After decades of fiscal neglect, our air force is regaining strength.

One of the reasons I like going to air shows is that I’m surrounded by the audience of this magazine. Now, by no means do all of the folks attending Abbotsford, the CNE or Canadian Aviation Expo subscribe to the magazine (one can dream), but just about everyone who does go to the show will have the same interests and observations as those who read us regularly. So, while I stop short of carrying a recorder with me, I do pay attention to what people are saying — you might call it eavesdropping, but I prefer to call it research — and try to think of ways that it applies to the magazine. In Abbotsford, I heard comments I never expected to hear from Canadian mouths.