Airdrie, AB, Canada - August 2007
Saturday August 18th marked the Airdrie Flying Club's second annual fly-in event. Unfortunately heavy cloud cover to the north kept many of the expected participants
away. The low ceilings also obscured most of the airports used in the morning Poker Run. Regardless, the event pressed on, with excellent weather and blue skies at Airdrie.
(Trevor McTavish)
Eventually 10 visiting airplanes would arrive, inlcuding this Beech A35 Bonanza from Indus. (Trevor McTavish)
Of course, if there was colour I was there, like this homebuilt Murphy Rebel. (Trevor McTavish)
Not every airplane had to be vintage, or homebuilt. Attractive factory-built planes like this Mooney were more than welcome. After all, the whole idea of the "Snow and
Shine" was to encourage people to get out and fly their airplanes. (Trevor McTavish)
Steve J. brought out his Canadian Army Jeep and it made a nice addition. Unfortunately a collection of hot rods and collector cars were turned off by the crappy morning
weather. (Trevor McTavish)
Even Piper's "tin Indians" as one local aviator calls them, can make an interesting picture. (Trevor McTavish)
I like the look the fluted stabilizer and rudder skins give this image. Without them, it would just be a white tail from a Piper Archer II. (Trevor McTavish)
Of course, the whole idea of a "Show and Shine" is to show off your airplane. Fred W. shows off his Navion to a group of visitors. (Trevor McTavish)
One of the last airplanes to arrive was this 5/8 scale Se.5a replica flown by veteran military and civilian pilot Butch F. It sure looks like a tight fit in there.
(Trevor McTavish)
A favourite airplane in my logbook is the Bellanca 7ECA Citabria. It was a blast to fly. This one made the short flight over from Springbank and certainly added a splash
of colour to the ramp. (Trevor McTavish)
And once again, if you get up close, there's always something interesting to take a photo of. (Trevor McTavish)
After a hamburger lunch the visitors began heading home. (Trevor McTavish)
While some local pilots took off to enjoy the beautiful afternoon weather. (Trevor McTavish)
(Trevor McTavish)
(Trevor McTavish)
(Trevor McTavish)
I even took Steve J. for a flight over Calgary. (Alf Wong)
(Alf Wong)
(Alf Wong)
The last airplane to arrive was a Flight Design CT2K, registered to the Springbank Air Training College. (Trevor McTavish)
One of the favouite attendees was this Stearman belonging to Sunwest Aviation in Calgary. For a price, it was still possible to take in a flight-seeing trip over Calgary,
or have a chance to take the controls and experience open cockpit flight. (Trevor McTavish)
Gary R. sure knows how to liven things up, at least with a nice buzz job down the runway. (Trevor McTavish)
C-ITRI (I try?) is one of the first LSAs in the Calgary area so it naturally drew a crowd. (Trevor McTavish)