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| BBMF Spitfire AB910 |
Last weekend I did my second show of the year - Midlands Air festival at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. This has turned into a bit of a favourite of ours - tending to attract quite a lot of the usual gang - as it has a lovely laid back chilled atmosphere without the "race to the fenceline" that so many shows seem to end up with. I'm beyond feeling interested in that these days - so a show where we can rock up several hours after the gates open and still perfectly well find a spot with a great view is a win.
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| Grumman Turbo Firecat |
My pal Tim and I opted to stay on the outskirts of Warwick - just a 25 minute drive away - and it was there that we met on the Thursday evening before heading to a lovely nearby pub for some good beers, food and chat - a nice start to a couple of days away. The following morning continued in a similarly laid-back fashion as we met downstairs for breakfast before heading off to the show.
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| MiG 17 |
The flying programme included the usual suspects as well as a few things that were a bit different. A highlight for me was a MiG 17 jet aircraft - a type that first flew in the 1950's with this being the first time a number of us had seen one fly. A slightly more angular version of the familiar MiG 15 which we've seen on the circuit for a few years, this has the distinction of having an afterburner system that means it shoots tongues of flame out of the rear - great for photos! Always a highlight is of course the BBMF - reduced on both days we attended to a single aircraft due to technical issues, but that was tempered by that single aircraft being beautiful Mk V Spitfire AB901 as per the first photo, flown by the lovely Andy Preece - always a joy to see him fly! Day two saw some more jets - The Red Arrows and the Strikemaster Display Team's pairs display.
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| Balloons mass ascent |
The other big appeal of the show is that it is almost as much about hot air balloons as it is about traditional aircraft - the picture above is from the most stunning mass ascent on the Friday evening, goodness knows how many balloons in total went up, but there were definitely in excess of 60 because one of my photos has that many visible! I looked around me at one stage - and everywhere people were standing, staring at the sky with broad smiles on their faces, the happiness and joy was palpable! We agreed it was one of the best things we'd ever seen at an airshow, in fact. That night wrapped up with the beautiful "Nightglow" too - again a stunning thing, and followed by a fantastic fireworks display too.
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| Hot Air Balloon nightglow |
A great show and certainly one we'll go back year on year to we reckon. Next up is another trip to lovely Shuttleworth later in the month, who knows, maybe I will blog about that one too?!
Robyn
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