Canada’s famed Snowbirds acrobatic flying team is cancelling appearances at a number of airshows in Ontario and the United States, so some of its pilots can get more practice.

Officials are blaming bad weather earlier in the year for having shortened the team’s training time.

The nine-plane team has flown a number of shows this year, including a joint flight with a French team over Parliament Hill at the beginning of May.

But Maj. Patrick Gobeil says it was determined that more practice was necessary after some of the planes were seen deviating from their positions mid-flight.

As a result, the Snowbirds are pulling out from two airshows later this month in Ontario (Windsor and Fort Erie) and four other airshows in the U.S.

As a part of Armed Forces Day, the Snowbirds are scheduled to be in North Bay on June 16th and 17th.

Local officials have been in touch with the CF Snowbirds and have been told to continue to plan for their participation here in North Bay.

They also say line-up changes, if any, would be made public.

 

The following statement was made on on the CF Snowbirds Facebook page:

We have decided to undertake additional practice and training from our home base at 15 Wing Moose Jaw before returning to our 2017 scheduled air performance season.

While we have had several well-executed shows and practices early in the season, our Team Lead has determined that additional training is required.

“A reduced training period hampered by poor weather which continued into the show season, resulted in numerous cancelled practices. As a result, more training is required before the Snowbirds resume the 2017 schedule.”, said Major Patrick Gobeil, Snowbirds Team Lead.

We have cancelled our participation in the following air shows:
• Rochester, New York (May 17)
• Quonset Air National Guard Base, Rhode Island (May 20 and 21)
• Fort Erie, Ont. (May 24)
• Windsor, Ont. (May 27 and 28)
• Whiteman, Missouri (May 31)
• Duluth, Minnesota (June 3 and 4)
We intend to return to the air show circuit once we have the consistency required for our dynamic nine-aircraft aerobatic performance.

The Snowbirds thank the air show organizers for their understanding and all our fans for their continued encouraging messages.

 

(With files from The Canadian Press)

Filed under: north-bay, snowbirds