Saturday, September 10, 2022

Air shows matter

Hornet topside pass
London, ON
August 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Any day is a good day to stare at airplanes in the sky, but some days are even better than others.

It’s air show weekend here in #ldnont, so I think I’ll sling the camera over my shoulder and head over to the airport.

I took this at last year’s show, and the @cf18demoteam will be back in the air this year, too. They are, in a word, heroes.

While every air show seems to spawn a range of complaints - too noisy, waste of fuel and money, unnecessary warmongering, etc. - the reality is far more nuanced.

The pilot and plane you see here also guards Canada’s massive northern flanks. If you ask the professionals who fly these aircraft and missions, they’ll tell you about the Russian bombers they regularly challenge at the edge of Canadian airspace, the no-fly zones they enforce against belligerent actors, the rescues they pull off, the aid they provide after human-caused and natural disasters alike.

No one wants war, period. But let’s not fool ourselves: the world is not black and white. And the subtle shades of grey of statecraft dictate the need for spears like these to keep the malevolent actors around us in their place. Deterrence is a thing, apparently.

Democracy and freedoms come with a steep price - something most of us never seem to think much about. In the ideal world, we’d all be a little (okay, a lot) more thankful to those willing to devote their lives to pay that price, for they are the ones who allow the rest of us to freely decide to either cheer them on from the tarmac or whine about them from afar.

So pardon me in advance if I can’t hear the utterly predictable complaints. Those afterburners are freaking loud.

@airshowlondon #throwback #london #airport #ontario #canada #SkyDrive #AirShowLondon #aviation #boeing #mcdonnelldouglas #fa18 #hornet #fighter #flight #aircraft #avgeek #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography #lifeinthemargins

Related:
1 MiG, dead ahead, September 2017
Shooting an Eagle, September 2017
Past, meet future, September 2017

No comments: