RCAF Snowbirds

[Red October1984]

Anybody seen them?

They were at my local air show today. They put on a good show. I wasn't able to get any good pictures with my cell phone but I did stay after the show to meet them.

They're really nice guys who seemed to like the fact that I was an "air cadet"

And Canadian accents never fail to amuse me.

I recommend going to see them. They fly some sort of trainer. I want to say it's the CT-114 "Tutor"....might have gotten the designation wrong. They're cool, strange looking little planes.

Seem to be more focused on precision than speed. I know the Blue Angels do everything really really fast...the Snowbirds do more or less the same stuff...but there's 9 of them and they are very very good at it.

[Stealhead]

Honestly the speeds of any aerobatic show utilizing jet powered aircraft are roughly the same mainly for safety reasons it just looks faster than it really is.Trust me an F-16 or F/A-18 at military power would not be a very enjoyable show because they would be unable to perform impressive maneuvers at that speed.

The best point to witness an aerobatic team is actually during their pre show practice that is when they do things they cant do near a large crowd.

Aerobatic shows are all about precession and the illusion of speed and "near misses" which are of course close but with much wider margin of error than what appears on the ground and a well practiced timing they also do several runs solo to select landmarks as their turn and timing points.

I got to see the Thunderbirds practice on a few occasions it made the real show pretty boring. At one base it just so happened that my unit was doing the morning FOD walk during a practice session they had a lot of fun buzzing us.

[Jimbuna]

Can't honestly remember if I've seen them or not having gone to so many airshows over the past years.

I'll say one thing though...I can remember those who were pretty unimpressive and those wouldn't have been one of them.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Can't honestly remember if I've seen them or not having gone to so many airshows over the past years.

They weren't outside the CAN/US region until '93, and that was to Mexico. I don't recall them coming over here (WWII besides), but could be wrong.

I've seen about seven or eight (maybe a couple more?) of the international display teams. I was also present at Scampton in '91 when the Russian Knights first entered the country - they were escorted, obviously, and were vectored direct to Scampton, but they 'didn't understand' and flew directly over Coningsby. Earlier a delegation arrived containing a 3-star General - nobody was expecting him either! He did, however, present some friends of mine with their wings.

Nobody goes as fast as the Thunderbirds, as close as the Blue Angels, or as perfect as the Red Arrows.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Nobody goes as fast as the Thunderbirds, as close as the Blue Angels, or as perfect as the Red Arrows.

Interesting but I wonder where you would slot in the Patrouille Acrobatique de France who IMHO are up there with the best.

[TarJak]

The Roulette's aren't too shabby either. Through prop driven nowadays.

[u crank]

I've seen them a number of times. Nice photo Jim.

You got it right Red...they are Canadian built Canadair CT-114 Tutor. Used as primary trainers for over 30 years. Retired as trainer in 2000. The Snowbirds were formed in the early 70's.

And Canadian accents never fail to amuse me.

What accents?

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by u crank

I've seen them a number of times. Nice photo Jim.

You got it right Red...they are Canadian built Canadair CT-114 Tutor. Used as primary trainers for over 30 years. Retired as trainer in 2000. The Snowbirds were formed in the early 70's.

What accents?

I think every single one of them said "Oh ya." at some point in the conversation...in that slightly higher pitch at the end of sentences...