Ottawa Flight Fest 2003

You are right Bob, but it wasn’t only Mr. Potter who needed better protection from the crowd, I had to isolate my Focke-Wulf with cones and tape to stop the people from crawling over it. And I had it moved to the Warbird section on Sunday too, where it was safe for the duration of the show.

The most respectful place I saw for the planes was Geneseo, no one would touch at them, they would just gaze in awe in front of them!

I missed the formation fly-by by mere seconds, I managed to get the CF-188 breaking away with the Spit in the left corner of the shot!

😀

Those air to air pictures sound great. I would love to see them also.

I posted a few pictures here of the Flight Fest to raise a little interest in our local air scene. I really would like to see interest
grow in Canada’s avaition history. Many smaller restoration groups around Canada work with very little publicity these days so I figure get the work out there to the “aero nuts” as you call them.

I saw a number of aircraft being treated like jungle gyms over the weekend and most aircraft owners or groups were doing their best allow the visitors a close up look at these fine planes,,but you do have to treat these old girls with respect..some are getting quite old and should be looked at but not touched(poked)

Mr Potter was very polite in allowing myself and couple of other plane geeks to photograph his plane up close.

Mike Potter and SL721

Hi British Canuck and all.
I talked with Mike last night and he did mention having to get better security around his Spitfire. He can’t get over the interest in it. When I was babysitting Cliff Robertson’s Mk IX s/n MK923 for years we always had to have baricades around the Spitfire at airshows. Most of us aero nuts are OK but there are some real “kooks” at airshows and they will bang away at the fabric or worse, poke a hole in it or cut a chunk out for a souvenir to take home (as happenned to a Mustang in the states years back). The Spit would be sitting in the hot sun, all gassed up and pissing fuel out the overflow with the expansion and some goof would walk up with a cigarette and then get mad when told to put it out. You can always tell a real aircraft buff and there is no problem inviting him behind the barrier for a closer look.
Thanks for the pics of the show.
Mike did a photo shoot with the B-25 and sent me a great shot of him with the CF-18 taken by his wife Veronique who rode in the 25. E-mail me direct and I’ll send it to you so maybe you will post it here. It really is fantastic. Mike was excited about it and mentioned that there were three photographers in the 25 doing all kinds of shot air to air with AU-J. He said that he will send me copies and also a copy of the video that Veronique took from the 25.
I am at [email]robert.swaddling@sympatico.ca[/email]
Cheers
Bob S.

Here are my images from the show, it’s just the best, I still have over 140 on my hard drive!

Carp 2003 pictures

🙂

I see you point about paying!! People could easily have gotten in without paying on Saturday. Hopefully not too many figured that out!

The main gate was not clearly marked. All part of the learning curve for the organizers for next year. I trust they improve on these details for next year. Some tempory fencing around the perimeter would help.

Charles

Early on Saturday morning I was able to get close up to Potter’s Spitfire. He was quite tolerant of all the questions and all the people around the plane. I did ask his permission to shot the interior shots and I managed to take about four pix. But by the time I had left him he was asking for help in getting some police tape to set up safe area around his aircraft. I can not blame him as many folks were pooking around alittle too much for my comfort level..

The static display was alittle confusing on Sat but they seemed to
figure it out by Sunday. They closed the static area to the public by noonish.

So many people had come in on Saturday without paying much more that parking $2 cost..cheap bums. The security had to walk the grounds asking for proof of admission..they had 175 non paying people by the time they asked me..It doesn’t help an airshow when you don’t pay to support it!!

I paid twice:) Sat and Sun

How’d you manage to get the shot of the cockpit of SL721? When I saw her late in the day on Saturday there was a tape line all around her and a police car close by. No one was getting that close! Did Potter have it a little more up for visitors in the morning?

Security did seem a little confused. On arriving I tried to enter the site from behind those hangers, and was steered well away by security staff who had the whole area clear. Yet later in the day there was a crowd around the B-25, not a care in the world, and a few feet away the Staggerwing and the Bobcat were starting up for their display. Seemed to be some confusion as to whether these aircraft were on static, or on a flightline with not close visitors.

Oh well. A minor complaint. Won’t stop me from going next year.

Charles

Thanks for info Olivier I will keep a look out on the WIX Forum for details on your next landings!!:)

The Cornell was from the CWH and she was static only. I got invited and henve got all my expenses paid. If you arrived one morning with your aircraft, saying that you wanted to be static, chances are that you wouldn’t have been very welcome, since they have to plan how much it’ll cost them to host everyone. You might have just been static, but at your own expense.

All the major performers, like Julie Clark and the Pitts are paid. Military guys are invited!

🙂

Was the Fairchild Cornell just a static display? It belongs to the CWHM correct? She looks mint. I just managed to see her leave on Sunday morning.

A quick question to anyone..are all aircraft performers invited to the show? and are they all paid to display ot trade for fuel? and if you were lucky enough to own a warbird..could you arrive and static display at the airshow like Olivier FW did? what do most shows do these days?

I was astounded by the display put on by the Mopar T-34. I’ve never seen anyone come out of loops as close to the ground as she did. Really right on the edge kinda stuff. Very exciting. And the bit flying through the fireworks at the end of the display. I wasn’t expecting that at all, and had my camera down. Damn.

A most exciting display among many at the show. A far cry from Legends or the other UK shows, but I am nevertheless looking forward to next year.

Charles

No offenses taken Charles! I agree, there was a lack of static stuff, but the flying part was top notch! I can’t wait to get back next year!

Well, I did a nice fly-by when I left for all the volunteers and the staff, they all rose up from the VIP tent when I passed an waved at me as I rocked the wings, it gave me a pinch to the heart!

Maybe next year!

We might very well go to the Hawkesburry fly-in, as well as the one in Pendleton this fall, so watch the WIX for more details…

😉

Thanks for the pictures British Canuck. I was there too. Nice to finally see some warbirds in Ottawa, considering the terrible airshows we have had in recent years.

I think the crowds demostrated that there is interest in this type of airshow in Ottawa. I was there on Saturday, then out at the international on Sunday to watch the departures and returns of some of the performers. There was quite a crowd there too.

I agree with the comments about the CWH, but cudos to the organizers for pulling this off. Lets hope it continues. Carp was a great venue for it, despite the lack of good static display (no offense intended Olivier!! you know what I mean!)

I’ll try to get a few pics up too once I have hit the scanner. Got a couple of good ones of the F-86. Now that was a treat!!

Charles

I did photograph her again on the tarmac on Sunday. She looked great. I even managed some close ups of her cockpit.(from a distance)

Too bad you could not have been in the show…:)

Nice pictures Andrew!

You got poor ole Fw 149 when she was in the middle of the ‘sand box’, all dusted up! I got her move on Sunday, near the Seaking.

Thanks again for the images!

🙂

T-28C

Stagger Wing:

FW-149

Fairchild Cornell: