Toronto Airshow

On Friday I went down to the waterfront to catch some of the CIAS practice. Unfortunately, it was extremely hazy.
So on Saturday, I joined my brother to bike over to the Toronto Islands to watch the show from the beach. It was extremely hot, so it was nice to cool off in the Lake. But I did burn the top of my foot! Yikes.
The show was called early, as the radio indicated that rain was happening at Pearson, so the snowbirds stayed on the ground.
On Monday, I parked in a lot along Lakeshore and road towards the centre stage area. It was cloudy and grey, but the planes were pretty close.

Some of the aircarft included the A10 Warthog, a tank buster plane. I've always like the plane, with its massive gatling gun. This plane was designed to survive a hit, because it would spend its life down low on the battleground.





The MV-22 Osprey, from the Marine Corps was on hand for its first visit to Toronto. This is a Tilt Rotor aircraft, having the speed of a conventional plane, and the landing ability of a helicopter.



The Canadian CF-18 Hornet performed, and this year was done up to salute the families that support the military.





The CF also had the CP-140 Aurora, which is basically a sub hunter, making a bunch of passes down the show line.



The Canadian Armed Forces also had the Snowbirds on hand. Saturdays show never made it to the lakefront due to rain, but they were able to perform on sunday and monday.
On monday, at the scheduled time for the Snowbirds I heard over my scanner that number 7 had to turn back and pick up the backup aircraft, which delayed the show for 10 minutes. (you can see plane 10 has replaced number 7 in the picture below)



Once they got going, they only had 7 aircraft in the formation, and by the end, an 8th had joined in.







A great jet demonstration team was the privately owned Heavy Metal jet team. Flying 5 L-39 Albatros planes,



plus an amazing Mig 17.



Also in their team is a former RCAF T-33 Shooting Star, which was not at the show.









These guys had the best seat in the house during the show!



Prop planes included the Lucas Oil Pitts flown by Mike Wiskus



The Edge 540 of Pete McLeod





the Sukhoi SU-26M of Rick Volker



And the great Avro Lancaster of the Hamilton Warplane Heritage Museum, with its 4 Merlin engines, which powered the spitfire!







The Misty Blues, an all female parachute team, landed in the water to be picked up by the Police Marine Unit,



while the HMCS Shawinigan was part of the show on Saturday. Its a Coastal Defense Ship, of the Kingston Class.

Wings and Wheels

Not much of an old car fan, but i do appreciate many of the wings that were to be on display at the Wings and Wheel Heritage Festival at the fomer Downsview base, home to the Canadian Air and Space Museum.
Scheduled to appear planes included the CF-18 Hornet, the Golden Hawks replica Sabre, the C-130J Super Hercules, the T33 Silver Star, the AM640/Global TV Helicopter and the CF Griffon.
Unfortunately, bad weather scrubbed the T33, the Sabre was in the hanger,



The CF 18 was on static display, along with the Griffon, so the only thing I saw in the air was the a Harvard



and the Fairchild PT-26B Cornell and de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk from Hamilton's Canadian Warplane Heritage.
Inside the museum were some of the models of famous canadian aircraft, including the CF-100 Canuck, a canadian designed and built interceptor,



along with a really big model, of a really big plane, the CF 101 Arrow.





In another hanger, there were lots of items on sale, incuding these beer can planes,



and these Mahogany Arrows.



It was neat to get up close to the Hornet, so I took some pics of both ends of the two engines that provide the performance of Canada's front line aircraft.





Also on display was this MD 520N NOTAR Helicopter, which has NO TailRotor, and instead uses a vented, rotating drum at the end of the tailboom, called the direct jet thruster, which replaces the tail rotor. Its said to be both quieter and safer.



A common thing you see at air shows are brightly colour "Remove Before Flight" ribbons, which is what I thought of when I saw this little guy!