Big air show ready for takeoff

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This article was published 01/06/2016 (3144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pilots will soon be warming up their engines for one of the biggest air shows the province has ever seen.

The 2016 Manitoba Air Show is set for Saturday at the Southport Airport, three kilometres south of Portage la Prairie.

The goal is to get others interested in flying — something Jill Oakes, executive director of the 2016 Manitoba Air Show, has experience doing.

Oakes is part of the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots. Oakes said over the last few years she and other Ninety-Nines as well as male pilots in Manitoba had been offering free rides and flying lessons for women, introducing them to aviation.

Oakes said the small events were a reminder of what inspired many pilots at the start of their careers. But they wanted to do something bigger.

Oakes said she spoke to her colleagues and friends in aviation, who said it would be expensive to put the event together and insurance would be hard to get. But, Oakes said, about two years ago, the Ninety-Nines went forward despite the cost. Now the 2016 Manitoba Air Show is ready to take flight.

Oakes said organizers looked at a number of places across the province to hold the show, including airports and other places with runways, but Southport was the most accessible.

“Portage was the best site that actually had the runways and the ramps and the little bit of infrastructure that we wanted for the air show,” she said.

Southport, a former Royal Canadian Air Force base, last held an air show in 2009. Air shows were held until 2004 at Winnipeg’s international airport.

The show will feature the world-renowned Canadian Forces Snowbirds, who travel around North America with their thrilling air performances. The show will start with the Skyhawks, Canada’s only military parachute demonstration team. In between, spectators will see a cadet glider demo, Sky Dancer Anna Serbinenko, as well as the CF-18 Hornet.

Dennis Scharf is the show’s director of operations and looks after aircraft movements and performances. It’s his first time working for the show, but he was a performer in the past. He’s currently in the military with the C-130 Hercules search and rescue — a job he’s dreamed of since he was a kid.

“This is all about kids,” Scharf said. “We’re trying to inspire them and promote aviation in Manitoba. For a lot of us that are in aviation, we were inspired in some way in the past. For myself, I grew up on a farm at Lundar. Every second day, a C-130 Hercules would fly overhead. So it didn’t take too long to figure out that’s what I wanted to do.”

It may be all about future flyers, but the show is hoping to attract entire families to the airport. Rockin’ the Runway will start the show, with a number of local musical acts performing in the morning until the Skyhawks take their leap in the air.

The first air display, the Skyhawks, take flight at noon Saturday. The show wraps up with the Snowbirds taking off at 3:30 p.m. For more information and the full schedule, visit mbairshow.com.

“Their fashion show is going to be on the runway, and it is truly the runway, so they’re getting a big kick out that,” Oakes said.

bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca