Re: ~Airshow~

by Firefox Sat 24 Jul 2021, 9:29 pm

24.07.2021

by Exodus Fri 03 Sep 2021, 4:03 pm

03.09.2021

by **Forcell** Wed 15 Sep 2021, 11:46 am

Canadian Forces Snowbirds set to end 2021 season with air show over Stratford Wednesday

CBC News · Posted: Sep 15, 2021

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/snowbird-season-ends-in-stratford-wednesday-1.6175437

by **Spider** Thu 09 Dec 2021, 10:25 am

Snowbirds go for PeachFes

Chelsea Powrie - Dec 8, 2021

https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/354010/Canadian-Forces-Snowbirds-slated-to-perform-on-opening-day-of-Peach-Fest-2022

by **Vexmax** Fri 22 Apr 2022, 4:16 pm

Canadian Forces SkyHawks announce return to Abbotsford International Airshow

BEN LYPKA / Apr. 22, 2022

Canadian Forces SkyHawks

by **Spider** Sat 18 Jun 2022, 9:41 am

Borden Air Show takes off this weekend, record crowds expected

June 17. 2022

Bradford Today News

by **Joker** Mon 20 Jun 2022, 7:37 pm

Canadian Armed Forces Day and Air Show Borden 2022 Friday Practice

by **Forcell** Wed 22 Jun 2022, 11:48 am

Safety concerns ground Snowbirds for Armed Forces Day

June 22. 2022

A recently discovered technical issue has grounded the Snowbirds for Armed Forces Day

Bad news for fans of the Snowbirds demonstration team.

The event, scheduled to take place during Armed Forces Day Wednesday, has been cancelled.

"It's heartbreaking, but the show will go on," Honorary Colonel Jake Lacourse said via Twitter.

A brief news release from the City blames a "recently discovered technical issue" for preventing the team from safely flying.

No other details concerning the issue, or what has made it unsafe, were provided in a Tuesday night news release.

"The Snowbirds are working hard to resolve the issue so they can return to the air," states the release.

Armed Forces Day, including the Skyhawks Parachute team, will still be taking place, beginning with opening ceremonies at 10:30 a.m.

Bay Today

by **Forcell** Sat 25 Jun 2022, 11:32 am

Snowbirds grounded after problem discovered with emergency ejection parachute

Published June 24, 2022

~Airshow~ - Page 6 Snowbirds-1-4887213-1656084069745

CTV News

by **Wolfman** Tue 02 Aug 2022, 5:47 pm

SNOWBIRDS HAVE ARRIVED

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds have touched down in Penticton

Chelsea Powrie - Aug 2, 2022

CASTANET

by **Joker** Wed 03 Aug 2022, 7:04 pm

Snowbirds won't take flight as military investigators look into cause of crash

There is no timeline for how long the aircraft will be on the sidelines, according to the Department of National Defence

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Aug 03, 2022

The Canadian military’s Snowbirds aerobatic team will be on the ground for the next week as investigators try to figure out why one of its aircraft crashed during takeoff on Tuesday.

The team has not officially been grounded but will not, for the time being, fly their CT-114 Tutor aircraft. “The CT-114 Tutors are not being flown at this time while the RCAF awaits more information from flight safety investigators,” Department of National Defence spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said Wednesday.

There is no firm timeline on how long the aircraft will be on the sidelines, she added. “We’ll have more information once the flight safety investigation team has completed their initial inspection,” Lamirande added.

The Snowbirds were supposed to appear at a festival Wednesday in Penticton, B.C. but that appearance has been cancelled. In addition, it is unlikely the team will take part in the airshow at Abbotsford, B.C. this weekend, Department of National Defence officials added.

On Tuesday a Snowbirds’ Tutor aircraft was taking off from the airport in Fort St. John, B.C. when an “incident” occurred, according to the military. “The aircraft was able to land, but suffered some damage in the process,” the Canadian Forces noted in a statement. “The sole occupant (pilot) did not sustain physical injuries and is being assessed by medical personnel.”

An investigation released last year into the crash of a Snowbirds aircraft in 2020 in Kamloops, B.C. concluded that the plane lost power after a small bird was sucked into the engine shortly after takeoff. That incident on May 17, 2020 claimed the life of Capt. Jenn Casey and injured Capt. Richard MacDougall. The investigation found that Casey and MacDougall ejected from the aircraft at low altitude and in conditions that were outside “safe ejection seat operation parameters.” Because of that, the parachutes did not have the required time to function as designed.

The Canadian Forces is in the process of modernizing the Tutor aircraft. Last year the federal government launched a $30 million project to upgrade the planes so the aircraft can be used by the Snowbirds until 2030. The project will modernize the aircraft with new avionics and instrumentation to ensure compliance with federal air regulations. In parallel, a separate project was launched to improve the aircraft escape system through upgrades to the current parachute and harness design.

The federal government, however, is facing a potential dilemma in replacing the aircraft. Government officials have indicated they want the aerobatic team to continue operating, noting that the Snowbirds is seen as a key public relations tool for the Canadian military.

But some in the Canadian Forces have privately questioned spending money on the Snowbirds because they do not directly contribute combat capabilities to the air force.

In addition, a replacement for the Snowbirds could cost up to $1.5 billion, a significant expense at a time when the federal government is being pressured to do more in health care and other areas directly affecting the lives of Canadians.

Defence Watch

by Glideon Wed 10 Aug 2022, 7:21 pm

Canadian Forces Snowbirds grounded in wake of B.C. crash

Published Aug. 10, 2022

The Royal Canadian Air Force has grounded the Snowbirds aerobatic team after one of the jets suffered a hard landing last week in northern British Columbia.

Maj.-Gen. Iain Huddleston, the commander of 1 Canadian Air Division, ordered the pause on all flights of the team's Tutor CT-114 aircraft Wednesday after consulting with flight safety experts and the Department of National Defence's deputy assistant minister for materiel, according to a statement from the air force.

No one was injured in the Aug. 2 incident in Fort St. John, B.C., but the aircraft was damaged when the pilot made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff.

While the incident is still under investigation, the air force says it will conduct a separate "broad risk analysis" on the Tutor jets with the aim of getting them safely back in the air.

"The RCAF’s airworthiness system will assess whether the accident and its causes pose any risk to continued flying operations, and if so, what mitigation measures can but put in place to lower those risks," according to the statement.

The nearly 60-year-old aircraft are scheduled to be used by the Snowbirds until at least 2030.

The planes were grounded as recently as late June while the air force investigated a problem with the device that sets the timing of the aircraft's emergency ejection parachute.

CTV News

by Covert Sat 13 Aug 2022, 8:22 am

Canadian military can't even seem to keep the Snowbirds from crashing

The crash of a CT-114 Tutor in Fort St. John was remarkably similar to the 2020 crash that killed Capt. Jenn Casey

Tristin Hopper
Publishing date: Aug 12, 2022

The Snowbirds have once again been grounded due to safety issues, cementing the team’s unwilling role as one of the most conspicuous symbols of a Canadian military that is chronically unable to replace equipment until it becomes dangerous.

On Wednesday, the RCAF’s 431 Air Demonstration Squadron announced that they were entering an indefinite “operational pause” following a reported “hard landing” in Fort St. John, B.C.

As a result of the accident involving a 431 (Air Demonstration) Squadron CT-114 Tutor aircraft on August 2, 2022 in Fort St. John, B.C., the Commander of 1 Canadian Air Division, as the Canadian Armed Forces' Operational Airworthiness Authority has ordered an operational pause on the CT-114 fleet. An operational pause means the fleet of aircraft will not fly until an operational airworthiness risk assessment can be completed. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Unfortunately, this mean the Snowbirds will not be able to perform at Air Show Atlantic, 27-28 August in Debert, Nova Scotia. More information will be provided on future performances as available.

While we are disappointed to not be able to perform, flight safety is paramount in everything the Snowbirds and RCAF do.

Until an “operational airworthiness risk assessment can be completed,” all of the the red-and-white CT-114 Tutor jet aircraft operated by the squadron will be prohibited from flying.

It’s the second time in two years that the Snowbirds have been grounded after a crash. In 2020, the team’s public affairs officer, Capt. Jenn Casey, was killed when her Tutor crashed into a residential area outside Kamloops, B.C.

The latest incident bears some similarities to the crash that killed Casey. A witness said that a CT-114 Tutor appeared to suffer “engine trouble” only moments after takeoff this week, although the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

In Kamloops, the aircraft containing Casey lost power and entered a steep dive after a small bird was sucked into the engine. Both occupants were able to eject, but while pilot Capt. Richard MacDougall survived, Casey’s parachute failed to deploy and she was killed on impact.

In Fort St. John, the pilot appears to have been able to bring in the stricken Tutor for a crash landing in a nearby hay field.

It is often noted that the Cold War-era Tutors, which entered Canadian service in 1963, are older than any of the pilots who fly them. As such, there have been suggestions for more than a decade that the aerobatic squadron is desperately in need of new planes.

Exactly 10 years ago this month, documents obtained by Postmedia showed that the Department of Defence was planning to spend $755 million on a replacement fleet for the Snowbirds. If the “Snowbird Aircraft Replacement Project” had been implemented, 431 Squadron would have been flying new planes as early as 2020.

Instead, the plan was scrapped and the Tutors were handed over to a maintenance contractor, L3 Technologies MAS, with orders to squeeze another decade of life out of the planes. “L3 MAS was mandated to extend the service life of the Tutor fleet to 2030,” reads a 2021 report by the National Research Council.

Aging aircraft are not necessarily unsafe aircraft. At any moment the skies over North America are filled with plenty of pre-1960 aircraft boasting near-perfect operational records.

Most famously, the U.S. Air Force continues to fly B-52 bombers manufactured just after the Second World War. What’s more, the B-52s have been greenlit to remain in service until the 2050s — a full century after they first entered service.

Lt.-Col. Mike French, commanding officer of 431 Squadron, has often noted that the Snowbirds’ Tutors are “torn down right to nothing and rebuilt” every 400 hours of flying time.

“We’re dealing with basically an as-new, mint condition airplane,” he said in 2020.

But the CT-114 Tutor may differ from the likes of other Cold War-era veterans like the B-52 due to the immense stresses placed on its airframe as a result of its aerobatic work. Even with regular stripdowns, Tutors have still needed to be retired from the Snowbirds when their level of metal fatigue was deemed to be beyond saving.

In addition to the last two crashes that have sent the Snowbirds into an operational pause, Canada’s official database of civilian aviation incidents has in the last decade recorded nearly a dozen incidents precipitated by something breaking on a CT-114 Tutor.

In 2017, a Tutor taking off from CFB Trenton was forced to circle around for an emergency landing after suffering a total engine failure. That same year, a Tutor had to be towed off the tarmac at Abbotsford International Airport after suffering a flat tire upon landing. In 2016, a Tutor crew flying over Manitoba was forced to shut off the aircraft’s radios, transponders and other electrical equipment after suffering a “generator failure.”

In summer 2018, a Tutor had to make an emergency landing at Calgary International Airport after declaring itself to be “fuel critical.” Earlier that year, in March, a Tutor intending to land in Portage La Prairie had to first alert air traffic controllers that it had suffered a radio failure.

Most recently, in May, 2021, a Tutor overshot a runway at Calgary International Airport due to a reported “landing gear problem.” Just last May, a WestJet Boeing 737 was forced to perform “collision avoidance” in order to avoid a Tutor that had veered off course.

Former public safety minister Stockwell Day lives in the same region as the 2020 crash that killed Casey. After the incident, he wrote that “we salute with gratitude our magnificent pilots. But any airline in private industry with this record of crashes would have been grounded by now.”

National Post

by **Riverway** Fri 19 Aug 2022, 4:03 pm

Canadian Armed Forces SkyHawks parachute team to light up the skies in Trenton, Belleville,
Camp Bucko

By Sarah Hyatt
Northumberland News
Friday, August 19, 2022

The SkyHawks, the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) parachute team, are gearing up to fly over the skies of Trenton, Belleville and Camp Bucko this weekend.

CAF has confirmed the SkyHawks – pending no weather changes – are set to perform this weekend starting with a Camp Bucko appearance at Cedar Ridge Camp, near Bancroft, on Aug. 19 at 1 p.m. Then, on Aug. 20, in Belleville, at 11:30 a.m., the SkyHawks’ performance is at the soccer field in Zwick’s Park.

Wrapping the performances, the team will hit Trenton on Aug. 21 at 1 p.m. at Centennial Park.

Spectators looking to take in the show should arrive at least 30 minutes before the performances.

“The public will be able to see the performance, which showcase the high standard of professionalism, teamwork, and physical fitness it takes to be part of the Canadian Armed Forces,” reads a recent public service announcement.

Northumberland News

by Mojave Wed 21 Sep 2022, 7:32 pm

Investigators reveal cause of Canadian Forces Snowbirds jet crash

Published Sept. 21, 2022

~Airshow~ - Page 6 Snowbirds-crash-1-6077789-1663781918289

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