Over the past week I’ve been in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I had to go there to setup the network for our new office. There’s a few local jokes about the landscape in the area… One is that its soooo FLAT that if you’re dog ran away you’d still be able to see it 3 days later… and that if you park your car you don’t need to put the handbrake on because it won’t roll anywhere!

I must admit… it is very flat… even more so than Perth… I was lucky enough (or unlucky considering I had to walk through it going back to my hotel while it bucketed down) to experience one of their prairie storms. Because the landscape was so flat and our office was on the 11th floor, you could see for miles and the entire horizon was lit up with lightning bolts. At any one time you could count at least 20-30 bolts!

Anyways, enough about the region… During my stay there they had the Saskatoon Air Show which was a local event highlight. The International airport located there dedicated one of the runways for the show and there was everything from hand gliders to F-18 Hornets, Hercules aeroplanes and Jet cars. We got VIP tickets so were treated to free food and alcomohol while we spent the entire day watching areoplane stunts, parachuting and co-ordinated fly overs. I’ve never seen an F-18 jet flighter in action and boy can I tell you… it’s amazing. They did simulated attacks with pyrotechnics and boy was the power and speed of the Hornet impressive! Doing 500 knot speeds it made you feel like you body was going to explode due to the vibrations and that isn’t anywhere near the speeds it can achieve! It can break the speed barrier creating a sonic boom but they’re not allowed to near Urban areas because they would blow out all the windows.

Other than the Hornet demonstration, the Canadian Air force Snowbirds show was very impressive. This crew of 12 aeroplanes do precision movements and formations and make it look like child’s play.

Enjoy the videos…