Warbird Information Exchange

1995 was a good year. I finally had a year of working for a living under my belt and could afford to put gas in the car to get around. I was itching to get out and find some Warbirds. This was still before the internet was a big thing, so I was reading every magazine article I could to find out where the warbirds were. I hit the road a number of times to search them out. I got many opportunities to get my pictures, but I was really still learning how to use a camera so many of my shots (a large percentage) were throw-aways. Oh well. At least I have what I have.

So without further ado…

The first place I searched out was the RCAF Memorial Museum in Trenton. I some ways the place still hasn’t changed. I like how they have the aircraft arranged in a park-like setting…
http://community.webshots.com/album/547437635yYOqpS

On my way home to Brockville from Trenton, I stopped in at the Royal Military College in Kingston. There is a Sabre and CF-100 on the grounds…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475083537smEEZc
Today the Sabre is painted in a camouflage scheme, and you are unlikely to see it in bare metal again.

Still on my way home to Brockville I stopped in at the Gananoque airport, the home of one of the world’s largest time capsules…
http://community.webshots.com/album/515382279vyJTwC

The spring of 1995 was of course the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. There were celebrations in Ottawa. I remember seeing landing craft moored in the Rideau cannel, and there were landing re-enactments on beaches using those landing craft later in the day. There was also a mini air show at the National Aviation Museum with the Canadian Warplane Heritage providing the air displays…
http://community.webshots.com/album/514936744KwrvjL

I always like to see the modern stuff when I can (warbirds will always come first though), so in the spring I made the trip to Mirabel for the Montreal Air Show…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475082559WMIYPg
There are no warbirds in this one, but if you like the F-111 and F-4 you may want to check it out.

I also made the trip to London (Ontario) for the air show there. It was a nice mix of modern military aircraft and the vintage…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475082842TwHAiA
This was the only time I saw the P-51 “Dixie”.

Ahhhhh….. memories of the Hamilton shows. Apparently I never did see their big warbird shows at Hamilton, but at least I got to attend one nice there…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475082613TkXAQu
Like London this was nice mix of the old and the new. There was also a Quebec water bomber Canso there, the one now at the museum near Montreal. I took some walk around shots of the former CWH A-26. There was also a VC-10 there, the only time I have seen one of those.

It was then back to Ottawa for the National Capital Air Show. Only a few vintage aircraft in attendance, but if you like the Harrier, Tu-152 or C-130s with skies, you will like this album…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475034945bfKhGd

As I left the air show in Ottawa I stopped to take pictures of the gate guards at what was once CFB Uplands...
http://community.webshots.com/album/475023492fRHruG
These airframes are no longer on display at this site. The CF-101 went to the CWH in Hamilton, and the CF-100 is apprarently waiting to be pole mounted at the CAvM in Ottawa.

I heard there was a “first annual” air show at a small airport in Malone, NY. It was the last show they held. An ultra light crashed on the Saturday, and I attended on the Sunday only to witness a P-51 spin in on the Sunday. Even though there was a decent turn out of warbirds, that had to be the second most depressing show I ever attended…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475022866munGmh

During the summer I took a vacation on the cheap. I packed a cooler full of food and threw my tent and sleeping bag in my car. I was off for a tour of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. First stop was the Yankee Air Force Museum...
http://community.webshots.com/album/475022464IwXryb
Believe it or not, if it wasn’t for the road signs I would not have known the Yankee Air Force Museum was even there! I was actually headed for Kalamazoo when I stopped in. 5 minutes after I was there the newly restored B-17 “Yankee Lady” taxied in. The crew was building up hours on the airframe so they could attend Oshkosh later in the month.

I did manage to make it to the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum that day…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475021869PJqIod

Of course I was headed for Dayton…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475022224SLQmRz
It was at the United States Air Force Museum that I learned I had no idea of how to take pictures in doors, or rather I learned after the fact when my film was processed. I also didn’t know the USAF Museum had restoration shop and annex tours so I missed out on those as well. And to add to my ignorance I only set aside one day for the visit. You need at least two when visiting that museum. These screw ups cemented the need to return in 1996. I posted what I could in the albums. Most of the shots are of the aircraft outside.

Like London and Hamilton, the Dayton air shows was a good mix of the old and the new. It was also the first time I saw a flyer of the Bf-109 family, a Bouchon...
http://community.webshots.com/album/475021050ngQIud

My route home took me through Pennsylvannia, more specifically Reading and to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. These were the days before the P-61, and time when there were two Neptunes on the ramp (although I only photographed one). There were also some interesting hulks laying around including a Piasecki, Sikorsky and ex-Spanish F-86…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475021202AfmxjC

Later in the summer I made my first trip to see a Wings of Eagles Air Show. It was the second year it was held at Batavia, and I was not disappointed! What a turn out! I need not say any more, just enjoy the photos…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475020069HPnasg

As I indicated this was a bad year for depressing events at shows. Malone turned very bad, and unfortunately the Canadian National Exhibition did not work out any better. A buddy and I were enjoying the show sitting on the rocks of the shore of Lake Ontario at Toronto. It was a very pleasant day, the flying displays were great, then the Nimrod performed it’s display routine. I watched the accident develop as the Nimrod transitioned into steep climb, there was a stall turn and the Nimrod went in. Seven people died in that crash. What a terrible loss. Say no more…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475020298fxiiHa

The last aviation event for me was in October. In fact it was the Canadian Thanks Giving Monday. I had spent the Saturday and Sunday with family. I woke up early on the Monday morning with nothing to do. Then I thought of driving to Geneseo to visit the museum there for the first time. After a quick shower and shave I was on the road for a four hour drive. When I arrived and paid my admission I realized I had the place to myself. It was a regular business day in the U.S. so the place was very quite. I was told that any aircraft that was open I was allowed to climb in and explore. So I did! I explored Fuddy Duddy inside and out from nose to tail. The C-46 and the PBY were explored as well. What a great day!…
http://community.webshots.com/album/475019413PHzziQ

After all of this if you happen to have any spare time take a look at my “Unidentified Airframes” album…
http://community.webshots.com/album/123261802lGxsiI
If you can ID any of the airframes in this album from 1995 (or any of them for that matter), please feel free let me know.

Enjoy the photos!

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

Wow....

What a year Mike.

Tks for sharing.

Great photos, Mike. The Hamilton show was always my favourite, especially back in the 1980's when it was still run by the CWH itself; then it was a real warbird show. They put on a good 60th anniversary Battle of Britain memorial show in 1990 but after that it seemed to become more of a generic airshow after the CWH divested itself of running it and turned things over to the Hamilton International Airshow group. I stopped going after 1995.

But the 80's warbird shows were really superb, and reached their zenith in 1988 when they had no less than 16 Mustangs, 2 P-47's, a P-38, at least 3 Mitchells, 2 or 3 B-17's, the CAF's B-24 (LB-30?), a Sea Fury, Cliff Robertson's/Jerry Billing's Spit Mk.9, and a host of others that I can't remember. It was unforgettable.

Mind you, a few of the later shows that followed had their highpoints. Seeing Kermit Week's Mosquito up close and seeing her fly was a life-long dream come true; the CAF's B-29 Fifi was a treat, as was seeing a Fairey Swordfish take to the air, but they never quite had the same feel or scope of the big warbird shows of the 80's, and unless the Ottawa/Carp show gets bigger (or AvGas prices drop), I doubt I'll ever see their like again.

I was standing on the helipad on the south shore of Ontario Place for the Toronto show when the Nimrod went in. Horrible thing to see. I saw that wing drop and the nose start to tuck down and I just KNEW they were in deep sugar. All I could do was yell "NO! NO! NO! POWER! POWER! POWER!" as they went in. Silence was terrible and felt so powerless to help those poor men. Left me shaking for days.

N.

_________________
"Live to Fly; Fly to Live"

I had a similar experience. It was strange to see such a big craft rotate 90 degrees on it's y-axis within about 1/2 second and head for the water. I had time to say to my friend "It's going to crash Frank". It was about 3-4 seconds after that it was in the water. It took about two weeks before the whole sequence would stop playing over and over in my head when ever I have some non-busy time. What made it so bad was that seeing the P-51 earlier in the summer taught me that, YES indeed, planes can crash at airshows. So when I saw the stall, I knew people were going to die and I had a few moments to contemplate that before the impact. Ugly.

Since you were on the helipad, did the Labrador and Dolphin take off over your head? I had the impressing it only took them moments to start a sweep of the crash site, but they my perception of time may have been impacted by the event.

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

There were no helo's stationed at the Ontario Place pad that day; it was full of spectators. They flew out of the Island Airport. I saw the Labrador and some boats rush over to the crash site but that was about it. They milled around for sometime looking for survivors and debris, but I didn't stick around to watch.

When I was quite young there was a bad crash at the show of a Blue Angels F11-F Tiger that struck the seawall at the end of the Island Airport runway following a gear-down, "dirty roll". My dad was supposed to have taken me to the show that day but couldn't for some reason. I'm glad he didn't.

N.

_________________
"Live to Fly; Fly to Live"