The CH2A's Yellow Birds (Stearman, and 2 Chipmunks) will also be doing flybys for opening acts.

Here's some photos of the first 3 race planes that are in the hanger as of today.

Nicolas Ivanoff


Glen Dell


Matthias Dolderer

wow they are so small. Were ya excited Ryan?

lol, a little.

Here's the other 2 that have come in during the last week. Another one is due in tomorrow morning then the rest will be coming in Monday or Tuesday. Also here's the tower and hangers Red Bull has been setting up over the last 2 days.

Yoshihide Muroya


Nigel Lamb

For anyone interested there is going to be a public pit lane walk on the Saturday evening of the races. It costs $12.50 per carload of 6 people. Not sure why they did it that way but it's a pretty good deal either way. I saw tickets for this on sale on the website, I'm not sure if they'll be sold at the gate.

1 of the CF-18's came in today around 4:00pm.

Thanks for the pics, very nice!

Lets hope for nice weather this year.
Bill

Thanks Bill.

I went and watched some of the practices this afternoon, here are a few pictures.....

Very nice Ryan. Thanks for keeping us posted! I can't wait till tomorrow!

Bill L

I didn't plan on taking pictures today but it's so hard to keep the camera packed away!




Ryan

Awesome catch on the pylon slice Wish I could have gone...

Not a bad day, although it seems they still aren't exactly organized. I waited over an hour for the media people to show up and give me my pass, which I also tried to get yesterday (they got confused and told me to come back today - go figure). By the time I got back to my family in line they were letting people in, 45 minutes early. No complaints about that I just wonder what they'll do tomorrow since the gates are supposed to get open even earlier.

The weather and smoke sucked for pictures but the flying wasn't bad. Only two pylon hits that I remember. The Hawk and CF-18 did nice three pass demos with high speed and low speed passes. The Hawk did a real nice wing wag and then a high speed break right overhead. The Hornet didn't touch the afterburner that I could tell. The Harvard IIs stole the show though with their passes, including a high speed S-turn 'dogfight' down the river. That might have been the highlight of the day.

Unfortunately there were also some of the rudest people around us that I have ever seen at a show (though nothing compares to Andrews). I seem to remember last year as being very friendly but this year was totally different. We set up our chairs about two and a half feet from the fence, enough to stand but not much else. A few hours later some people came and tried to set up chairs in front of us. Some told their kids to stand in front of us (I almost nailed two in the head with my camera when they just popped up) and some adults literally moved our chairs to the side so they could walk up. Frustrating to say the least.

After much debate before the show, I think Dieppe park is the place to be. We had a great view from just about the mid point of the track and our seats were less than 100 feet from both the commentators and the awards platform. We'll have a great view of the awards tomorrow.

Ryan

Took a lot of shots at qualifying. Too bad the sun never poked out. Was nice to meet Tomcatboy (we were about 10 spots apart on the fence). I also had to contend with kids pushing in the way but after I barricaded myself in it was ok. pete McLeod grabbing final qualifying spot was my highlight of the day! With his plane somewhat at a disadvantage, he sure did some awesome flying to keep as close as he did. Go Pete! Hope the sun is shining for you guys there at race day.

Haven't looked at all the shots yet but here's a few to start..








Cheers

Bill L

Here are two from yesterday, the races were exciting to watch; but from a photography perspective, the course was a bit far off, even using a 500mm lens. Overall conditions were reasonable, some haze around. Looking forward to spending the upcoming weekend at the W&W show in St. Thomas.

Here's a shot for everyone. This is a panorama of downtown Detroit with the pylons set up.



Ryan