show us through your eyes elcome to the fourth annual Skies Photo Contest! If you love aviation photography, you’ve picked up the right magazine. Every year, we invite readers to submit their best photos. And every year, they outdo themselves! This year’s contest netted some of the most jaw-dropping, gob-smacking, incredible aviation images we’ve ever seen. That’s really saying something for a magazine that prides itself on publishing only the best aviation photography. It’s what makes us different and keeps you, the reader, turning the page to see what’s next! We were particularly pleased to see that the submissions reflected the universal nature of aviation. The photos showcased aircraft of all sizes and stripes, including military, general aviation, airlines, warbirds, business jets and helicopters. The Skies Photo Contest was open to both amateur and professional Canadian photographers over the age of 18. Photos were submitted in four categories: Airshows, Commercial, Military and General Aviation. Once the contest closed on Sept. 1, the Skies team had the difficult task of narrowing down the entries in each category. Then, we called in our 11 contest sponsors. Representatives from Cascade W Proudly Sponsored By: 76 SKIES Magazine | December 2017/January 2018 Aerospace, Columbia Aircraft Sales, Daher, FlightPath International, Innotech- Execaire Aviation Group, Keystone Aviation, Levaero Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Scott Builders, Universal Avionics Systems Corporation and Vector Aerospace voted for their favourite photos in each category, as did MHM Publishing staff. Ballots were cast by email address, to ensure each person had only one vote, and were tallied automatically. As you’ll see on page 3 and here on this spread, our 2017 Grand Prize goes to Jan Jasinski, who was on hand at Ottawa International Airport when then-U.S. President Barack Obama departed after a June 2016 state visit. As the sun began to set, Jan captured Air Force 1 in the perfect light to create this unforgettable photo. Congratulations on winning our grand prize, Jan! The first, second and third place winners in each of the four categories appear on the following pages, as well as some honourable mentions. While it’s impossible to print all of the stunning photos we received, we hope you enjoy the winning selections. The Skies team thanks all photographers for their submissions. Of course, we also recognize and thank our contest sponsors for supporting the fourth annual Skies Photo Contest.