I managed to persuade my good friend Ted and his son Evan to come with me to the show this year! I heard of some possible trouble at the border from a Canadian friend of mine, but fortunately we didn't have any. The Canadians let us in without any hassle whatsoever! The Americans let us back in, but had a few more questions for us, and required driver's licenses, but at least no passports or birth certificates needed to be shown. My friend Ken, who lives in Vancouver and who's in the Saab Club of Seattle, met me in front of the F-15 and we were able to chat for a bit. Always nice to meet folks in person after knowing them for years online!



Here we have a few examples of the typically fine 'small' aircraft static displays. As you can see, the weather started out quite gray, but not wet.



As always, the Lockheed C5-A Galaxy heads up the procession of large static displays. Also present are a KC-10, a B1B bomber (not pictured), and various other cargo and refueling planes. To top it off, a 747-400 from Air Canada did a couple low fly-by's!



Ted and Evan checking out the cockpit of the CF-18, followed by the cockpit of the A-10. Next we have Evan getting some hands on time in a helicopter, and in the cockpit of the cargo planes.



The crowd was in for a real treat with the B-2 stealth bomber (also known as the flying wing) doing multiple fly-by's. The F-117A stealth fighter followed, though with a greatly reduced number of passes.



Ah, the ever popular and always excellent Snowbirds! Typically they perform at the very end of the show, as the finale, but due to some mechanical difficulties with the USAF Thunderbirds, they apparently agreed to switch positions. No mechanical problems surfaced with their nine planes, which is impressive, considering that their planes are 30 years old! I signed a petition on the internet in support of the Snowbirds getting new aircraft.



The heritage flight is always nice to see, with three different generations of aircraft represented. From oldest to newest, we have the P-51 Mustang, the A-10 Warthog/Thunderbolt, and the F-15 Eagle. We see the A-10 solo performance, as well as a good old fashioned high powered bi-plane, followed by a CF-18 with some unusual tail coloring.



Here you see the staging area for all the airshow performers, located just in front of the C5-A. It's a great little spot to see planes being rolled around and warmed up, and see just who is up next, in case you didn't want to pay for a program. A few more shots give a somewhat better depiction of the enormous size of the C5-A.




And now for the finale, returning to Abbotsford after a nine year hiatus, the US Air Force Thunderbirds! We don't get many opportunities to see this particular demonstration team in the Northwest, so folks speculated that it was a major contributor to the extra large crowds this year. After a few manuevers, a small mechanical malfunction was discovered in one of the planes. Fortunately, they had a spare plane on hand, but it meant a rather lengthy delay while the 'bad' plane was landed and the 'good' one warmed up and ready to go. None of the other planes landed during this time, but neither did they perform any aerobatics for the crowd, instead just hiding out of sight far off in the distance. The Thunderbirds put on a great show once they had all the planes flying again, and obviously in terms of speed and power they greatly outclass the Snowbirds. You'd expect that from an F-16, compared to the ancient Snowbirds, whose planes were designed as jet trainers, not actual combat ready craft. Still, I think the nod for best team still goes to the Snowbirds, even discounting the mechanical problems displayed by the Thunderbirds. The Canadian team is simply much more polished in it's performance, and having three extra planes doesn't hurt.