Challenger - Montebello 2005

Challenger Winter Rendezvous: Montebello 2005

Saturday and Sunday, January 28 and 29, 2005 saw record breaking crowds attend the 15th annual Challenger Owners Association Winter Rendezvous at the Chateau Montebello in Montebello, Quebec.

ChallengerWest was proud to be among some 200 participants from across Canada (St. Johns Newfoundland to Nanoose Bay, BC, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory) who attended the 15th annual winter fly-in.

Here are a few additional photos taken at Montebello 2005 by ChallengerWest

Best of Show Winner, 2005:

Your Friendly Neighborhood Challenger...

This year marked another record as some 35 Challenger aircraft flew in and were on hand for viewing, flying, and just "plane admiring"!

Video Clips from Montebello, 2005

Best Ye Be on High Speed Net if You're Flyin Here!

Semi-ballistic Challenger Fly-Bys (2.5Mb)

Several demonstrations of Challenger rate of climb. Sort of like an F-18, personal-plane style!
Challengers are a great means of transportation, and since you might as well have a lot of fun getting where you're going ... well, they're just ideal!

Best of Show - Leaving for Home! (14 Mb)

Here is the 2005 Best of Show winner, India-Papa-Juliette-Bravo, and a couple of buddies departing for home. Love that paint!
The guys were kind enough to taxi downwind for an exciting fly-by departure. The interlude is filled with dogs, quads, skiers, and sights and sounds of some local home-builts who came to commiserate with the challengers.

Everybody's Buggin' Out (56Mb)

A collage of Challengers heading home after a very fun weekend. Sorry about the wind noise - trying to filter it out might mask some of those lovely two-strokes! The last plane out is Major Claude Roy, organizer of the whole event - and our many thanks to him and his helpers for a Fantastic event!

See Ya Next Year!

Free, but needed to play these files

In addition to the aircraft themselves, there were numerous seminars, Challenger equipment exhibits, and the outstanding Banquet on Saturday evening. Some 200 enthusiasts ate way too much great food and commiserated about the Challenger aircraft and all things aviation. The culmination of the evening was a delightful presentation by Doug and Denise Gagnon about their 4,200 kilometre journey from Barrie, Ontario to Nanoose Bay, BC., in the fall of 2004 in this very pretty Challenger.

The Fairmont Chateau Montebello is truly one of Canada's most beautiful destination resorts. When we weren't busy looking at Challengers, there was dog sledding, snowshoeing, horse drawn sleigh rides, cross country skiing, para-skiing, skating, swimming, and numerous other winter activities to enjoy.