CF-102B Astra II
By Richard Lawrence
There aren’t many airshows in the national capital region so when one comes along, one goes. We’re lucky that the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa (AGO) organization manages to put one on annually given the expense of doing so including performers, guests, fuel, and let’s not forget the insurance costs along with the vagaries of the weather. This year, everything came together for the Aero Gatineau-Ottawa 2025 (AGO2025) version with three days of weather in the low to mid-20s and bright, blue skies.
To see all the aircraft pictures, go to:
https://www.richardlawrencephotography.ca/rlpgalleries/aircraft/ago2025/
There were some innovations this year with an enhanced Kid’s Zone which included a bouncy castle, a tent for getting performers’ autographs after their shows, more food trucks than you could possibly enjoy, and virtual piloting where you could pilot a CT-114 Tutor and join up with the Snowbirds. You could also virtually pilot a CF-18 and virtually hook up with a C-130J tanker aircraft. Add a host of static aircraft to walk around, including the new CAF Future Aircraft Trainer (FAcT) CT-102B Astra II, and the flying performers and you have a full day for the family.
Many of the performers are staples at this airshow, such as the CAF Snowbirds, the Vintage Wings of Canada trio of Warbirds (this year a Hawker Hurricane Mk. IV, a Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX, and a North American P-51 Mustang), the Vintage Wings of Canada Yellow Birds (Fleet Finch, Fairchild Cornell, deHavilland Chipmunk), and the CAF SkyHawks Parachute Team. All performed flawlessly to the OOOs and AHHHs of the crowd.
There were a few aerobatic performances to note as well. In his Chinese built Nanchang CJ-6, Dan Fortin beat up the airfield with smoke and noise as he moved from one maneuver to another changing from one end of the show line to the other with low passes between. Trevor Rafferty borrowed a Christen Eagle II aircraft because he had damaged his Pitt Special (both about similar shape and size with the Pitt being more suited to higher performance but the Eagle, with more comfort and visibility, also well suited to high-performance aerobatics ). This little insect of an aircraft gave, what I think, was the best performance not so much because of his higher altitude work, which was exceptional, but also because of his transitional work doing low passes and low level aerobatics as he transitioned from one end of the show box to the other.
There were a couple of special events and performances during the weekend as well. On Friday at dusk, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Jenny Carignan, and her command staff, boarded a C-130J and went airborne with the SkyHawks. As it turned out, the CDS and staff jumped out of the Herc with the SkyHawks, albeit in a tandem jumping harness attached to a SkyHawk. They floated down to earth and landed without incident and left the field with a presentation plaque and big smiles.
There were some performers that I hadn’t seen before, one of which was a C-45 Expeditor aircraft which was used as a jump plane by the Geronimo! Skydiving Team. Now, this team are dressed as superheroes including the Incredibles, Iron Man, and Spiderman, and it looks funny to see “Spidey” using a parachute rather than web-slinging across the field. However, it was fun for the kids. On Friday, and Sunday, the C-45 also managed to do a small show to give the folks a chance to see the Expediter do a couple of passes with smoke.
One maneuver I hadn’t seen before from the SkyHawks is called a Candy Cane. Now, we’ve all seen the SkyHawks come down with smoke canisters attached to their feet as they stream through the sky trailing red smoke. In the Candy Cane, however, the parachutist has a line dangling underneath them that trails six smoke canisters of varying colour. They then start whipping them around to create a multi-coloured spiral in the sky which also winds up with them sideways, upside down, put your foot in and shake it all around. I believe that they managed to get 12 iterations in a row so probably just enjoyed the rest of the ride down as they recovered their equilibrium.
To fill out the program, there was a Mig-17 PF doing lots of jet passes, along with the CF-18 and its performance. All very fast and loud and both did the nighttime show on Friday evening so the afterburners were very visible. Chrono Aviation had a pair of Pilatus PC-12s go up for a couple of dual-aircraft passes, which you don’t see often, and there was a guest Goodyear FG-1D “Corsair” to round out the WWII warbirds. Pilot Martin Hivon did his last aerobatic performance on Sunday afternoon to cheers and applause as his wife took the microphone to announce his show. And lastly, the Bone Shaker jet truck lost its race down the runway to the Christen Eagle II in a best two out of three over the weekend. The Bone Shaker uses between 80 to 100 gallons of fuel (imperial, US gallons, who knows?) to do this race and can top out at 300 mph on a runway.
Things that were missing this year was a CF-18 in its demonstration team paint job as the two present this year were just in gray. Also, the CF-18 did not go up with a Warbird to do the Heritage Formation passes but with the gray CF-18s, it wouldn’t have been as good a picture anyway.
So, that’s it for this year. Stay tuned for the performers to come for the 2026 Aero Gatineau-Ottawa Airshow being held from the 16th-18th September, 2026, at the Gatineau Executive Airport.
