Help needed - Photography Aircraft

[ConnieR.]

Hi, I'll be going to my first airshow in May, and I want to be able to take good pictures of the WWII planes. I don't have a DSLR, so I'll be taking my Canon G9. I had a few questions in particular. I've read about using slower shutter speeds for propeller blur, but how do you keep the rest of the plane nice and sharp? The whole plane is moving, so wouldn't there be motion blur with slower shutter speeds? Not to mention that I will be hand-holding the camera. Also, do you use auto-focus, or manual focus? Also, should I use the viewfinder or the LCD? On my old point and shoot camera, I always used the viewfinder when shooting aircraft, because I think the camera doesn't focus fast enough to keep track of the plane in the LCD, but with the Canon G9, the viewfinder is kind of hard to use (not very clear). Another thing is that the Canon G9 doesn't have a lot of zoom, so I probably won't be able to get real closeup pictures.
Thank you all for any comments, suggestions, tips and tricks.