Tag Archives: Abbotsford

Calibrating the Drones Perhaps?

During the Abbotsford Air Show, we could see a bunch of people out on the airfield.  It wasn’t obvious what they were doing but I took some shots with the longest lens I had to see if I might later work out what was going in.  My friend Mark thought it might be related to the drone display that was due to take place after dark.  I think he might have been right.  Looking at the shots, they seem to be waving the drones around above themselves.  Maybe this is part of a calibration routine or something to do with activating them and having them communicate.  I don’t know.  If anyone is familiar with all of this, please do let me know in the comments.

My First Polaris – Just In Time

The Royal Canadian Air Force will soon be getting new tanker transport aircraft.  They are going to buy some Airbus A330 MRTTs to replace their CC-150 Polaris jets.  These are based on the A310 and I have never seen one before.  Fortunately, there was one on static display at Abbotsford for the air show.  It was in the grey scheme rather than the brightly painted version but that was fine by me.  I was just glad to get one before they are replaced.  It would be good to see one flying but I suspect the chances of that are diminishing.  You never know, though.

Parachute Smoke Trail Patterns

The Canadian Forces SkyHawks parachute display team opened the Abbotsford Air Show evening display.  One of the jumpers had a line of smoke canisters that hung beneath them as they descended under their canopy.  Some tight turns allowed the line to swing out and create some nice smoke trail patterns.  Here are some shots of the results.

Sunset on Mt Baker

I made a quick excursion across the border to Abbotsford for the air show.  I went for the evening show on the Friday rather than the day show.  The conditions were really nice for most of the show with the cloud rolling in only near the end of the proceedings.  Mt Baker is in the background across the border and provides a nice backdrop for some of the flying.  As the light got nicer, I wasn’t going to miss out on a couple of shots of the mountain with its cloud formations above the summit.