mstares wrote: ↑Sun Sep 10, 2017 11:40 pm
Nick,
First of all congratulations on last year's show. I flew up from Newfoundland, and it was worth every penny. The organization, line-up, lay out and light(except Saturday, but hey that's beyond your control) were all great. My experience last year and the announced line up for this year have convinced me to travel up for the show again.
While I signed up for all available photopass days last year, I shot the Thursday and the Monday from outside. This initially was due to travel timing issues but it worked out well as I could shoot earlier departures/arrivals with the sun at my back, along the northern perimeter road, to east of the approach/departure path (Shifting to west as the sun came around). A few of my best shots of the weekend came from the road.
This year I also signed up for all available photopass days, but again I will face the same travel timing issues (not your problem, I know). As such I was again considering shooting the Thursday and Monday from the outside to self-accommodate my timing issues and take advantage of being able to move during the day as the sun comes around.
So the above message is disappointing. If I am reading the the above correctly it appears that the northern perimeter road will be closed to traffic on the Thursday and Monday. I am curious as to the rationale for this? Is there an aerobatic safety box in place for Thursday or Monday? Were there any traffic safety issues last year (The local police took no issue that I saw last year)? Given that many other shows don't block off the public perimeter roads on arrival/departure days (Nellis, RIAT etc) I am surprised by this development.
Still very much looking forward to the show, but this takes a bit of the shine off.
Mark
Mark,
Thanks for your kind words. I just run social media & do some extra things to help out - the real congratulations should be going to the Board and Air Ops team, as well as the hard working volunteers who make the show work as well as it does. I really appreciate the kind words. Really glad to hear you're returning back again this year! We're amazed at how many people are making the long trips in for the show.
With the photopit pass, if you bought the bundle package the road closures will be of no issue to you. You will have early access before the show, so capturing some of the arrivals will be of no concern. I do understand the disappointment though - from someone being a spectator last year, it would be a total buzz kill to know I didn't have the chance again. As I mentioned above, my team is still awaiting on the final word from officials on Severity, times & what roads will be unavailable for public access. I don't want to be the one to say you won't get access & suddenly roads are open and I look like a schmuck. But I also don't want people to make their plans based on the fact that "Hey, last year it was open so why would it change this year?" - it's a tough spot at the moment. I just encourage EVERYONE to hold off on making these plans until we give official word via social media pages.
There are multiple factors that play into road closures for this show. First off, the northern roads are in the Aerobatic box. So during Friday practices, these roads will be closed anyway. Safety is also a concern, I'm sure the LPD doesn't want 300 cars sitting on Creamery as aircraft are landing or departing very close. Not that it's been an issue in the past, but I assume with the volume and type of aircraft attending, it posses a little more a safety concern. Traffic is also something that plays into this as well, we want home owners on these streets to have easy access to their residence without having to pile there way through mass crowds of vehicles and people. For roads like Robins Hill Rd, Crumlin Rd, Huron Rd - they're all closed anyway because it's on Airshow Grounds, also so they can keep a steady flow of traffic through there, as you know the road network is tricky. Another one I can recall is the possibility of garbage being left around the roads, property being altered in ways, farmers crops being used as a parking lot, etc.
These aren't OFFICIAL reasons of what will result in strict road closures. But these are things that I myself can see being reasons for this.
To cap it off. Please keep an eye out on the social media pages for posts regarding this - we're waiting for the finalized info to become available before we post about it. I made the comment above to people to WARN them about the possibility of strict road closures - so please caution this.
More info will be public soon.
