Major air shows grounded in Windsor, organizer says

A person who helped organize Windsor's last major air show believes the city won't see another such spectacle in future.

Keith Baxter told CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive that air shows are costly and they take a lot of work to get off the ground.

• London, Ont., set to host air show this fall

In addition to those typical hurdles, Windsor now has ahangar housing Premier Aviation withinthe so-called air box the unencumbered space that is required for a safe air show.

"You don't want anything in there,"Baxter said Thursday. "Nobody can enter that box during the air show other than essential personnel...but other than that, they don't like to see anything in there and that includes buildings."

Hangar approval

Coun. Hilary Payne, who represents Ward 9 where the airport is located,said he didn't know the hangar would interfere with the air shows when he and other councillors approved it.

"If it had been further away, then the runway would have had to be extended at greater cost," Payne said.

Even looking back, though,he would still approve the hanger project over an air show because of the jobsPremier Aviation created.

There is no way to reconfigure that space for bigger planes, given the layout at the Windsor airport.

"There is just enough room there to get a perfect air box in Windsor, aligning with the runway, with a little bit of encroachment on one building, coming up to the corner of [County Road] 42,"Baxter said.

"But other than that, no you really don't have a lot of room to manoeuvre it."

'More stress on the pilot'

Some performers may be willing to adjust their plans to accommodate a specific airfield. But Baxter said that's not a good for safetyin general.

"If they are used to flying the same routine over and over and over again, you don't want them to change just because of one location,"he said."That makes it more difficult on the pilot. That puts more stress on the pilot."

While Baxter admits feeling "kind of bummed out"to realize another air show is unlikely in Windsor, he does see a silver lining in the situation.

"It's too bad, but that's kind of progress for the airport,"he said. "On one hand, it's good for the airport that, you know, they're putting up a new hangar and stuff like that. The location could have been better, but that was not my decision."