Annual airshow in Abbotsford was opened yesterday. And how it turned, I’ve got a bit of ‘random luck’ having been scheduled for a flight to Abbotsford on this day. Well, I didn’t plan anything specifically with regard to air show beforehand. Didn’t even make a bid for such a feature as ‘overnight in YXX’.
As we approached the aerodrome on the HARAS ONE arrival, we noticed it was a sort of ‘quiet’ in the air. I blurted out a silly guess that airshow traffic could be just talking on the different frequencies.. But soon the enlightenment came upon me: ‘Dude, you should have a better look into a weather briefing sheet..’
Huh, it was absolutely flyable weather for the commercial traffic, some ‘visibility - two and a half mile; clouds - scattered at 400 feet, broken at 600 feet’, overcast at 2000, and ‘light rain shower‘..
But I bet it was not ‘quite of the type’ thousands of spectators and all organizers and participants were hoping for.. My true belief is that our appearance somehow made up for a setback with the weather on that morning 
Wonder, how many shutters had clicked when we lumbered out of the low clouds on the approach to RW 07.. And there was another plane, an ‘Alaska Airlines’ 737 following us shortly. ‘Thank you, thank you, - it is so nice of you to give us such a great round of applause, dear spectators, and it is a great pleasure to bonus you for them as much as we can”
We taxied in to the empty ramp in front of the commercial terminal, and I got a minute and a position to watch the show from the ‘different point of view’. When I visited the Abbotsford Airshow in 2006, I spend the entire day on the ‘right side’.
Certainly, there’s some advantages of being ‘in the middle of action’, whatever short your engagement with it could be. See, it does look different, from the point of view on the opposite side
Those little ones were the first to go up and start the air show flying on that morning, I reckon. They don’t need too much space for maneuvering, and as weather began improving, we had heard their buzz overhead.
It seemed they had no problem to stay visual, and be continuously in sight for the public despite all the constrains imposed by low weather.
Or, maybe, they were sent first to chase away a big flock of crows that were loitering nearby the field
August 11th, 2008 at 4:26 am
What a shame for all the people planing on attending during the weekend. Interesting photos.
I sure picked the best day to go, it was almost too warm on the Friday.
Funny, I go to YXX you go to YYJ, I come back to YYJ and you go to YXX.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Tristan,
I’ve seen your Abbotsford pics on Flickr, they are great, and the day on them looks just as great. Did the weather on the day shown here improve a bit afterwards?
Oh, by the way, I was in YYJ today too. Round trip to Calgary. Today was a final day of ‘Great Five’
Weather was fantastic. It was so great that I wouldn’t mind to defer finishing our pairing until tomorrow, although this would have extend it to six days 
Take care, man,
C