FA-18 at CYHM

So I am walking home from dinner with my parents, full of won tons and rice. It was just such a nice evening that I felt it would be cool to go chill at the airport for a bit. FlyGlobespan was supposed to send their 757 to Glasgow and there were some Westjet shenanigans. So we grabbed the scanner and drove up. We got there and there had to be 25 cars parked at the cargo road. This is odd, because there is rarely more than 2 cars there. So we drove past them and went to park closer to the gates, which is near the bravo taxiway, it turns directly off of 12-30 runway. We parked beside a van, and asked the nice dutch couple why there are so many people here! They were the same as us, regulars to CYHM, and astonished to see how many people were there. They asked the people down the road and got that someone's relative was flying a military jet over! They said it was "stealth!" (with a puzzled look on their face) We waited for about 30 minutes and we heard that there was going to be a plane with some generic call sign cross the field...we all stood up and scanned the horizon...turns out it was only a Cessna 172. Then later we hear 'Cougar 938" on the scanner for a simulated ILS on 30, he was on his lefthand downwind. I thought to myself, I've heard that call sign before, just can't remember where! Soon enough we all see it, an CF-18 Hornet! This is one of the aircraft bassed out of Cold Lake Alberta, it was in town for the football game, and clearly something else...US!!!
He did several low passes with full afterburner! It was very loud, you could fell it scream all through your body and in to the ground. He pulled some maneuvers and nearly washed out a 737! (seriously)
Best of all, once this was all done, we taxied down Bravo, and WAIVED! What a nice guy!
Clearly, he knew, or was related to someone down the road from us because it's a little odd that he put on that fantastic 40 min show for a bunch of nobodies.
Then we thought...THE FUEL! Think of our tax money! Being burned by jet engines!! Oh well, I think it was well worth it, and I'm glad my intuition told me we should be at the airport!

Here's a crappy camera phone video I took, the video does not do the sound, or the feeling justice, but it's close :D

Enjoy!

A Quick Update

As you can imagine I've been pretty busy with preparing for China and whatnot. I've finally caught a break now, so I'll get everyone up to speed.

With regards to China. I'm down to the final preparations now, mostly just buying small things, getting in contact with Eddie, and some light packing. I got my Visa from the consulate in Toronto. That was quite an experience. We had a very...interesting representative at the desk who was, for lack of a better word, angry. She was pretty much yelling and throwing pens, she seemed very frustrated, and took it out on us. The place was pretty packed, and there was heavy security because of potential protests regarding something or another...
Turns out I could only get a 30 day visa. I had to reschedule my flight so I called up Air Canada and spoke to lovely Monica who helped me get an awesome deal on a ticket from YYZ to PEK. The ticket ended up being only 750 with taxes and whatnot. That's awesome when you consider how much was payed for the tickets home. I ended up actually saving money too!
The Moleskine continues to get filled out. I look at it now as a travel book, not just a China book. I've filled it up with baggage claim stickers, and luggage flags from previous flights, just to spruce it up a bit. I'll be looking to hold on to this one, and fill it out with future travel details, not just China.


In other news...

For some reason, I kinda want to get business cards. This has always been a wild obsession of mine so I went ahead and did it. I know it's kind of redundant because I'm not part of a corporation, but it is going to be fun, to pass these out to friends when the need a number, or email. And yes, it follows the EHDT theme, incase you're wondering.
I've put a hold on the stickers simply because I don't want to pay for them right now. No other reason. I'd rather save the money for a good meal in China. Once I get back I'll order them, and we can expect them around...October-ish.

Well, as I said, I'm pretty busy. I'll keep posting often up until the seventh, from then, nobody knows.

Till then...

PEACE