The snow has melted and the grass outside Pete McLeod’s hangar in London, Ontario is green – two signs it must be air show season.

McLeod has been busy during the winter months finalizing the 2012 schedule and getting the Edge 540 ready for a busy summer ahead.

“I put a lot of strain on the engine and airframe over the course of an air show season, it’s important to use the winter months properly to prepare the plane for the season,” said McLeod from his hangar. “The support of the team at XU Aviation and Ly-Con Aircraft Engines is amazing – all their expertise and hard work ensures that I can push the plane to the limits.”

In recent months, the engine has been overhauled and regular annual maintenance along with minor upgrades to the airframe have been completed.

Pete has begun his pre-season flying schedule and is fine tuning his ‘bag of tricks’ for the 2012 season. The focus of early season flying is to ensure the plane is running properly and to strengthen G-tolerance and stamina.

When asked about the effects of the winter off-season on the body and flying, Pete replied, “off-season time in the gym and training helps, but there is simply no substitute for high-G airtime. There’s always going to be some aches and pains in the spring until your body is really ready to run as hard as the plane. I’m getting there again now, feeling good…ready to run Max Power!”

“The plane is running great and I’m already working on piecing together the new routine for 2012,” said McLeod after a practice flight. “Everything is on schedule and things are coming together nicely. I’m excited for the show season to start.”

The first show of the season, the Waterloo Air Show is still a few weeks away but Pete has been busy doing advance interviews with media in Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph.

“There seems to be a great buzz in the Kitchener-Waterloo region about the show this year, I’m excited to get the season started with a great Southern Ontario show.”

25 of Canada’s top paper plane engineers recently battled it out for a chance to represent Canada in the Red Bull Paper Wings World Championship taking place at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria on May 4-5.

Pete McLeod was on site at the national final that took place at MX Aerospace Centre to oversee the competition and serve as a judge.

“Judging the paper wings competition brought back a lot of great memories of making paper airplanes during class in high school," said McLeod from the PMR hangar leaning on the Edge with a smile. "It's too bad the rules prevent use of engines, I know it's paper planes, but adding a few horses could really make things interesting."

Students from 10 universities across Canada competed in one of three categories: distance, airtime and aerobatics.

Zsean Qureshi earned top spot in the longest distance category with a flight distance of 37.4 metres (122.7 feet). Ken Blackburn and William Murphy took home the title for longest airtime when their planes stayed airborne for 10.19 seconds.

Addison Asuchak captured the aerobatics category. Addison wowed Pete and the other judges with his technical design and creative performance earning the top score of 23 points.

Pete McLeod spent the weekend in Quebec City attending one of the fastest growing sporting events in the world – Red Bull Crashed Ice.

The final race of the 2012 season took place in Quebec City on Saturday March, 17th where Canadian Kyle Croxall captured the world championship title in front of over 100,000 spectators.

“It’s amazing to see how much the sport of ‘Ice Cross’ has grown in magnitude over the years,” said McLeod from his hangar in London, ON as he oversaw some mechanical work on the airplane.

“The event has grown on every level, the scale of the track, speed of the skaters and most notably the pumped-up crowd – the crowd was absolutely wild and it created an amazing atmosphere for a great night of ice cross.”

The 2012 season saw the world’s best skaters compete in four races including Saint Paul (USA), Valkenburg (NED), Aare (SWE) and Quebec City (CAN). The downhill tracks are approximately 350 metres long and competitors race in heats of four reaching speeds of up to 70kph.

In addition to Pete’s media commitments while in Quebec City, he had the opportunity to meet with other Red Bull athletes from across Canada and around the globe.

“It always amazes me how much high-level athletes from completely different sports can have in common. The mental side, training and ingrained lifestyle are very similar. Red Bull has a very special network of athletes and it always makes for a good time.”

When asked if he will be taking his racing skills to the ice cross track in the future McLeod replied, “It looks like fun but I think I would miss the speed and three dimensions of freestyle aerobatics and air race. Maybe I could get 350 horsepower skates and a G-suit? Now that sounds fun!”

Following a busy 2011 air show season and coming off two years of racing in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, Pete’s Edge 540 is getting a much needed off-season overhaul in preparation for the 2012 air show season.

“Flying coast-to-coast across Canada and pushing the Edge to the limits puts a lot of stress on the airframe, engine and propeller,” said McLeod from his hangar in London, Ontario. “We use the off-season and cold weather to take care of maintenance and upgrades the aircraft requires, ensuring peak performance for the entire upcoming season. I operate in unique circumstances compared to most types of aviation and the high standard of our maintenance program reflects that.”

XU Aviation, a leading aircraft maintenance facility and specialist in structural and modern composite work has been a long-standing partner and sponsor of Pete. XU’s team is once again helping with off-season maintenance to ensure the plane is ready for the upcoming season.

Famed engine builder Ken Tunnell of Ly-Con Aircraft Engines of Visalia, California, (builder of Pete’s racing motor) is managing the engine overhaul.

“I push the Edge to its limits every time I strap-in so it takes a lot of abuse over the course of an air show season. Without the support and expertise of Chris and his team at XU Aviation I would not be able to push the airplane to the limits I do,” said McLeod.

Work is expected to wrap up within the next month ensuring Pete and his aircraft will be ready for the spring weather to arrive.

Did You Know?

Zivko Aeronautics of Guthrie, Oklahoma built Pete’s Edge 540, SN0025, in 1999 (Pete was 15 years old). Originally delivered to a customer in the United States, the aircraft was brought to Europe in 2004 by soon-to-be Red Bull Air Race World Champion Hannes Arch.

In 2006, Kirby Chambliss used the plane for the European races of his RBARWC title win.

2007 saw Hannes Arch, as a RBAR rookie, race the plane for a full season as he developed an improved Edge 540 to earn him the title in 2008.

Pete took ownership of the aircraft in 2009 as he prepared for his Red Bull Air Race rookie debut. McLeod raced and modified SN0025 throughout the 2009 and 2010 race seasons, ultimately taking him to a 5th place overall finish in the 2010 season.

With the arrival of the Edge 540 V3 to PMR’s stable, SN0025 was reconfigured for freestyle aerobatics and is now on active duty as Pete’s go-to aerobatic machine.