21/06: Air Show
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
Ed and his photography crew (Rob and John) plus Victor took over 6,000 photos and videos today. I think I did really good getting it down to 25 photos. It's a lot for my daily blog but I don't think I could eliminate any and still tell the story.
The day Ed and I have been anticipating and dreading has arrived. We were looking forward to the actual show but were worried about the logistics of thousands of people trying to park and watch the show. The original estimate had been 2,500 and was now increased to 6,000 with a maybe more attached. On top of everything, mother nature has not been co-operating. Last weekend the airport received about 5 inches of rain soaking the hay field preventing the hay field from being cut. Mind you even if it had been cut it was still too wet to drive on. Ed's doing photography and I'm just a volunteer so why would we stress about parking. Well, yesterday I received an unexpected (and unwanted) promotion from parking volunteer to parking supervisor. Luckily, a couple of parking lots were found and some transportation arranged so the we could park about another 500 cars. Anyway, even though parking was a bit of nightmare in my mind we did manage to park a fair number of people and a lot of other people parked on the side roads around the airport, in friend's driveways or in one case at an enterprising farm near the airport that set up an impromptu parking lot. It's estimated that approximately 10,000 people watched the show.
Mother Nature was on our side today, it was cloudy in the morning but the skies cleared and the sun shone. I'm told it was a wonderful show. I did see the snowbirds from one on the parking lots we used a few kilometers from the airport so I didn't miss everything. Our friend Rob videoed most of the show so I'll be able to watch it in the comfort of my living room.
The war birds coming in before the show started. A number of private aircraft also flew in to watch the show. Smart move as they missed all the traffic.
All quiet in the parking area --- a couple of more hours and this area will be full of cars. Yup that's me talking on the phone.
There was lots for kids to see,
plus a number of vendors,
and helicopter rides. One of these days I'll do a helicopter ride as it's on my bucket list.
The Ontario Provincial Police Golden Helmets came to the show to give a exhibition of superb riding skills. I'm told they were very good ---- hope Rob videoed this.
Interesting tidbit of trivia --- the current commander of the Golden Helmets is a female police officer.
Doing circles at slow speed is apparently very hard.
Gord Price and his Yak-50 put on an amazing show. Another trivia --- Gord is 75 years young and owns the Damn Pub in Thornbury, that's also the name of his plane.
One of the war birds taking off.
The war birds chased each other around the sky.
Lined up and ready to go.
Everyone was ready for the highlight of the show.
If you look real close you can see the four planes at the bottom of the heart.
A friend who came to the show with his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson told me "We've seen the snowbirds before in Toronto, but not take off and land and we got to meet them. My grandson got autographs from all of them and PAO (Public Affairs Officer)". I'm sure many others felt the same as my friend. It's comments like this that made all the work of putting the show on worth while.
The day Ed and I have been anticipating and dreading has arrived. We were looking forward to the actual show but were worried about the logistics of thousands of people trying to park and watch the show. The original estimate had been 2,500 and was now increased to 6,000 with a maybe more attached. On top of everything, mother nature has not been co-operating. Last weekend the airport received about 5 inches of rain soaking the hay field preventing the hay field from being cut. Mind you even if it had been cut it was still too wet to drive on. Ed's doing photography and I'm just a volunteer so why would we stress about parking. Well, yesterday I received an unexpected (and unwanted) promotion from parking volunteer to parking supervisor. Luckily, a couple of parking lots were found and some transportation arranged so the we could park about another 500 cars. Anyway, even though parking was a bit of nightmare in my mind we did manage to park a fair number of people and a lot of other people parked on the side roads around the airport, in friend's driveways or in one case at an enterprising farm near the airport that set up an impromptu parking lot. It's estimated that approximately 10,000 people watched the show.
Mother Nature was on our side today, it was cloudy in the morning but the skies cleared and the sun shone. I'm told it was a wonderful show. I did see the snowbirds from one on the parking lots we used a few kilometers from the airport so I didn't miss everything. Our friend Rob videoed most of the show so I'll be able to watch it in the comfort of my living room.
The war birds coming in before the show started. A number of private aircraft also flew in to watch the show. Smart move as they missed all the traffic.
All quiet in the parking area --- a couple of more hours and this area will be full of cars. Yup that's me talking on the phone.
There was lots for kids to see,
plus a number of vendors,
and helicopter rides. One of these days I'll do a helicopter ride as it's on my bucket list.
The Ontario Provincial Police Golden Helmets came to the show to give a exhibition of superb riding skills. I'm told they were very good ---- hope Rob videoed this.
Interesting tidbit of trivia --- the current commander of the Golden Helmets is a female police officer.
Doing circles at slow speed is apparently very hard.
Gord Price and his Yak-50 put on an amazing show. Another trivia --- Gord is 75 years young and owns the Damn Pub in Thornbury, that's also the name of his plane. One of the war birds taking off.
The war birds chased each other around the sky.
Lined up and ready to go.
Everyone was ready for the highlight of the show.
If you look real close you can see the four planes at the bottom of the heart.
A friend who came to the show with his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson told me "We've seen the snowbirds before in Toronto, but not take off and land and we got to meet them. My grandson got autographs from all of them and PAO (Public Affairs Officer)". I'm sure many others felt the same as my friend. It's comments like this that made all the work of putting the show on worth while.