Hamilton Airshow

Its been 10 years since they held a full airshow at the Hamilton International Airport. I remember going to one airshow there, years before, when one of the stars of the show was the relatively brand new Stealth Fighter.
The Canadian Warplane Heritage Musuem will be celebrating 40 years next year, and they plan on having a big airshow. To test out the idea, they held a small, 3 hour airshow over the Fathers Day Weekend.

There were definately some problems in running the show, the most glaring being the transportation from the parking area.

Once arriving at the parking area, you ended up in a long line of people waiting for a bus. The problem was that the buses were in the same road that the cars coming into the lot were in, so they got bogged down.

Once on the bus, they drove right to the gate of the Museum, only to drop you off again. Another line up to pay, then another line up to get into another bus, to be driven to the field! That was stupid, and I believe part of the way through they decided to allow people to walk the distance, as eventually the line thinned out, which was good since it was nearly 2, the start of the show.

Once the show began, the airshow was generally good. But as with every event I've attended at CWH, there were problems with the show. Many of the promised formation flights never happened. The ones that they did were simply just passes, not real formations. I would have loved to see both B17's flying with the Lanc, but only the b17's went up at the same time, band simply did once pass each before landing!

Some of the planes included Chuckie,





Memphis Belle (movie version)



Nine harvards,



B25,



WW1 planes



and a formation of fighters including the mustang, corsair, warhawk, spitfire and hurricaine.





Some of the static aircarft included a C-130 hercules,





a CAF rescue Griffon,





A Sea King,



as well as CWH aircraft





Here are some of the other aircraft flying saturday.

T.O.M.

After seeing a few years of the warbird action at Geneseo, I decided that the opportunity to see 8 flying B-17's was just too much to give up. So, I headed down to the outskirts of Detroit, to see the Thunder Over Michigan airshow, hosted by the Yankee Air Museum.
The theme was the heavy bomber, and with 8 B-17, a B52 flyby, a B-25 and a huge (And I've got to say, strange looking!)B-24,



along with some more modern fighter jets, it lived up to its billing.

Arriving in time for the Friday re-enactors parade, a trip into the downtown of Bellevill led to the start up of the parade. Lots of American, British and German troops, and even a few civilians were on hand. It was lead by a honour guard from the police, and headed down the road.











Saturday we arrived just before the gates opened, and were quickly in a parking spot and checking out the soldiers. Great effort by these guys, with weapons, uniforms and vehicles.









Next was into the airport itself, with what is probably a typical event requirement for the Americans:




Once we were in, it was of to see the bombers up close. Nearly all were completely accessible, with no barriers. Some offered tours for a few dollars.



During the airshow, the did a continous loop across show center.













At the end, the 2 flights of four flew directly at the audience, and most landed afterwards, but three stayed up with a mustang to do a missing man pass



A ground battle, with air support opened the show,



and then the 3 Mustangs of The Horsemen thrilled the audience with the close formation flying.



The F-18 and F-18 were also on hand.





The Canadian Harvards joined up with there brothers, the US T-6 Texan, part of the SCREAM 'N REBEL team.



The best deal of the day for me came at the end of the show. A guy had a scissor jack, and for 10 bucks, you could go up and get a great view of ramp. Unfortunately at the start of the show, he drove away on us! So we waited til the end of the airshow, took a break, then tracked him down again. We ended up between the two groups of B-17's, and then drove down to one end to get some more shots. He felt bad about what happened (turns out someone was supposed to use the jack for the re-enactor battle, but the guy never showed!!), so he gave us an extra long view, and moved us around the ramp! Most of the crowd had left by then, and the light was from behind, so it was a great opportunity to get some neat shots.







I'm uploading a bunch more pictures at my picture web site.

Also, here is a youtube video of the B17's on the ramp, along with a P51, B24, and B17 on the taxiway.

Greatest Show On Turf

For the third time, I ventured to the Geneseo Air Show, held at the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group. Every year they hold an airshow, featuring World War Two aircraft, with a few other aircarft such as the F-16 Viper jet.
This year, the theme was Tuskegee Airmen, famous for the Red Tail Mustangs used to escort US bombers during the war.











Another great plane to see, one of the only left flying, was the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, from the West Texas wing of the Commemorative Airforce











A few acrobatic teams were on hand, including Rob Holland,





The Canadian Harvards,





and a Pitts Special



Also on hand were the Westland Lysander III of the Canadian Warplane Heritage,





A C130 from the 109th AW Scotia NY



a C-47A Dakota from 1941HAG



and a Fairey Firefly Mk.6, also from CWH





Some B-25







And considering WW2 is famous for having nose art, a couple of Dolls were around as well!!







And there was one fast mover, the F-16 of Viper West








And Geneseo is also the home to the movie version of the Memphis Belle, a B-17.











and of course, the P-51 Mustang was also well represented, with 4 aircraft.













And perhaps my favourite World War 2 Fighter Plan, the Chance Vought F4U Corsair.