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Earlier today, we saw the Blue Angels practicing their routine for the Toronto Air Show which starts tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have a lot more pictures in the next few days. Keeping my fingers crossed that it stays clear & sunny for the rest of the long weekend.


Flying by the CN Tower







All lined up





Doing a turn around the lake





And right over my head





The Blue Angels support plane







Lining up for the finale







Closeup of the above

Good stuff. Looking forward to the show pictures.

Have you seen them before? If not, you will be in for a treat. Hopefully you'll see Fat Albert (the C-130) do its RATO trick.

Btw, it's not a tanker, but it does carry spare parts and a support team for the Hornets.

Very nice. The best Blue Angels show I saw was over Lake Washington in Seattle; I swear the solo flyers went streaking no more than 50 feet above us! Close enough that we could feel the jet wash, anyway.

A setting over Lake Ontario, with Toronto and the CN Tower as background, should be magnificent.

Here is a related video story from the airport. Looks like it will be a very nice weekend.

I've seen the Blue Angels (and Thunderbirds) a few times each in Willow Grove, PA (at the Naval Air Station there). This looks to be a much nicer venue.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Have you seen them before? If not, you will be in for a treat. Hopefully you'll see Fat Albert (the C-130) do its RATO trick.

I've seen them before but not in Toronto. It was somewhere in the northeast US around 10 years ago I think...the details are a bit fuzzy but I remember it was at an airport. And no C-130, just the Hornets.

Btw, it's not a tanker, but it does carry spare parts and a support team for the Hornets.

Oops, I stand corrected.

Count Chocula wrote:A setting over Lake Ontario, with Toronto and the CN Tower as background, should be magnificent.

Actually we won't have the city & CN Tower in the background, the practice today was a few miles to the west of the actual show venue so we were able to take pictures of the planes from a point of land in the lake. At the actual air show the view is out towards the lake with the city behind us. Unless we shell out a pile of money and brave the lineups to get into Ontario Place or view it with a telescope from the Toronto Islands.

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We plan on taking a ton of pictures over the next few days, tomorrow will be mostly scouting out the best spots for photos and noting down the show routines of the planes so we can get better shots on the following days. There'll be lots of pictures if the weather stays as nice as predicted.

The Angels do a nice show - I saw them in Maryland in '08. It's hard to watch them as a spectator and as a photographer at the same time, though. When you're keeping the viewfinder on the place where you think the interesting photo will be - leading the jets, in other words - you miss seeing them get there. On the other hand, it's a good way to be appropriately surprised when one of them zooms overhead from behind only a thousand feet or so above the deck.

Lots of pictures from today's show. It was strange that the jets were coming in a lot closer than the propeller powered planes. The show was delayed halfway through so an air ambulance could make its run to the hospital, after a 20 minute or so break in the action the planes got back in the air.


HMCS Ville de Quebec. Yes, we do have warships.




A Spitfire




US Heritage Flight: F22 Raptor and P-51 Mustangs




Raptor again






Canadian Heritage Flight: CF-18, F-86, and Centennaire Tutor




A trio of P-51 Mustangs






Rescue Helicopter

Next little batch of pictures from today's air show.


That was pretty close




They sure pack'em tight...




Whoosh!




And now, the world famous Snowbirds demonstration team. First up is the Maple Leaf split.




Big diamond formation




7 plane chevron




Closer view of above




Hey, wait a minute, that's not a Snowbird!




A couple new formations I haven't seen before






Centennial Burst formation




9 plane line abreast. This is how you know the show's over for the day.

I'd love to see the Snowbirds one of these days. The Tutor is a handsome aircraft, and it looks like they can do quite a bit with a team of seven. Having a Sabre tag along is also ace.

Simplicius wrote:I'd love to see the Snowbirds one of these days. The Tutor is a handsome aircraft, and it looks like they can do quite a bit with a team of seven. Having a Sabre tag along is also ace.

Have you had your eyes checked recently? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I count nine planes.

There's been talk of replacing the Tutors for some time now since the planes are getting up there in age, there was a movement to replace them with BAE Hawks a few years ago but it doesn't look like anything came of it.

You have some nice shots towards the end of the first and the third sets. Pity about the distance.

The crowds were fucking insane today so we barely got any decent pictures.


Blue Angels lined up and trailing smoke




Closer view of above




US Heritage Flight, now with F-16