Tag Archives: Canadair

The Tutor is Going

It seems that equipping display teams is becoming rather difficult for some countries. The RAF has taken the Red Arrows down to seven jets because of engine issues and a replacement has not yet been selected. Meanwhile, the RCAF has selected the PC-21 to replace the Tutor with the Snowbirds, but they won’t arrive for a while. In the interim, the Tutor is being retired so there will be a hiatus for the team.

The Tutor was a strange little jet. Looking a bit like a Jet Provost but with a bit more oomph, the RCAF retired it from training duties a long time ago but kept a bunch of them running just to support the Snowbirds. I have seen them display on multiple occasions and really enjoy the display. The team also were a lot of fun when I got to spend time with them in Waukegan for the show there. Moose Milk is dangerous stuff.

This year is the last year that they have displayed with the Tutor and, since we have been gone for a while now, I didn’t get to see their last shows. My last year of seeing them display was filled with difficulties either with aircrew that had been injured or with unserviceability. In one show a jet went down and the pilot ran to a backup jet but couldn’t get that one to work either. I guess that was a sign of just how much the fleet was aging. Oh well, farewell Tutor. I hope I get to see the display with the PC-21 at some point.

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.

Skywest’s Own CRJs

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Skywest provides feeder services for a number of airlines around the country. They do also operate under their own name for some routes though so you do occasionally come across their aircraft in their own colors rather than those of their customer airline. I have shot a number of the aircraft over the years and here are some of them. The interesting thing is that they rarely seem to be in the same colors. I don’t know whether this is because they have changed their colors a number of times or because they are leftovers from schemes they wore in other uses or from previous operators. Whatever the reason, there has been some variety.

I’m not sure what the long term prognosis is for the CRJs with Skywest. These jets are rapidly disappearing from service with various operators as larger jets with more seats are more affordable to operate. Skywest may have plans for them or may operate them on services that can justify the cost or maybe they will all disappear quickly and we will barely notice that they have gone.

CL-215s

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Canadair were a company that put together some odd projects. Before they became part of the Bombardier family, they produced a business jet and a water bomber. The Challenger (which came from an earlier Bill Lear project) has gone on to spawn a large number of production aircraft of various types. The CL-215 is a different story.

Water bombers are a very useful tool in fighting fires. Within that sphere, the CL-215 has been a great success. That is not a huge world, though, so production has been modest. Even so, the original piston powered aircraft has gone through a turboprop conversion program and the current production model, the CL-415 has turboprop engines as well as airframe and systems enhancements. Production is at a low rate but they do still come out of the factory.

I was quite pleased to come across a couple of the planes that are still fitted with the original radial engines. The already chunky lines of the plane go quite well with the bluff profile of the piston engine – something the turboprop lacks a little. These planes weren’t flying. They were awaiting their next project. With the fire season approaching, I imagine it won’t have been too long after I saw them before they were back in action.