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Yellow Thunder is an pair of Harvard trainers (Mk IIs by the look of the canopies) flown by David and Drew Watson of A...
10/10/2026

Yellow Thunder is an pair of Harvard trainers (Mk IIs by the look of the canopies) flown by David and Drew Watson of Alberta (and I saw Wendy Watson's name on the back seat canopy). They fly solo and formation aerobatics and for the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 airshow, managed to get airborne five times in the two days I was there. They went up Friday at 1015 hrs, again at 1250 hrs, and did a dusk show at 1800 hrs. On Sunday, they were up again at 1100 hrs, and around 1300 hrs for the airshow. If you notice a bunch of pictures that look the same, that’s why.

The Last Flight of the Snowbirds. The Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 airshow hosted the last Canadian performance of the Sno...
10/03/2026

The Last Flight of the Snowbirds. The Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 airshow hosted the last Canadian performance of the Snowbirds flying the CT-114 Canadair Tutor aircraft as they have only two more performances in California and a flyover for the Grey Cup. What can one say about a group that’s been around for 55 years and has become an iconic symbol of not just the Canadian Armed Forces but of Canada as well.

What can you say about their program that hasn’t been said before? Their formations and transitions between formations are graceful and elegant to the point of almost seeming to be slow motion. Then you get the abruptness of the solo passes and their precision close-up in counterpoint. I worked with the Snowbirds in the 1980’s when I was an air traffic controller at CFB Moose Jaw and as much as they buggered up my circuit when they came in from training, I unreservedly and ungrudgingly admit that they are amongst the best pilots in the world.

How many pictures did people take knowing this would be the last show? I took thousands over my two days at the airshow, some of them even in focus. To do the show justice and to show at least one picture entering and exiting each formation would take up more time than I have right now so here is a jot of what I took.

This year the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 Airshow hosted The Northern Stars Aeroteam, a group of ex-RCAF pilots flying th...
10/02/2026

This year the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 Airshow hosted The Northern Stars Aeroteam, a group of ex-RCAF pilots flying three Pitts Specials, based primarily in Collingwood, Ontario. They put on an excellent show that starts with a single Pitts take-off followed by the other two Pitts in formation. While you’re watching the second two take off, what you miss is that the first Pitts has turned around and is now doing an opposing pass at the two Pitts just lifting off. It’s not often that you see aerobatics just as the performers are getting off the ground. I saw the show three times and missed the picture each time because I wasn't prepared for it.

There’s lots of three plane formation flying, some with one of the Pitts upside down, and lots of solo action and lots of smoke. So much smoke that picture taking can be a challenge as they dart in and out of smoke trails that haven’t cleared the show line yet.

If you’re taking pictures, you’ll need to be able to track these fast little buggers as they’re small as well as speedy. You can up your shutter speed a bit and still get good prop blur which is a bonus over something like the Fleet Finch or the L-19 Bird Dog. You’ll need a long lense as much of the performance is in the distance and you should be mentally prepared to hard crop your pictures to show off the aircraft rather than have a dot in the sky.

Here is just a smattering of my cull from the airshow of the Northern Stars.

One of the sets of aircraft that flew at the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 airshow was the Victory Flight, courtesy of Vinta...
10/01/2026

One of the sets of aircraft that flew at the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 airshow was the Victory Flight, courtesy of Vintage Wings of Canada. This is a trio of WWII warbirds, specifically a Hawker Hurricane Mk XII, a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, and a North American P-51D. They go up in formation, do a couple of passes in formation (echelon, trailing, line abreast for example), and then break out to do single plane passes before coming across the show line in a triple trailing formation with a break left in line to end the performance.

This is not to be mistaken for the Heritage Flight which is a four plane formation consisting of the Victory Flight trio along with a more modern aircraft such as a CF-18.

Everyone loves to see the old warbirds and listen to the sound of the Merlin engines. Fun for the whole family.

This is a homebuilt Burt Rutan Model-61 Long-EZ flown by Kyle Fowler Aerosports from Alberta. He did two types of shows ...
10/01/2026

This is a homebuilt Burt Rutan Model-61 Long-EZ flown by Kyle Fowler Aerosports from Alberta. He did two types of shows this year at the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2026 airshow with the first being a daytime show full of dazzling aerobatic moves which the aircraft was not originally designed for, and the second being a nighttime show with pyrotechnics lighting the sky as he cruised through the dark.

The Long-EZ prototype first flew in June, 1979, and plans were offered from 1980 to 1985. This particular aircraft did its first flight on August 30th, 1996, so is not a new airplane, despite its futuristic look and, as of 2021, there were 833 registered in the United States.

It’s a two-seat, tandem aircraft just under 17 feet long, 7 feet – 10 inches high, with a wingspan of just over 26 feet. It has a max speed of 298 kph and cruises at 40% power (232 kph) with a range of 3,200 km on 197 litres of fuel. It can fly 2,600 km in ten hours and has flown 7,700 km with a rear-seat fuel tank (world record for aircraft under 1000 pounds - December 1979).

It’s a son-of-a-gun to try and photograph because a lot of the show is done at distance and even with a 600mm lense, you still get mostly sky. Unless you want those pictures of smoke trails leading into maneuvers, I’d wait until you get the part of the show where he’s closer in and using the show line. Even then, because his maneuvers are very abrupt added to the slower shutter speed because he’s a prop plane, you’ll be lucky to get a sharp shot. And using a large lense your field of view is maybe 3-4 degrees so he’s in and out of the camera frame quickly

Still, he’s fun to watch, it’s a unique airframe, and he puts on a good show.

This is a DHC Dash 8-400AT firefighting air tanker. It is a HEAVILY modified Dash 8-400 turboprop ( modified by Conair ...
09/29/2026

This is a DHC Dash 8-400AT firefighting air tanker. It is a HEAVILY modified Dash 8-400 turboprop ( modified by Conair Aerial Firefighting )that can carry 10,000 litres of water/fire retardant at 360 knots airspeed and drop its load at 125 knots. It is land based requiring a 5,000 foot runway and can reload the retardant in five to seven minutes. It can get to fires much faster than other aircraft and has very good handling at low altitudes and in mountainous terrain. Just where you might find a fire.

This thing is massive and not something you want starting up and taxiing by itself around a tarmac of static aircraft. For a couple of the runs, it was towed off the tarmac to the taxiway where it then went out to the runway under its own steam. While exciting to watch, it doesn’t put on much of an aerobatic performance.

The pictures I have are from two drops on Friday, one in the afternoon and one at dusk, and one drop from the Sunday show.

Tonight, the CF-18 from the airshow. I hate to say it but I find the CF-18 show to be extremely boring in that all they...
09/28/2026

Tonight, the CF-18 from the airshow. I hate to say it but I find the CF-18 show to be extremely boring in that all they do is passes: dirty, high speed, slower speed, etc. There is no entertainment value like there is with the aerobatic acts. Yes. it's fast, it's loud, and it's a fighter jet, but from a photography point of view (or really my point of view) even the challenge of getting a good picture is easier because you can just up your shutter speed as fast as you want. Not so with our little propeller buddies, or the Snowbirds. Who wouldn't like to see CF-18s do a head-to-head or a knife edge pass?

Anyway, I've got a ton of different passes but will probably stop with just these.

Thanks for looking.

Although I've still got a lot of pictures to get through from the airshow, to date this is my favourite. The Northern S...
09/26/2026

Although I've still got a lot of pictures to get through from the airshow, to date this is my favourite. The Northern Stars Aeroteam flies three Pitts Specials and this one has just fallen out of a hammerhead (stall turn) maneuver into his own smoke. Almost no forward speed at this time.

More to come.

Sometimes, things just line up. Last Canadian show of the Snowbirds on Sunday at Aero Gatineau-Ottawa. I took about 23...
09/21/2026

Sometimes, things just line up. Last Canadian show of the Snowbirds on Sunday at Aero Gatineau-Ottawa. I took about 23,200 pictures between Friday's Media Day and the Sunday show so I should have quite a good gallery when I get through them. Stay tuned for a gallery in a couple of weeks.

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