Sky Drive 2023 (presented by Airshow London)

[Dan Gagnon]

Next batch!

Growler Demo Team. Love these guys!

[Dan Gagnon]

Last ones for now!

F-22 Demo Team. RaZZ flew the shit out of the Raptor!

[jhtolatc]

I had a great time all three days in London! Weather was pretty gloomy but the show itself was quite good, and it gave me a much better impression of drive-in air shows than I had given previous experiences at Thunder Over Michigan.

And on Sunday, this happened. Double Trouble by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

[Dan Gagnon]

I had a great time all three days in London! Weather was pretty gloomy but the show itself was quite good, and it gave me a much better impression of drive-in air shows than I had given previous experiences at Thunder Over Michigan.

And on Sunday, this happened. Double Trouble by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

Wow! Great shot! So much vapour on Sunday!

[Faust]

Man, those are some good shots!

It seems like Saturday had a significantly inferior flying display. We got rooked in getting no F-15s, and already had no Growlers or B-2 and we lost our A400M. Not only that, but the A-10 barely did anything. Oh, and we were down a Snowbird on Saturday - was it back on Sunday?

It was still a good time, and I enjoyed what we saw a lot, but I don't feel that the show was as good as previous years, certainly not as good as last year's.

Still, it was a good time and I'm already awaiting next year's show!

[yyz64]

Snowbirds are flying an 8 ship show due to issue with a pilot.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatch ... -1.6881751

[jhtolatc]

Some more of my shots from last weekend:

Snowbirds by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

Raptor Demo by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

Trevor Rafferty, Pitts S-12 C-GDZX by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

F-15C 80-0003 EAGLE01 Departing Runway 33 by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

Canadian Queen by Jeff Hormann, on Flickr

[martin_sam_2000]

really upset I coudn't stay for the Sunday show. It always seems to be the better day. I may have to plan for a longer visit in the future.

Sean

[jacobpyxu15]

really upset I coudn't stay for the Sunday show. It always seems to be the better day. I may have to plan for a longer visit in the future.

Sean

Sunday is usually the best show in terms of lineup, which is why I always go Sunday as opposed to Saturday.

The highlights this year for me were for sure the B-2, the EA-18s, and the F-22.

I thought the most disappointing part about this year’s show was the Friday twilight show. No fighters other than the F-22 did more than two passes and the Snowbirds performance was lacking and quite long. Unless the CF-18 Demo team returns next year, I think I’ll skip the Friday show.

[mstares]

Have been travelling for work since my return home from ASL 2023. So still have not had time to fully go through my images (particularly departures day), or do anything more than a few quick and dirty edits.

First off, a hearty thanks to the volunteers to run the show, their work is as essential as it is thankless. Secondly, as usual ASL pulled off another truly unique and varied display line up.

The 2022 iteration of ASL was one of my all time favorite air show experiences. Epic arrivals and a solid group of headliners. So, a high bar was set for 2023. Whilst a series of issues - some avoidable, some not, lessened the experience this year, overall I still had a great weekend.

In the lead up to the show I lost track of the last minutes adds and cancellations. ASL never seems to acknowledge cancellations besides 'disappearing' the entries from the website... The on again off again nature of the APP info doesn't help the lack of clarity.

I was able to take in arrivals day from the North end of the field. Certainly tamer than the previous year, but the Colorado 16s had a fantastic arrival with a great series of passes. The Raptors and Arizona 16s also made a good showing but the Oregon 15s were a rather off script compared their all time great 2022 arrival... The Jazz 15s cancellation saw the loss of an arrivals favorite.

We did get the C17 and a series of 135s but the non-burner arrivals stars had to be the Super Stallion and the Seahawk. Seeing those in flight were firsts for me... The Stallion is a massive beast and the Seahawk had some decent light on it.

For the first time since pre-covid, I believe, ASL offered Thursday arrivals tickets. They were few in number and initially offered to photo pit pass holders. I don't know if they sold out, but I did not see them advertised save for an email to photo pass holders (There was some discussion on FB in advance but nothing final that I saw,). Have to applaud this being offered again, but it was an extra cost on top of the already premium price to the three day photo pass.... And unlike the photo pass the Thursday arrivals ticket covered 4 persons.. Not six... So if you had 1 photo pass and a car with 6 passengers you had to buy two arrivals passes.

The photo pass parking entrance opened lunch hour on Friday - practice day. Similar layout to last year, but they had taken a few extra steps to keep people in their assigned rows. There was, however, near universal disappointment to discover that, unlike last year, ASL had placed tall speaker/tripod assemblies right in front of the Photo pass crowd line. Oddly, the Gold zone had lower speakers and the red zone... Which was cheaper and not aimed at photographers, had no such speakers.

I can't point to specific promises in the photo pass advertising but the presence of the speakers immediately in front of the fenceline is entirely contrary to the spirit of such an enclosure and certainly not in keeping with the cost associated with the photo pass. Photo pit volunteers were sympathetic to our complaints, which they passed on. ASL inexplicably did nothing to address the problem. Remarkably dismissive of the photographers they specifically targeted with this package.

At this point Friday and Saturday have blurred together. Weather was dry but the skies were grey and light poor both days. The poor conditions combined with various cancellations, and aircraft going tech meant that certain aggravations became quite grating.

1. Despite the efforts of volunteers - smoking , vaping and toking were common. The resulting fumes were quite annoying.
2. The speakers were blocking shots and on Saturday the fenceline security guard in our area pitched up in front of our slot for the entire day -
standing in front of us during some acts adding another obstacle to the speakers.
3. The trolleys appeared to be less in number than last year and in either case were inadequate for the numbers using them Long waits were
common and one could not visit the static and have any sense of being able to get back to the photo pit in a predictable, reasonable time to
catch scheduled movements.
4. As with last year announcing launches of show aircraft (particularly the Colorado 16s and Cf18s) was spotty to non-existent unless they were
launching straight in to a Demo. Adding to salt to the speaker wound, the show broadcast was only intermittently played on the speaker...
Interrupted by periods of silence or loud white noise.
5. I am not qualified to pass any opinion on the effectiveness of the Airboss crew. They can not control the weather, underwhelming passes
(Selfridge A-10s) cancellations or delays etc. Listening to the freqs though, there seemed to be a lot more confusion than usual... On Sunday
evening. They were looking to cut a number of the later Acts short... We were delighted that the Oregon Eagle was adamant that he was
getting in another low pass.

:.. And then Sunday came. Wx and light, though not perfect, had certainly improved. The Growlers and their constant vapour was awesome. the Oregon Eagle showed some of their 2022 flair and the Sea Fury and its tip vortices made for quite the demo.

The USCG helo demo was solid throughout the weekend. Their formation pass on Saturday was rather tight and very photogenic. The Sea Stallion was a tremendous presence in front of the Crowd... Their launch on Saturday being particularly noteworthy with the nose down blast down the field for its departure. For what is I believe an ad hoc demo the Osprey team did a great job of show casing the various modes of flight and took care in displaying along the entire crowdline.

The C17/135 demo was solid entertainment with the 135 doing a great extreme low level pass and the the C17's launch and reversing creating some great atmospheric effects.

More by default than design ASL is becoming the best American Air show outside of US borders. Canadian participation was potentially at an all time low this year. Perhaps there are operational reasons for this (Let us not lose sight that this is, at best, a PR/recruting exercise for the military and thus a far lesser requirement compared to operational needs). No Canadian heavies, helps or hercs, very tame passes from the Cf18s when they were not tech, and thin static (Was there Canadian Static other than the Aurora? And its enthusiastic crew).

In terms of static I was impressed by the patience and attitude of a number of the crews. The Stallion and Osprey crews were great to talk with and my brother and I had a fascinating conversation with the sorta-part Canadian crew of 'Vandy One'

I am a long time fan of the Snowbirds. I have always put their precision and grace on a competitive level to the speed and noise of the American teams. ASL was the third time I saw them this year and with their current crewing issues I found their demos disjointed, suffering greatly from the absence of the usual opposing solo adrenaline and, I believe, otherwise minimally unaltered for being a pilot down. Whilst their twilight show on the Friday was a unique experience, they are crippled this year.

Again on Monday I found myself on the North end of the field. Raptors were very enthusiastic on departure, making some great passes. The Orgaon 15s departed in style, and all the departing fast movers did something of a show ... Save for Growlers whose departure was straight out and sedate... This can be forgiven when one considers their show stopping demo the day before.

I had a sense from the radio comma this year, and the actual passes that there may be a bit of a chill on the arrival/departure antics of non demo aircraft.

Final thoughts? The 2022 drive in format worked perfectly, The basic ASL format is incredibly sound... Always a great line up, relaxed atmosphere and very well run. The 2023 format had a few steps backward however. Nothing fatal, but unhelpful. The speaker issue was an entirely preventable ( and fixable) own goal which should be acknowledged and addressed.

The highs of Thursday, Sunday and Monday, outweighed the lulls and irritations (The biggest of which were beyond ASL's control): of Friday and Saturday.

Based on the overall track record I will be back for 2024. Considering front row red zone this coming year though ... Have been doing the photo pit since 2016(save for covid) but now the issues with the trolleys, the speakers and security I seriously question the value for money of the extrA price. Red Zone... Same great aviation line up for less money and less obstruction??? (Great taste, less filling).

Happy to be corrected on any of the 'facts' or inferences in the above.

Finally a few more shots