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Snowbirds fly over London, Ont. Tuesday to honour June 6 attack victims

So, because we cam’t do it for all we don’t do it at all? Very petty way of thinking. A fly-by (or lack thereof) doesn’t remove anything from anyone. It merely gives support to a group in need. It’s not like they flew all the way from Moose Jaw to specifically do this fly-by; there were a mere 20 minutes flight time from London.

FWIW, there is a shop within 1 Canadian Air Division (Special Events) specifically dealing with such requests. Some are approved, others are rejected.... It depends on a variety of factors, such as the relevance, visibility and availability of assets.
Yeah, but all of that isn't going to matter to the average person who dosent understand logistics and thinks that it's just JT trying to gain votes.
 
Yeah, but all of that isn't going to matter to the average person who dosent understand logistics and thinks that it's just JT trying to gain votes.
Does the average person really think this is somehow JT looking for votes?

I think it was a very classy move by the RCAF.
 
In a normal year no, but judging by their schedule this year there is more non-show time off.

The team is in the GTA this week, this is essentially a non issue. I’m not the biggest supporter of the purpose of the Snowbirds, but complaining about flyovers is like yelling at cloud

A flyby is nothing more than a single formation pass overhead. Nothing fancy, no aerobatics. For the Snowbirds, I'd presume smoke on a short distance prior to and off again shortly after passing overhead.

It's extremely cheap to do, and priceless in terms of comfort to those grieving.

I'm extremely glad that they did it.

A modification of the Missing Man Formation would have been a super-nice touch, with four aircraft, one per person lost, climbing heavenward rather than the standard one but that's likely never occurred to anybody before and only did now, to me.
Thanks Loachman

That is a good explanation, however, I'm still against it.
 
Holy fuck, they did flyovers for Portapique and in honour of Moncton - and the Freddy crew (but I guess that would be okay, by your standard?)

This isn't political.
sarcasm wasn't necessary
 
I think it was a mark of respect.

It is part of promoting the military, by showing our support to communities. The Snowbirds happened to be in Windsor over the weekend. London is on the way to their next show, in Quebe

Yeah, but all of that isn't going to matter to the average person who dosent understand logistics and thinks that it's just JT trying to gain votes.
Hi kilted - my bad, you are correct.
 
Hey everyone - I'm eating crow

Thanks for all the input even the sarcastic ones

And I haven't changed my mind
 
FWIW, there is a shop within 1 Canadian Air Division (Special Events) specifically dealing with such requests. Some are approved, others are rejected.... It depends on a variety of factors, such as the relevance, visibility and availability of assets.
And Comd 1 CAD is the Approving Authority.
 
You're either willfully missing the point or you're just being a ........
Why am I missing the point? These two things achieve the same objective (commemorate a group in a local community) a no extra cost. A lot better, if you ask me, than a fly past of two Hornets for a Grey Cup final.
 
Why am I missing the point? These two things achieve the same objective (commemorate a group in a local community) a no extra cost. A lot better, if you ask me, than a fly past of two Hornets for a Grey Cup final.
Because I didn't state anything about no dedications etc. You jumped in with a silly statement "So, no more dedications of air display either, as the Snowbirds/Hornet Demo do at virtually every show?"

Please show me where I demanded no more air shows (that is what I inferred from the a/m). As for the Grey Cup, did the team or fighter a/c fly over for every Cup match? I can't recall seeing the snowbirds doing that. Or I was getting beer and I missed it

Look, it was a great show of support for the victims and the community but where does it stop? Simple question, n'est-ce pas?
 
Look, it was a great show of support for the victims and the community but where does it stop? Simple question, n'est-ce pas?
Yup. “It depends.”
 
Because I didn't state anything about no dedications etc. You jumped in with a silly statement "So, no more dedications of air display either, as the Snowbirds/Hornet Demo do at virtually every show?"

Because a show dedication by the Snowbirds and the Hornet demo team is virtually the same as conducting a fly-past somewhere. Same effect and in this case, same incremental cost (ie: nothing).

As for the Grey Cup, did the team or fighter a/c fly over for every Cup match? I can't recall seeing the snowbirds doing that. Or I was getting beer and I missed it

2006: Snowbirds fly-past during Grey Cup pre-game -
2013: Snowbirds fly-past during Grey Cup pre-game - O Canada & Snowbirds from Eagle Feather News on Vimeo
2015: Snowbirds at the Grey Cup Festival -
2018: Snowbirds fly-past during Grey Cup pre-game -
I flew the 2019 Grey Cup Fly-Past in a Hornet -

FWIW, those are incredibly more expensive than a fly-over en route to somewhere.
 
Because a show dedication by the Snowbirds and the Hornet demo team is virtually the same as conducting a fly-past somewhere. Same effect and in this case, same incremental cost (ie: nothing).



2006: Snowbirds fly-past during Grey Cup pre-game -
2013: Snowbirds fly-past during Grey Cup pre-game - O Canada & Snowbirds from Eagle Feather News on Vimeo
2015: Snowbirds at the Grey Cup Festival -
2018: Snowbirds fly-past during Grey Cup pre-game -
I flew the 2019 Grey Cup Fly-Past in a Hornet -

FWIW, those are incredibly more expensive than a fly-over en route to somewhere.
Lots of flame coming out of your ass during the fly-past.

Just saying.
 
Because I didn't state anything about no dedications etc. You jumped in with a silly statement "So, no more dedications of air display either, as the Snowbirds/Hornet Demo do at virtually every show?"

Please show me where I demanded no more air shows (that is what I inferred from the a/m). As for the Grey Cup, did the team or fighter a/c fly over for every Cup match? I can't recall seeing the snowbirds doing that. Or I was getting beer and I missed it

Look, it was a great show of support for the victims and the community but where does it stop? Simple question, n'est-ce pas?

Where does it stop?

ANYBODY can make an application for a flyby or full-blown air display on the Airshow website. These are vetted by the Special Events staff and pushed out to applicable Wings for acceptance or denial.

Most got turned down. They're too far away, or nobody/nothing is available, or some other reason makes them impractical/impossible to accommodate.

We got hundreds, annually, sent to us - everything from Miss Smithers' kindergarten class Sunday picnic with twenty kids to massive airshows in fun US locations.

We didn't turn down too many ourselves, but passed them out to our Squadrons based upon their geographic locations, or because we knew that they were planning a flight/had a mission in close geographic and temporal proximity so "couldya/doyouwanna". If they said "no, sorry, can't", we did not push, nor did anybody ever complain when we politely declined with regrets. I generally responded to the requestors personally.

But for those few that we could accommodate, well, they meant a lot in many ways. They gave back something to local communities (whose inhabitants paid for our machines and salaries), they inspired kids to join, and they demonstrated that we cared. I always told kids that, if they wanted to do this themselves, they should first work very hard in school, set goals, and never lose sight of them.

But somebody's always got to grump and bitch...

We had a PA system for the Kiowa. A speaker was mounted on one side, facing forwardish. There was a cumbersome cassette tape system in the back, inaccessible to the crew. We had to do one trip annually with it for currency purposes. One year, some of us decided to swan around Petawawa (village) and Pembroke and blast out Christmas carols from a couple of thousand feet (normally, I despised going anywhere near that height).

The sound would carry quite some distance, but unevenly and intermittently, wafting on whatever breeze was present - disembodied music from the heavens, from a source that could not often be pinpointed.

The local MP's secretary was fairly active with the local Air Cadet Squadron, for which I was the 427 Squadron Liaison Officer. She mentioned, one night, that she'd received many calls from appreciative citizens, many of whom just guessed that it must have been from us, but also one from some McScrooge who ranted at length about "waste of the taxpayers' money" and "freedom from religion" and "bah, humbug" and such.

She correctly surmised, and told buddy, why we chose to do this, guessing at the currency requirement and that we had to do it somewhere so either the bears and deer in the training area could have their savage breasts soothed by our music's charms or those that paid for the trips regardless could benefit.

There were understandable grounds for complaint on one occasion where the cassette got jammed up so GY, my Copilot, croaked out the first line or three of various carols before reaching the limit of his memory of each, hummed a bit more, then moved on to another carol.

And these gestures cost virtually nothing. The machines and their maintenance and aircrew and groundcrew salaries are paid for, an annual allotment of flying hours have to be flown, and crews get training value from almost everything - enroute navigation, instrument time for longer distances to display sites, timing and co-ordination.

But, "bah, humbug"...
 
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