Last weekend Sywell Aerodrome hosted their first full airshow - and it became apparent from when they first started releasing information about the participating aircraft that they were going all-out to make this a success. A group of us decided to go along - some for one day, and a few of us bit the bullet and committed to both. Tickets were reasonably priced, standard parking was free, and the participating aircraft looked good - generally a pretty solid basis to assume that a show will be a decent one!
So it proved - and the weather joined in as well to make things even more of a success. Sunshine with a light cooler breeze on Saturday, and Sunday was even warmer, with sunshine pretty much right through the day. We even got airshow favourite clouds scudding across the sky too which from a photography point of view is a winner!
The show opened with the formation above - it’s always a bit of a coup for a show to get an F-35 to fly with anything else, and the two warbirds alongside (a P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang) were just such a good pairing - I think we were all a bit stunned after several passes to be honest! We weren’t given much time to gather ourselves though before the P-47 joined up with iconic B-17 Bomber “Sally B”
How stunning! We weren’t done with USAF types either, a formation of Mustangs was quite something to see, sparkling and gleaming in the sunshine…
These frequently have “bare-metal” type schemes - wonderful to watch, but a bit of a devil to photograph…a bit like the incredible Flying Bulls B-25 Mitchell.
You can literally see the countryside around reflected back from the immaculately polished fuselage! The Flying Bulls are a bit of a rare sight in the U.K. although they do occasionally appear, I’ve seen them just a handful of times though so their participation was extremely welcome and keenly anticipated. They didn’t disappoint either - displaying the Mitchell above with a P-51 Mustang (already seen earlier in the show both with the F-35a and in formation with other mustangs), a Corsair and another rarely seen type, the P-38 Lightning.
Comedy moment of day 1 was undoubtedly the arrival of the Oil Spill Response Boeing 727 which took the commentary team - James Holland of the We Have Ways Podcast, alongside Mike Ling, best known from his time spent with the RAF Red Arrows both as a display pilot and as Red 10, safety supervisor, and also now an accomplished warbird pilot - by surprise. Their astonished reaction elicited an audible ripple of amusement throughout the crowd line!
Another absolute highlight for most of us was the stunning wing walking display from 46-Aviation, a Swiss based (I think?) husband and wife team. The most frequently heard phrase during this one was “well she’s clearly just utterly bonkers isn’t she!” - not surprising when you realise that their finale was this…
Absolutely incredible to watch - she had the entire audience gripped throughout I think, not always the case with wing walking displays. I for one would be delighted to see these guys make more regular UK appearances!
The main display on day 1 ended with a massed Spitfire formation. This is always an incredible treat to see - and indeed hear! They did a few passes in their group of 9 (albeit with one aircraft on day 1 tending to hang back off the main formation a bit, making it tricky to get in shot) then moved to line astern formation to engage in a lengthy tailchase display which was stunning to witness.
Day 2 was much the same as far as the majority of participants were concerned. No F-35 to start, and the display closed with a Red Arrows display after the massed spitfires.
This year’s Reds display is an absolute cracker - without question the best for a fair few years, in fact. The return of the famous Diamond 9 formation after several years of the team flying reduced numbers for various reasons is fantastic to see - and they are flying the above version of short diamond with all 9 jets streaming smoke which is a bit of a nod to this being their Diamond Anniversary year, I think.
There were the usual synchro passes - and I even managed to track the right jet on some of them which was handy! We’d decided on a far more chilled day so were sat a good way back, but of course that doesn’t matter much for a display like the Reds. It’s also nice being able to see and hear the crowd reaction along with the noise of the jets too - the ooohs and ahhhs at Synchro’s close passes, and always a ripple of delight when “Tornado” makes an appearance too.
All in all this show was an absolute winner. A great range of aircraft flying, including stuff rarely seen in the U.K. something a bit “different” too - it’s always great to have something a bit unique to point the camera at! They did a great job with the car park too - staggering the departure times by adding the evening display on Saturday made leaving straightforward, but even on Sunday when a lot of folk were leaving directly after the Reds it was easy - in the car and straight out, barely even stopping. The large shows that have been doing this for years could learn a LOT from their approach!
Well done Sywell - if you run again next year I will be straight in the queue for tickets!
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