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.

Aviation Expo

The Aviation Expo used to be held in Oshawa, but has recently relocated to Hamilton International Airport, and specifically the Canadian Warplan Heritage museum.

Inside the hangers were a collection of the CWH planes, while the other half of the hanger was dedicated to aviation companies. The planes inside included the Spitfire and Hurricane.



One of the first thing you notice as you exit the hangers is the National Helicopter taking off and landing with lots of people paying for a flight.



At 70 bucks a pop, it ain't cheap, but I'm sure it was a great trip.

Also on hand were two other choppers, a Bell 222 with landing gear,





and a Eurocopter EC 130, which is an 8 seater chopper,



with a wicked cool paintjob.



I asked the pilot of the National Helicopter



if she had ever flown a helicopter like the Bell 222, which is one of the few choppers with landing gear. She hadn't but agreed that it must be weird to remember to lower your landing gear, since most helicopters simply have skids.

Also on hand was the CT133 Shooting Star, from the London based Jet Aircraft Museum.
The plane was beatifully painted, with a sharks mouth and eye. During the event, a pilot had a chance to win a ride in the plane, which they also got to fly!







As this was CWH, there were also lots of planes on the ramp, including the Golden Hawks Sabre, with plastic pannels to show the insides,



as well as a listing of the members of the team on the side pannel



a CF-104 Starfighter, done in up Tiger Meet colours,



a Beech D18S Expeditor which was done up as a photographic section of the RCAF from 1944, based in Winnipeg as part of 403 Squadron.



During one of the enginstarts, a small backfire led to a flash of flame.



Just in case, the airport fire truck was on hand, but mostly I think it was to watch the show!



One of the stars of the show was the Canadian Armed Forces Skyhawks team.
This is the 40th anniversary of the team, and they were eager to jump. However, there was a massive delay, as they were having a problem getting the left engine started. The jump was originally scheduled for around 11 am, but ended up being closer to 3 o'clock!
After lots of work, the plane was in the air, and the members began to jump. There were three passes,



and the most spectacular jump was the Candy Cane,







Which is a rotating parachutist streaming a line of coloured flares, which, when you looked up, resembled a candy cane in the air!

As they jumped, the PR member



described the different "tricks" that each group completed. The classic is the two and three man stacks.





and then it was over, and like any other event that ends, the line up to get out of the place stretched out a long distance!



But everyone will be streaming back to CWH on June 18-19 for the rebirth of the Hamilton Air Show. Going back into its roots, this is a Warbird airshow, with the prop being the most common form of power for the aircraft! Over 40 planes are planned to be in attendance, including two B-17, which is worth the admission right there!

Canadian Warplane Heritage Fly Fest

The Canadian Warplane Heritage museum at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport has an amazing collection of both static and flying aircraft, with both prop and jet versions. They are most famous for having one of only a few flying Avro Lancaster bombers, done up to honour Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski, VC, of 419 (Moose) Squadron, 6 (RCAF) Group.







Every year they have a Fly Fest, which is a small airshow, but really an opportunity for memeber to have a flight on one of the many aircraft.

On hand were some Harvards;





A few biplane Stearmans;






Two C-47 Dakota's were onhand, with one from the Warplane museum, while the other was from the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group. Both flew in formation.













another aircraft offering rides was the Beech C-45 Expeditor;



along with the B25 Mitchell bomber;





Being towed across the airport property (followed for some reason by a Aiport Fire Truck), was the beast of a plane, the Consolidated's PBY 5A Canso. This is a very large float plane, which was used for recon.








On the grounds, many of the static aircraft were also on display. The Golden Hawks Sabre was finished with some platstic covers to replace the skin of the aircraft, giving people a view of the interior of the aircraft.



The Vintage Wings of Canada also brought along the Curtiss P-4ON Warhawk




With a wide angle lens, it may be hard to figure out what this aircraft is;



But from the side, its a very distinct, rocket like CF 104, done up in a Tiger Meet colour scheme.



In fact, its so much like a rocket that a group has converted one to attempt the land speed record for a car, the North American Eagle, a combination canadian/american team effort.