Along with more than a quarter of a million people, we attended the 46th annual Abbotsford International Air Show last weekend. More than eight hours of performances took place throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Although there were a few rain showers on Saturday, Sunday was bright, breezy, and the backdrop to the show was almost as spectacular as the show itself with huge white and grey clouds against an azure blue sky and low forest-clad mountains.

We watched an almost slow motion dance of the bright yellow 1942 Interstate Cadet flown by Kent Pietsch, that seemed to float effortlessly in the air until suddenly he cut the power to the engine and began a free fall.

After holding their breath and wondering if this could be a real problem, everyone sighed and cheered when at the last moment the plane pulled out if its dive and glided passed just above the ground. Pietsch topped his act by finally landing the Cadet on a small platform mounted on the top of his pickup truck that was driving down the runway.

The variety of planes was impressive, from small one-seaters, to the enormously powerful jets of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds and the Canadian Air Force Snowbirds. All the aircraft demonstrated their own great aerial performances while the audience sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the grass verge of runways 25 and 07, craning and twisting their necks to take it all in.

There was a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter search-and-rescue, and a sky jumping demonstration, and a great simulated bombing run by a U.S. Air force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet. World War II fighters flying along side Spitfires, and more!

Later in the show, a fighter jet took off, disappeared into the blue and then suddenly reappeared out of nowhere right over our heads with earth and air rending power. It thundered 3,568 metres into the sky in less than 20 seconds, becoming a tiny silver spot until it disappeared from view completely.

Abbotsford is a commercial airport and regular airport operations must continue so we listened to tower and pilot on our scanner and watched a commercial WestJet flights take off and land on runway 07 in the middle of the show.

The finale of the day was the spectacular performance by Canada's Snowbirds. However before they could begin their aerial maneuvers there was a potentially fatal but thankfully temporary problem when the flight boss radio in that aircraft #6 had engine trouble due to encountering a flock of birds.

The # 6 pilot left the formation, made a safe landing, and in no time at all took off again in the reserve #10 aircraft. We watched as he chased the other Snowbirds across the sky and rejoined the formation with perfect precision.

Then came the "piece de resistance" – the precision formation aerial acrobatics of this great team of pilots that constitute the Canadian Air Force Snowbirds. What a tremendous spectacle and a very satisfying end to a glorious day!