India Four Two, your observations in regards to the Snowbirds are right on, "Joe Public" simply doesnt understand the difference between a technically good performance and a pure entertaining show, noisy low passes { mind you, its hard to make a lot of noise with a Tutor!} and such things as making a loop recovery look close to the ground is what they want, simple to do by "getting it made" at the "Top Gate" and then letting it go lose on the way down. The bigger question is should the military be spending money on" entertaiment "given the present world situation where every buck should go towards beating the mad men trying to destroy everthing we hold dear? As for such teams being a recruiting tool, hardley required these days given the pay scales and benifits in the modern military. The days are long gone when we could put up almost unlimited number of teams from a vast number of squadrons and aircraft we had available l. Im sure such opinions are not too popular with many, but other countries have worked this out and either shut down their teams, or like NZ ,replaced them with small teams flying what are in fact GA aircraft.As I type this Im looking at a photo of 78 of us in formation flying over Ottawa, this was fun, but we wont ever see such sights in the future, a pity, but true Im afraid.