Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Air Show That ... Wasn't

I tried to go to the Nova Scotia International Airshow this year, I really did. My brother, a true airshow fanatic aficionado even timed his latest visit so he could attend with me.

Alas, it was not meant to be.

Oh, we were there all right, ready and waiting. Unfortunately, the airshow was not quite meant to be. The show, originally scheduled to be held over two days, was knocked back to Saturday only due to the expected arrival of Tropical Storm Hanna. It was scheduled to start at 10:00 and end at 3:00 (only flying, no static displays this year due to ongoing work on one of the runways at the Halifax Int'l Airport). But the skies were still empty at 12:30 due to a persistently low ceiling.

We finally got to see a Sea King Helicopter shortly afterwards (minus the planned skydiving), followed eventually by American stunt pilot Pete McLeod and the SnowBirds (but only a partial low-level show due to the continued cloud coverage). Three Harvard Heritage aircraft were literally on the apron ready for take off when the game was called by the tower -back to IFR which meant no more flying for the airshow set. So, yeah, that really sucked. Go. Home.

It was good to see the SnowBirds, even though it was just a partial show, not much more than formation flying. Unfortunately, I missed most of Pete MacLeod's short performance by fiddling around with my camera. However, my brother did buy me a very cool CF 18 Hornet T-shirt. Which was as close as I got to any F 18s yesterday, they didn't make it up in the air at all.

So, yeah, kind of depressing. But the good news is that I did finally figure out my camera (now realizing that I could have gotten much, much better shots had I actually used the zoom lens that I didn't even realize I had until late last night ~ DUH!) and the Yarmouth International Airshow is on for next weekend.

Tempting, very tempting, I must say. To think I might actually make it to a real airshow someday ...



Although I have many, many gorgeous shots of plane pr0n available on my computer (borrowed from others), I give you these small, simple offerings, taken by my own camera, on the first occasion of my actually having witnessed such sights. Click on the first snap of the SnowBirds for higher resolution.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth - I thought of you and your brother Saturday.......and wondered how disappointed you both would be.

Ah well, at least you got to see something.

tam :)

Anonymous said...

Don't know if you realise, we also have yearly air show in Langkawi, Malaysia.

Michelle Morgan-Coole said...

Cool ... now if I could just get there I could see the show and meet you at the same time. ;-)

Punkys Dilemma said...

Awwww M, not again! sheesh.....
I'm so sorry, it must have been a disappointment. But so glad you were able to find good things from something that didn't turn out as it shoulda....sigh Glad you figgered out your camera tho... ;)
Hopefully you can make it next week for the Yarmouth Airshow!
Loved your photo! That alone is exciting... :)

Anonymous said...

Pics from your first airshow are always exciting! Even if it got weathered-out, you still got to see plane pr0n in action! Caution, gratuitous self-plug coming up.

Pics from my first airshow can be found here:

Blue Angels
F-18 Hornet
F-1 Tomcat

And my personal fave:

F-22 Raptor

Hope these tide you over until your next airshow!!!

Michelle Morgan-Coole said...

Gee, Kris, are you sure you're not just rubbing it in?? :D

I must say, I am seriously considering Saturday ... although with my luck I would probably get there just in time for the fog to roll in!