Icebound wrote:
This is the Canadian military. There is no such thing as
"no-expense-spared", although there IS care, skill, dedication and
ingenuity.

There are also 10 full-time professional mechanics for 9 airplanes.
That sure sounds like "no-expense-spared" to me.

I am pretty comfortable with it, as long as they are

As am I. I fully support their right to accept whatever level of risk
is acceptable to them. Let's just not kid ourselves about what that
level of risk is - when the reporters point out how many accidents
there have been, these are not numbers taken out of context. The
accident rate is pretty bad - comparable to motorcycle racing, BASE
jumping, and similarly hazardous activities. The difference is, the
Canadian taxpayer isn't funding motorcycle racing or BASE jumping
teams.

Is that a criteria? Military value?

Sure. I guess I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that the proper
function of taxation is to pay for things in common that we can't
reasonably pay for individually and which are necessary for all, like
the common defense. I don't believe entertainment falls into that
category, much as I enjoy that particular form of entertainment.

The Snowbirds safety record is certainly comparable to the Blue
Angels. The
Blue Angels have had one training/show death for every 14 million
spectators, while the Snowbirds record is 1 for 20 million
spectators.

That's certainly an interesting way to asess safety. The implicit
assumption here is that it's OK to have more fatalities if you draw
sufficiently bigger crowds, as this will make your death/spectator
ratio lower. Not that I have a problem with that, mind you - I simply
want the assumption out in the open where it can be examined. It will
certainly make a less-popular but much safer act that only ever had ONE
fatality look a lot worse because the spectator numbers will be lower.

In any case, while the comparison with the Blue Angels is reasonable, I
certainly never meant to imply that the Snowbirds were less safe than
the Blues nor in any way inferior. I've seen both acts, and while
they're very different they're both great to watch. If it makes you
feel better, I don't like my tax money paying for the Blue Angels
either - though I will happily buy a ticket to a performance.

Michael