The Aviation Expo arrives.

As those of you whom read my student pilot blog probably know, I am a student pilot.

It was with great anticipation that I awaited the Canadian Aviation Expo's arrival at my home airport.

The show opened today. I was at the gates at 9AM on the dot as the gates opened to the public. I brought my cooler full of drinks, a fold up chair, and everything else needed to make a day of it. I had booked one of my "Personal Paid Holidays" for this, so I was going to make the best of it.

The show was, well...Ok, I guess.

First, although the airport and air traffic seemed well organized, many other parts of the event seemed hodge-podged together.

Upon my arrival at the ticket purchase area, I was presented with a lady who didn't understand the ticket I wanted to buy. As a COPA member, I was entitled to a 3-day specially priced pass that included ramp-access that was only available to actual pilots. She had no idea what I wanted, and had to ask several other people what colour of wristband that was, and what the cost was.

Then she charged me $6 for the ramp-pass. Hmmm...I thought that was included..?

I paid up, got my wristband, and headed in.

There was a decent mix of planes and exhibitors, and alot of interesting (And very expensive) stuff to look at. I spent a few hours just perusing the booths and gawking into very expensive aircraft.

The Snowbirds were still there from their show on Wednesday, and were departing for the London airshow. I got a frontline view probably no more then 100 feet from their flightline, and watched them depart. They did a single flyover, and then headed west. It was still neat regardless.

Alot of people were very upset...well, pissed actually, that the Snowbirds were not actually performing yesterday. Seems all the newspapers made it appear that the Snowbirds were performing today, and not just "departing" with a flyover.

The show had a PR nightmare on their hands with that one, and apparently had alot of people seeking refunds. Hmm... It was a major screwup indeed.

Anyhow, I bumped into my flight instructor at the Canadian Flight Academy's booth and we chatted for 10 or 15 minutes.

I then went to the next booth over and played with one of their Flight Simulator 2004 system, complete with nifty yokes. This guy was actually trying to sell this as "legitimate" flight training. Yeah, whatever. It was fun to play with for 20 minutes, regardless. Who would have known you can take off a 747 from Oshawa's airport? Heh...

Anyhow, after I went through the booths and exhibitors goodies, I thought I'd head for the ramp to checkout the fly-in traffic.

As I headed for the gate, I was stopped dead by an overzealous lady in a expo t-shirt who beratted me for trying to access this area. I showed her my full-access wristband, and even showed her my COPA membership/access card. She basically told me to screw off unless I had my own plane on the ramp that I had flew in with.

Hmm...so what exactly did I pay extra for?

This prompted a trip to the show office. I explained the confusion of both the ticket seller, and the ramp-lady. Seems one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, as I should not have been charged (The COPA/AOPA weekend pass includes the ramp access), nor should I have been refused access.

One of the senior organizers refunded my money, and went out to straighten a few people out.

I got my ramp access, and headed out to checkout some of the flightline. Nothing terribly interesting, but at least I now felt a "little" special being in the restricted area away from the mere non-pilot mortals. :-)

The airshow started at 1PM, and was kind of neat. Unfortunately the winds were 15 gusting 20 Kts, and as such alot of the aircraft were not able to fly. Those that did were fighting a nasty crosswind. Since runway 04/22 was closed, all traffic was forced to runway 30. With winds at 220, it was a nasty crosswind to have to deal with.

At least the winds made the heavy heat and humidity easier to deal with.

The Memphis Belle was supposed to fly in. It didn't. Something about unforseen problems.

A Lancaster bomber was supposed to fly in. It didn't either. Something about the brakes? I don't know.

It was all kind of dissapointing.

What actually did fly was neat to watch, but was accompanied by a mish-mash of rather unorganized blabber over the shows PA system about what we were supposed to be watching.

The Canadian Forces paradrop team was unable to peroform due to the winds as well.

Overall, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. It wasn't a bust, but it certainly still needs alot of tweaking and better organization in future shows to be realistically able to keep people coming back year after year.

All that aside, on a positive note, my VoIP system is now working flawlessly. :-)