Wings & Wheels St. Thomas Airshow

St. Thomas, Ontario June 22-24, 2007

Story and photography by Kerry Newstead

 

  Summer officialy arrived on Friday June 22, as did the start of the airshow season in Southern Ontario.

Last year St. Thomas, Ontario hosted the Snowbirds for an evening show and this year they presented their first full airshow in many years. The show marked the returns of both the Snowbirds and Pete McLeod Aerosports.

On the ground various aircraft from Canadian Warplane Heritage, Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association, Canadian Historical Aircraft Association and the Tiger Boys were on hand. Both the Canadian and American military sent aircraft that could land on their 5000 foot runway.

The grandfather of Canadian aerobatics, Bill Carter, was on hand and provided a great low show in his blue and yellow Pitts Special. And Pete McLeod from Red Lake, Ontario in a Giles 200 put on a fine show.

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  The show had a very large American content. A KC-135 from Alabama made several passes, including having 2 F-16 from Colorado doing a chase to catch up with the tanker. The Colorado Vipers put on an excellent show. They provided a show that challenged the precision flying of the Shaw AFB-based East Coast F-16 Viper Demo Team. The show stopper was the presence of the C-17 Globemaster III from March AFB. What everyone thought was going to be a normal fly around the circuit show tuned out to be bump and grind landing. After a couple more circuits came a full stop and take off from the runway.

  Due to the small size of the St. Thomas airport, all the American planes were staged out of nearby London International Airport.

  The Canadian content came with the opening of the show and the SkyHawks parachute team with a spectacular over-the-crowd Candy Cane jump. Capt. Yanick “Crank” Gregoire pumped up the noise factor with his CF-18 Hornet Demo. This was followed by the Heritage flight with a CHAA Harvard. The style of the Canadian heritage flight has changed from last year, with the number of passes increased to three. The Snowbirds closed the show. This was their first full weekend show of the season.