more loud ones just flew over my house!! I'm getting excited. I'll see what I can do, but my free camera didn't come with a free battery charger, so we'll have to see.

oates76 · Post by **oates76** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:33 pm

I'll be there on Sunday. Can't wait. Flying line up looks like the best it's been in years, although sadly there are no other teams besides the Snowbirds this year.

Oates

quicksilver · Post by **quicksilver** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:50 pm

be there sunday, president section bitches.... Should be a good year

quick

jspitfire · Post by **jspitfire** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:56 am

I'll be taking my camera for sure. I will be uploading some of the pics to airliners.net, and i'll post a bunch here too.

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:26 am

See you all there! (I'll be the guy sneaking in the back door to avoid the $25 ticket gouging

)

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 7:43 am

See you there folks!

pika · Post by **pika** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 7:47 pm

The B1 demonstration kicked serious ass.

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:59 pm

Between the sunstroke and the drinking... I only got 2 pics and they both suck. Sorry folks

Sideshow · Post by **Sideshow** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:24 pm

I also enjoyed watching the B1 bounce the landing.

oates76 · Post by **oates76** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:34 pm

Yeah, awesome show. Sunday was great, getting to see the second airshow (planes leaving to go home) after all the displays were over.

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:05 pm

I saw an american pilot (major i think) at Burger King this morning...

critical engine · Post by **critical engine** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:46 am

II guess the show will never be as good as it was in 2001 and 2002. You see I was going to school at the time in Abby, and all the planes arrived on the Thursday. Once they parked it was easy just to walk up to any plane there and inspect them. I have photos of me next to the a-10 canon, next to numerous Canadian and US F-18's, F-15's, Herc, Snowbirds, Tankers, and Various Helo's. We have close and personal pics of the B-56 (inside the bomb bay), B-1, (including a tour of the flight deck but no pics were allowed). Pics of us in the galaxy flight deck, out the galaxies roof hatch, even a pic of us inside the wheel well of the galaxy. Let me tell you, those Galaxy boys sure love Clamato Juice! Bought all of it from Costco soon as they landed. They also had an ice luge for shots, stereo system complete with mirror ball. That plane was a hell of a night club during the evening. Don’t forget that Thursdays was when the planes practiced as well. Snowbirds, Thunderbirds, f-14's, even the Aurora was putting on a show.

I guess we were really lucky and fortunate to be able to get so close and personal. I will never forget it. The only time I was lucky enough to do that again, was just last month at Cold Lake. While waiting for our patient, we got a tour of the Harriers that were testing the new Sat Guided Kits for their 500lb JDABs.

Anyway, I guess once you've experienced the air show on such a level, and without the crowds, it can never be as good as it was then. Luckily we have a ton of pics to relive the experience!

Blakey · Post by **Blakey** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:31 am

Those days aren't gone forever. We still give personal guided tours when there are no crowds around. Here's a picture of the last person I gave the tour to.

http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f200/ ... _Tower.jpg

Norskman · Post by **Norskman** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:40 am

So no pics from anyone of the airshow?

critical engine · Post by **critical engine** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:02 am

Wow Blakey!!!

I think I saw her in Grande Praire the other day!!!!

Swamp Donkey · Post by **Swamp Donkey** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:21 am

critical engine wrote:II guess the show will never be as good as it was in 2001 and 2002

I'll have to disagree with that. The best shows were in late 80's. Especially '89 when the Russians first came with the Mig 31, 29 and the Su-27. They also had the 6 engine An-225...which made the C-5 look like a dinky-toy (probably the same size but the aerial show it put on was impressive).

Who can forget the Su doing "tailslides" with a Canadian pilot flying! The political story was that the Russians offered the Americans a flight in the 27 if they could have a flight in the F-18. The Americans declined (pussies), but the Canadians offered. The Canadians were sharply told by the Americans that no Russian would ever fly in the F-18 as the technology was theirs. So the Russians let the Canadians fly the 27 just in spite!

Ahhhh....those were the days of the Concord flybys...the Vulcan bombers...the SR-71 (flyby!!!)...the Blue Angels...the Thunderbirds...the Harrier and Many Many more static displays than today because of the US policy of keeping front line fighter forces close after Sept 11 and when they're involved in a war.

The crowds were less in those days...and I think the show line was on 01-19 making it closer. There was no commercial traffic to speak of, so the airport was closed at 11am and not re-opened till 5 pm! With all the safety improvements and noise restrictions...it's amazing they still have the airshow.

Oleo 4 · Post by **Oleo 4** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:36 pm

The days of the personal tours aren't over and certainly not the after parties.... I worked the entire weekend fuelling those aircraft from 0700-2000 each day. The C-5 did cancel this year due to a crack in the fuselage which grounded their entire fleet. The Boys in the KC-10 were slow to pick up on the tradition of the after parties but by saturday most of the guys from the C-5 crew made it up on other flights and had the ball rolling with the luge and girls making out.. It definatley was a cool weekend with a great show, by far the best demo was the F-15 and its .95 mach high speed pass, that mach cloud was right near the vertical stabs on the saturday show and with the pyro on the flight it took the show for sure..

jspitfire · Post by **jspitfire** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:06 am

It was a great airshow. I think the B-1 flying display was pretty sweet. That thing is loud! I do like the military aircraft, but I would have liked to see a few more warbirds there. There were a few, but none of them were static displays, so you couldn't get up close to see the aircraft. The highlight of the show for me last year was getting to go inside a B-25.

complexintentions · Post by **complexintentions** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 9:03 am

Have to agree with Swamp Donkey, the 80's had the best shows ever, although I've enjoyed some since, and a couple recently.

1986 was the first year I ever went, and arguably the best show...ever. Little did I know that not every year I would get to see six different aerobatics teams, demos by the CF-18, F14, F16, F4, flyby of the DC8, DC10, Concorde and....the SR71!! As well as on static display. I'll never forget the shockrings in the exhaust gases on that thing when it blew by on the high-speed pass. Not as loud as the Phantom but absolutely rattled your bones.

Although I should be pissed I guess really, because that show sealed my goal in life to be a pile-it!

http://www.geocities.com/smalnbrg/abbot ... /1986.html

Sideshow · Post by **Sideshow** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:02 pm

I got some good photos but I'm not familiar with how to post them.

nimbostratus · Post by **nimbostratus** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:59 pm

complexintentions wrote:1986 was the first year I ever went, and arguably the best show...ever. Little did I know that not every year I would get to see six different aerobatics teams, demos by the CF-18, F14, F16, F4, flyby of the DC8, DC10, Concorde and....the SR71!! As well as on static display. I'll never forget the shockrings in the exhaust gases on that thing when it blew by on the high-speed pass. Not as loud as the Phantom but absolutely rattled your bones.

I have to agree that 1986 was a stellar year for the airshow. Here is a picture of the "shockrings" of which you speak. The SR71 photo was taken after the 1986 airshow on its final departure.... Afterburners on.... Ohhh Yeahhhh!!!

http://www.avcanada.ca/albums/displayim ... m=12&pos=0

Swamp Donkey · Post by **Swamp Donkey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:20 pm

Great pic nimbo....

You guys remember how loud the Vulcan was?

Abbotsford Airshow

Abbotsford Airshow

airshow

Re: airshow