The annual Aero Gatineau-Ottawa Airshow 2023 (AGO2023) came this year to weather that it hasn’t seen in years. All three days of beautiful fallish temperatures, blue sky on Friday/Saturday and some cloud on Sunday provided the organizers and guests with the perfect aeronautical experience. As I was there on the Media Day (Friday), I didn’t get a full performance as it was a practice day for the performers and some still had yet to arrive. Notwithstanding, I took 2700 pictures using three different cameras, some of them even in focus.
To see all my pictures from Media Day at the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa Airshow 2023, CLICK HERE:
There’s really not a lot to say about an airshow other than you get to see aircraft that you don’t normally see, doing things they really shouldn’t be doing, way too close to the ground. The AGO2023 was not different in that respect. Those doing the acrobatic portions of the program, such as Pete McLeod in his Zivko Edge 540 and the Third Strike Wingwalking biplane right up to the Snowbirds makes you wonder why their planes don’t break apart and fall out of the sky.
Big beasts, like the A400 Atlas from the Luftwaffe, seem to just float down to the runway belying the fact that their landing speed is faster than most of the smaller aircraft. The CL-415 water bomber was the same in that it lumbered down the runway before getting airborne but then you realized that it’s full of water when it did a pass and dumped it down the showline.
If you need a break, you can always go visit the static aircraft, which you can get quite close to, or wait until the Skyhawks go up to do their multi-jumper formations, which takes a while for them to float down to earth. It never made sense to me to stand on the top of someone else’s parachute but then I’ve never jumped. I tried to apply for the tandem jump this year but apparently there’s an age limit of 50 (I’m older – significantly).
If you’re into WWII aircraft, there was lots for you. Vintage Wings of Canada and the Michael Potter Collection were well represented with the North American P-51D Mustang, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, and the Hawker Hurricane Mk XII, getting together to do a WWII formation. Speaking of formations, there was also the Heritage Flight with the CF-188 Hornet and the Spitfire Mk IX. And let’s not forget the FG-1D Corsair which is a crowd favourite and a P-40 Warhawk that actually saw WWII combat in the Pacific theatre, claiming a Japanese Zero and Japanese Betty as kills.
For speed freaks, there were the jets and the other aircraft doing passes down the showline, some slower but mostly fast. The CF-188 did only a couple of passes as they were late arriving and had just come from Bagotville. One CF-188 had to go join up with the Spitfire, already airborne, for the Heritage Flight, so the other CF-188 only did a couple of passes before landing. For me, the star of the show was the MIG-17PF which I had never seen before. It behaved like a standard jet of its era and apparently has a top speed of 715 mph and can reach 30,000 feet in three minutes. Not to be sneered at for sure. Also doing high speed passes and photo passes were the WWII aircraft, the CL-415 (not that fast), and just about anything else flying.
While the Snowbirds are usually the draw of the show, they maybe had to share the spotlight a bit with the Nighttime Airshow which started about 1830 hrs on Friday night. At this time, while there is still some light, the Snowbirds took to the air for the second time and did a show in the waning light. Not great for pictures but it’s good to see the nose lights against the darkening sky. The CF-188 Hornet followed them with the afterburner helping to locate the plane. Again, pictures of a grey airplane against a grey sky are pretty tough so it was best to just enjoy the show. Lastly for the dusk portion of the show, was the MIG-17PF, which also flew earlier in the afternoon. Again, a silver aircraft against a dark sky is hard to follow, but its tiny afterburner (compared to the CF-188) made for interesting viewing.
Now came the Nighttime show which needed absolute darkness. The first to go was the Long EZ pyro flight which had Kyle Fowler in his 1986 Long EZ pusher aircraft take to the sky loaded up with pyro and flares. Finding him in the darkness was easy because he had this long streak of flame behind him. After he came down, it was time for the drones. The Groupe Royal Pyro put together a show combining fireworks and 100 programmed drones. The drones went up and moved elegantly from one formation to another with a general aviation theme. They went from an airliner, to a helicopter, to a rocket, to a pilot with helmet and several other formations, then ending with a big fireworks display at the end. All in all, a graceful show.
I was prepared to wait awhile to get out of the parking lot but was pleasantly surprised that my being parked by the entrance allowed me fairly easy and quick egress. It only took 12 minutes from starting the car to being on the highway headed home where I could started culling my pictures.
