2017 Airshow London – Ontario, Canada

Airshow London Rebirth

Back in September 2016, after an absence of 12 years, the long-awaited return of an air show to London, Ontario, became a reality.

The new not-for-profit organization is called ‘Airshow London’. The Airshow London board of directors come from the private, public and educational sectors. The air show works with the City of London and businesses which include London International Airport and Fanshawe College’s School of Aviation Technology.

As a non-profit organization, Airshow London supports children’s healthcare, Veterans and support programs, and aviation technology education programs.

Airshow London 2016 weekend was attended by over 20,000 spectators and resulted in an investment of over $700K dollars in local products and services and an overall economic impact of over $2M dollars.

Airshow London 2016 became the largest military air show in Canada that year.

2017 Airshow London

After hitting the ground running in 2016, Airshow London 2017, held on Friday, September 22 to Sunday, September 24, was even bigger and better. Once again, the air show took the top position for Canadian military air shows for 2017.

The show celebrated ‘Canada 150’, the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

The 2017 program line-up included the USAF Air Combat Command F-35 Heritage Flight Team with the P-51D “Bald Eagle”, the US Navy East Coast F/A-18F Super Hornet Demo Team, the RCAF CF-18 Demo Team in the special ‘Canada 150’ colour scheme and the RCAF Snowbirds.

Fighter Friday

Although the Friday before the air show weekend is still largely participating aircraft arrivals, practise shows, and air show field set-up, as in 2016 there was a “Fighter Friday” or “Hour of Power” twilight show, with gates opening to the public at 16:00 hrs and the show starting at 17:00 hrs.

The evening show was great opportunity to see all the featured jet demo teams as well the MiG-17PF, with its very unique VK-1 afterburning turbo-jet engine, flown by Randy Ball.

The show line parallels Rwy 15-33 and you can get some lovely evening light illuminating the aircraft, often with spectacular afterburner glow. However, Friday being the first day of Autumn and with the sun setting earlier and earlier as the days progress towards winter, the useable light levels do drop off very quickly (sunset occurred shortly after 19:00 hrs).

After a brief time of constantly adjusting the camera sensor speed setting upwards from ISO 2000 to ISO 6400 and running head long into ISO 12800, with its impossibly low resolution and very “noisy” images, it becomes rather futile to try to get a decent “jet with afterburner” shot in the dark. I just resolved to simply put my camera down and enjoyed watching the show.

Weekend Air Show

On Saturday (September 23) and Sunday (September 24) the gates opened to the Public at 09:00 hrs, with the flying display beginning at 13:00 hrs.

The weekend air show flying schedule was as follows:
• Canadian Forces SkyHawks
• RCAF CF-18 Demo Team
• USAF ACC F-35 Heritage Flight Team
• US Navy East Coast F/A-18 Super Hornet Demo
• USAF 70th Anniversary Fly-bys
• US ANG F-15C (Saturday only)
• US ANG F-16C (Sunday only)
• US ANG A-10
• MiG-17PF (Randy Ball)
• DH115 Vampire (Jerry Conley)
• Edge 540 (Pete McLeod Aerobatics)
• RCAF CC-115 (Saturday only)
• RCAF CT-155 and CT-156 Heritage Display
• RCAF Heritage Flight (CF-18 ‘Canada 150’ Hornet and DH115 Vampire)
• RCAF Snowbirds

All told, by my count, there were at least 58 aircraft on the ramp (static and hot) participating in the air show, including 16 from the USAF, 10 from the US Navy and Coast Guard and 23 from the RCAF (although a couple of these only made brief appearances as air show transport/support aircraft), and 1 from the RAAF.

The Static Displays were available from gate opening and closed at 17:45 hrs. The air show gates closed at 18:00 hrs.

In spite of a number of cancellations because of operational considerations (the B-1B had been previously confirmed but cancelled) due to both the global political climate and the very unfortunate severe hurricane season experienced in the southern US, the hot and static ramps were full with little or no additional room to spare. For that matter the KC-135T (58-0099, Old Iron II) from the 171st Air Refuelling Wing (PA ANG) was parked on a separate ramp south of the air show area. It was only seen as a fly-by display.

View the full list of aircraft of the 2017 Airshow London

Airshow London Photo Tour access

The photo pit was located in the same spot as all of the previous London air shows of many years past. Situated at the north-west corner of the main taxi-way (paralleling Rwy 15-33) and south of Rwy 09-27 the photo pit area provides a first-class view of aircraft movements (arrivals and departures) and the air display which runs along Rwy 15-33.

The 2016 Airshow London offered a 4-day Photo Tour pass for the air show weekend, including Friday arrivals and Monday departures. This year, the 2017 Airshow London, added a fifth day on Thursday September 21. Access on the Thursday as well as on the Monday departure day was only available to the full 5-day Photo Tour pass holders (Thursday through Monday). The total cost for the 5 days was $328 CDN ($250 US).

The addition of Thursday was most welcome since the heavy aircraft (in this case the KC-10A, KC-135R and KC-135T) will often show up a day earlier than the regular scheduled (Friday) arrival day and as with most air show arrivals they will often treat the photographers and air show staff/volunteers to a fly-by or a touch and go or two. It’s a prime opportunity to photograph the larger aircraft before they park at the static ramp.

General admission gate opening for Saturday and Sunday was 09:00 hrs, but the Photo Tour pass provided early access at 07:00 hrs on those two days. This provides a good opportunity to get relatively unobstructed photos of both the static ramp and hot ramp aircraft. The Thursday, Friday and Monday Photo tour check-in was 08:30 – 09:00 hrs. Access on those days was not available to the general public except for the Friday evening “Twilight Show”.

Although there was a separate Media Area set up, the photo pit area is far more ideal location. It’s spacious, secure, has separate toilet facilities, and a large tented area to escape the sun (and hopefully not the rain!). Snacks, water and other non-alcohol drinks are provided as part of the package.

The area is restricted to those who have purchased Photo Tour passes (full 5-day pass or weekend passes). Media were not allowed in the Photo Tour pit. As well Media were only invited to the Friday arrival day (and evening Twilight Show) and the Saturday and Sunday show days.

The 5-day Photo Tour package is definitely well worth the cost, not only because of the excellent location and top rate volunteer services, but also because the show is a not-for-profit event that helps to support the local community.

It’s to the credit of the organizers who took lessons learned from the previous year to make the 2017 event that much better. A thanks is owned to Mr. Jim Fisk, Director – Photo Services and the all the Photo Tour pit volunteers who helped to make photographing the show such a success.

Airshow London 2018 is scheduled for September 7 – 9.
More information can be obtained on their website at airshowlondon.com