Brant United Way Airshow 2007

By David Robbins

Every August the United Way of Brant holds their annual air show. Every year it has grown with no exception this year. This year marked some firsts for it, like breaking the 30,000 mark in attendance, along with emergency personal. So let's get going, shall we...

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We enter by the main gate and the first thing we see is the flight line and first in line are the two Hornets open for public viewing. Next to the hornets is Canada’s own Snowbirds aerobatic team all lined up and at every end is the De Haviland Buffalo.

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Along with private owners show off their planes like this Chipmunk and this L-29 along with a derelict C-117.

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While I was taking pictures of the Hornets, the Lancaster arrived. The Hornets are sporting new tail colors this year celebrating 25 years of service in the Canadian military.

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At the other end of the field, the Canadian Warplane Heritage is present with some of their planes with the mighty Lancaster front and center with a late arrival in the form of a Canso (Catalina to some).

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One of the surprises was the P-51B that showed up. Now most of us have been to air shows where it's been all the D models, well it was a surprise to me to find out that it was a B model that made an appearance.

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Another surprise was the arrival of two Tigermoths to the show. Vary rare in these parts that you see two in one show.

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The opening of the show was done by the Canadian Armed Forces Skyhawks skydiving team from the armed forces. They jumped from the Buffalo aircraft and we hear the Canada and American anthems.

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Next on the list was a fly past of the mighty B-52 as it was passing through on its way home to North Dakota.

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We had stunt flying by Rick Volker in his Sukhoi Su-26M and by Patty Wagstaff in her Extra 300SX.

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We were treated to some aerial display from the Woodstock Harvard club. These are private individual who all restored and own Harvards and are regulars here.

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We had fly pass from Hercules with them throwing out a dummy so that the rescue CH-146 Griffin could do a mock rescue.

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Then an F-16CJ from USAF did a flying display then had a heritage flight with the P-51B who flew out to meet him.

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Next to strut their stuff were the B-25, the Fairey Firefly, and the Lancaster.

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The Hornet graced us with some flying of its own, then it had a heritage flight with one of the Harvards.

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And of course, no Canadian air show would be complete without the Canadian Armed Forces Snowbirds.

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It was an enjoyable day for all as I enjoyed it thoroughly.

© David Robbins 2007

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This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016