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Last year we flew the Skyvan photoship for the first time in Canada, for the famous Abbotsford International Airshow. It was a spectacular experience and the project became easily THE best of the entire 2024 season! Could we do that again…? All the photographers joining us in the Skyvan came with sky-high expectations, so the pressure was on right away! But also right away there, fantastic weather for all the 4 days of flying. The majestic Mount Baker played a prominent role in the scenery by showing itself in an awesome way. |
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| We kicked it off instantly on Tuesday with a number of beautiful GA and vintage aircraft. Nowhere in the world the ‘little’ airplanes look so good as in Canada! Over 4 days we would get to see an impressive line-up with types like the FW149, Navions, Pitts Special, RV-9, Nanchangs, RV-10, Cherokee, Glasair, Rocket F1, Stinson and a magnificent Howard & Cessna 195. | |||
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| Last year we were over the moon to get a floatplane at the very end of the last day, this year we were spoiled by 3 big ones!! The biggest plane on floats was an opportunity to catch the brand new Kodiac, what a sight to see that in front of our lenses. We also got a classic Cessna 182 and the vintage Grumman Widgeon. Little did we know at that time these would be just appetizers for another giant waterplane we would get to see during the weekend… | |||
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| Warbirds are still the most precious aircraft around, and once again we were fortunate to have the privilege to catch up with genuine WW II veterans, both fighters and bombers this time. We made good use of the incredible sunsets the Vancouver region has to offer, every day we were up with the Skyvan during the last rays of sunlight. On Tuesday, our last flight was with the P-40, Mustang and Corsair of the Erickson collection. | |||
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| Wednesday we were privileged to see both their Wildcat and B-17 in glorious sunset light, while the very last light was for ‘Scratch’ flying the modified ‘Film Knight’, a T-33 with a camera mounted under the wing. So this time the Skyvan was also an airborne film subject at the same time! | |||
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| On Thursday we told the photographers we would start the day with a photo join-up of the Rocket F1… only to throw the first of a series of ‘cool beans!’ to them. No GA aircraft came in sight, but we were buzzed for 30 minutes by 3 A-10s from the Boise Air National Guard, 30 minutes pure excitement. | |||
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| So the second flight of the day was gonna be the Rocket F1 – all photographers happy – but again no GA photomission… but two F-16s from the Colorado 120 FS… ’cool beans’ again!! | |||
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Later in the afternoon we flew into Abbotsford airfield itself to brief with Greg Anders who would fly the might Skyraider for us. It was a warbird very high on the wish list since we got to see his Mustang the year before. Some of the photographers were getting a bit nervous and excited, as they could see the groundcrew from the F-22 Raptor demoteam nearby. We heard that the F-22 would fly into Abby in the next 30 minutes… I wave it off with a steel face. Seeing the Skyraider airborne in the sunset was an awesome sight, and we got a long join-up as well, like the aircraft was waiting and holding on to us for a bit longer… well, we never heard so many loud cheers and for so long, spiced up with at least 100 F*** YEEAAAAH when the golden shape of the F-22 slide in under the Skyraider, the secret was well kept!!! For many photographers this was the best 30 minutes of the year and now everyone knows what we mean by COOL BEANS! |
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| Our last day was yet another parade of great join-ups. We were excited to go flying with the RCAF Snowbirds, a first for us and one of the last team we have not flown with before. The team took especially for us to the skies to give us a 40 minutes photomission. It was pre-briefed photobombed by Kyle Fowler flying his bright Yellow EZ, how could we refuse knowing that Kyle is Canadian. Somehow the photographers team was easy to deceive – again – as I explained in the morning that the photographer from the F-22 team would join us on the flight with the Snowbirds as a ‘thank you’ for the awesome join up from the evening before, yeah right. All onboard were already thrilled to see the Snowbirds, only to get blown away by a second surprise join-up with the two Raptors. Always big fun tricking people like this, as even our photodirectors did not see it coming… happy times. | |||
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The RCAF also gave us two premieres behind the Skyvan with the Griffon helicopter and the big yellow Cormorant that we missed last year. Once again the photomissions in the week of the Abbotsford International Airshow were thé best project of the busy 2024 season. And that was even sure before we went on to fly the photoship to Alberni on Saturday to have one of our best photoflights in all of the 15 season… the 100% pure magic of the giant Hawaii Mars flying boat. That aircraft will be not be there anymore next year, but pretty sure we are all up for round 3 in the summer of 2025, with more cool beans in that amazing Vancouver scenery! |
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