Tag Archives: Canada

My Luck with the Snowbirds Continues to Go Downhill

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Last year, when I went to the Abbotsford Air Show, the Snowbirds were displaying with eight jets instead of nine.  There had been an issue with one of the crew and they were completing the season down a jet.  When I headed to Comox this year for the show, I was hoping to get a full display from the Snowbirds.  That was not going to be the case.  On arrival, my friend Mark advised me that one of the pilots had injured an arm in a non-aviation related accident.  Oh well, I thought.

Then, when they started up for the display, one of the jets wouldn’t play ball.  I thought they might run to a spare jet but, no, we were down another jet.  This meant we would only have seven jets for the display.  Surprisingly, this didn’t cause as many issues in my shots as I thought it might.  The four ship cross was gone which was disappointing but, when shooting tightly on the formations, things actually seemed to look okay.  In fact, sometimes it stopped me having to worry about getting the whole formation in shot since they had “cropped” for me.

It was a pretty good display and I enjoyed watching it.  Here is a selection of shots from the day.

An Aurora Is a Bit of a Rarity These Days

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For many years, the majority of maritime patrol operators have been using P-3 aircraft.  However, with the advent of the P-8 Poseidon, the number of P-3s is rapidly reducing.  Canada operates its own version of the family called the CP-140 Aurora.  With their continued operation, that are now becoming a bit of a treat to see.  I had hardly ever seen one in action before so, when they were displaying at the show at Comox, I was really pleased to get a chance to get some photos of one.

As with all military jets these days (or so it seems), grey is the order of the day.  Not the most exciting paint job but a different version of grey is definitely good.  They threw the plane around with plenty of energy in the display so the photo opportunities were good including a pass with the weapons bay open.  The replacement of the Aurora is currently being pursued so they won’t be around for much longer so good to get them now while the opportunity presents itself.  Funny how little I was interested in P-3s when I was younger and now I am hunting them down!

Later Than Planned, But Hawaii Mars Gets Airborne

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In a previous post, I shared images of Hawaii Mars as it was moored up on Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island.  Our plan had been to get it while it was taxiing out and taking off.  Our understanding of previous flights was that they had gone a long way up the lake before turning around and taking off back towards their starting point.  We had limitations on how far we were allowed to take the boat and also the time we had to get back to our drop off point.

The understanding was that they would fire up just after 5pm and be airborne at 5:30.  With our rental ending at 6:00, this gave us a bit of a narrow margin for racing back.  However, it should be able to work.  However, that relied on them hitting those times.  That wasn’t happening.  We got a message that they were going to start just after 6:00.  Now what to do.  With no sign of movement, we headed back to the drop off to see if anyone else was renting the boat after us.  No, they were shutting down for the day.  We begged with the guy who told us he was due to end shift.  However, he had a couple of things to close out so told us we could have half an hour tops.

We thanked him profusely and headed back out.  We wouldn’t have the time for the original plan so, instead, we headed down towards the narrows that we anticipated they would have to come through and waited.  We finally saw engines start cranking.  With all running, they taxied away from us to the end of the lake.  Then they turned and started back our way.  As we watched, the spray on the fuselage grew larger and it became apparent that they weren’t going to be taxing past us but were actually taking off.

As they motored towards us and got larger and larger in the viewfinder, the question was how low a shutter speed was acceptable when shooting a moving plane from a boat bobbing around on a lake.  Caution was appropriate plus a high frame rate.  They roared past with gorgeous light on the airframe.  A helicopter was filming them and also came in to frame which was a nice addition.  A little beyond our location and they were airborne.  What a result.  We then high tailed it back to the dock where our excellent person was waiting for us.  It could hardly have gone better.

How Long Since This S-61 Flew?

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On the trip the guys made to see the Martin Mars fly, we stopped by Victoria International Airport on Vancouver Island.  Round the back of the field, there were two S-61 airframes sitting doing nothing in particular.  One was in the markings of British International Helicopters.  It has been a very long time since I last heard of that operation.  Apparently, the company has gone through various incarnations over the years.  It did operate scheduled flights to the Scilly Isles off Cornwall with S-61s so maybe this airframe came from that service.  Has it been sitting here ever since?

Your Own Island in Sproat Lake

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As we motored down Sproat Lake looking for good locations from which to photograph the takeoff of Hawaii Mars, we went through a narrow passage between sections of the lake.  Just south of the passage was a small island.  A closer look told us that there was a single house on this island.  The idea of your own private island does sound quite nice.  I think I would like the house to have a less obstructed view of the water but, maybe if you live there and see constant boat traffic like ours, the need for privacy makes the trees a better option.

Tiny Crabs in the Tidepool

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I posted about a beach on Vancouver Island that we had scoped out as a possible spot for later.  While looking around, I spent a bit of time checking out some of the tide pools on the shore.  As is often the case, they initially look quiet but, if you spend a little time waiting, you start to notice movement.  I found a crab scuttling around in one of the pools and grabbed some photos of it.  What I didn’t realize was that there was a second one alongside that had obviously been less mobile while I was watching.  Lots of barnacles in the water too and a ton of snail-like creatures.  Don’t think they were hermit crabs but who knows?

Housing Alongside Sproat Lake

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When you go out on a lake, you figure that there will be some nice properties along the lakeshore.  It’s a desirable place to live so you figure some money is going to be spent to live there.  The top shot is just a view along the shore where we rented the boat, but the others are some of the places we saw.  While most of them seem really good, I was disappointed in one place.  The structure of the house looked really nice but the concrete structures between it and the water look really unappealing from out on the boat.  Sure, if you are in it, you can’t see that.  However, if I am spending that much on a place, I’d want it to look great from outside too!

Picking A Spot on the Shore Near Victoria Airport

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Before we headed to Sproat Lake to find the Mars, we did a brief recce of the area along the shore where they were due to arrive the following day.  At this time, we still had a plan to return to the island on the Sunday for the final touchdown of Hawaii Mars.  I would later scrap this portion of the trip.  However, we hadn’t got to that point yet.  There were a few possible locations to try out and Steve had noticed a small park that led down to the beach, so we went to check it out.  It was a lovely little spot and there was a tree hanging out from the land over one part of the beach that looked particularly cool.  We didn’t end up returning but this could have been a nice spot to watch the proceedings.

Evening Raptor Demo at Last

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The “at last” in this title is not that I haven’t seen an F-22 demo in the evening.  I saw one once at Chino and it was very cool.  This is more about the fact that the Raptor demos in recent years have not strayed far west very often.  They did a demo in Australia but only had one demo west of the Mississippi for one season.  However, Canada did attract the team, and Abbotsford provided a chance to see them for me.

The pilot for the demo for the last two years is a guy that was a regular attendee of air shows in the Midwest when I lived there.  I know some of his friends, but he was quite young then and I can’t claim to know him.  Even so, it is rather cool to see him have made it to his chosen airframe of the F-22 and then to become the demo pilot.  Only near the end of his second year did I finally see his routine and it was a good show.  I know he has used flares at a number of events, but warm dry weather probably has meant that the fire risk precluded that.  Even so, the evening light made for a great show.

Nicely done, Sam.  Excellent performance.  Hope you have enjoyed it for the last two years.