Airshows 2026....DONE!

 

The first weekend in October saw my final two airshows of the season - Duxford on the Saturday with their "Flying Finale" and Shuttleworth's "Race Day" show the following day. I enjoy both these shows - Duxford often offers a final chance to see the RAF Red Arrows and Typhoon Display with this year being no exception, and Shuttleworth also always seem to pull out the stops for their shows, so it is nice to have that as a "last show of the season". 

There were four of us for Duxford - Adam, Mark W and me, plus my pal Tim who had come all the way down from Yorkshire for the show. The Reds also had a tent and the pilots were attending the show on the ground in the morning so I bumped into a number of pals around the tent, including several people who had been at our incredible Waddington visit a couple of weeks ago. Caz and I grabbed a chance for a selfie with outgoing Red 1 Jon Bond…

...and I also had a nice chat with Reds PR Manager Andy - having not seen him all season it was funny to see him twice in just over a fortnight! Lovely to see the boys one last time for the season too. 

As well as a nice Reds display, we also had the usual Duxford massed warbirds, a Typhoon display where he found an astonishing amount of vapour in the air, and plenty of other assorted WW2 era aircraft including the not that often seen P-40 Warhawk and the Hawker Nimrod Mk 1. Not the longest of displays, but still good viewing, although as always with Duxford it is a shame that everything displays quite so far away from the crowdline, and they let themselves down by allowing the car park to turn into a free-for-all on exit too, Tim and I were a full hour getting out, and believe it or not, that is actually good going! 

Shuttleworth the following day was a stark contrast in that there was relatively little need for the longer end of my 100-500mm lens, everything flies far closer to the crowd, with stunning topside passes. (They also manage to deal with their car park emptying rather better too - a far more palatable 15 minutes and that got me all the way to the main road, which must be around 1.5 miles from the car park rather than Duxford's few hundred yards!)  I was with Mark W and Richard for this one, but again bumped into other pals while there too.

Highlights for me were a first display for a while by the collection's Percival Mew Gull - recently out of deep maintenance - and  the lovely three-ship formation involving the P-51 Mustang with the Grumman Bearcat and Hawker Fury, three aircraft which turned out to be surprisingly well matched. The light and conditions throughout the day were lovely, with the golden light of late afternoon being particularly spectacular.

Icing on the cake was the wind being light enough at the end of the day for some really special aircraft to display. The English Electric Wren is a favourite of all regular Shuttleworth attendees - it seems to get into the air as much via the will of the crowd as by the usual methods, and it is the only aircraft I've ever seen display that gets a hearty cheer simply for leaving the ground! The Bristol Box Kite is actually a replica of the 1910 original - this one was built in the 1960s for the film "Those magnificent Men in their Flying Machines". These only fly when there is pretty much NO wind, so seeing them is always a treat! 

And now that will be that for shows until 2027. Soon enough we can turn attention towards Red Arrows winter training, which is always enjoyable although I never seem to get up there as much as I would ideally like. In spring next year the BBMF workups will start too - always a highlight - and Typhoon as well, although they tend to rarely do practises on a Friday now which is a shame as of course that's the day I can easily do. Until then though it's an opportunity to save up for tickets, and process the masses of pictures from this season I still  haven't got to! 

Robyn

An(other) unexpected treat…

 

Isn’t it cheerful when lovely things happen - and all the more so when they pop up completely out of the blue? At the tail end of our holiday I was more than a bit surprised to get a message inviting me to pop up to RAF Waddington for a Red Arrows in-season practise. You might recall that I do travel up there to shoot those whenever I can but this was an invitation from the team to head on to base to watch the practise from there!  It is the current Red 1’s final season, and he had decided that he wanted to extend a thank you to some of the amateur photographers who have photographed him over the 8 seasons he has been on the team, which was a lovely gesture, and very unexpected indeed.

The boss in his first season in the iconic red suit

My first issue was whether I would be able to secure the holiday time - I wasn’t even due back into the office for another few days, and was then only meant to be working three days before having another week off for a trip to Lundy - so I was well aware that I was probably on rather thin ice - regardless I sent a hopeful message explaining the situation and thank goodness got an “oh, go on then!” one in return shortly after. Phew! 

Even the crew room mugs are in formation! 

Thursday morning saw me in the car heading up - very excited and completely unsure what to expect. On arriving at the specified location at the base I met the other invitees, all similarly in the dark. Much nervous giggling ensued as we waited for our escort round to the RAFAT section. I don’t think there was anyone among us who was anything other than slightly astonished to find ourselves there! 

Claire, Caz, Tom & me failing to hide our excitement!

Our escort turned out to be the very lovely Doug - Chief of Staff and someone I have known for years, so that was excellent! With parking at the squadron apparently at a premium that day, once equipped with our visitor passes we hopped into two cars and proceeded through past lots of interesting looking buildings - Waddington is very different from the slightly run-down familiarity of Scampton with its World War 2 infrastructure and is also far bigger! Into the squadron building - but not before I had noticed just outside my lovely XX311 - the jet my pal Ross flew in in 2014 - now retired and installed as Squadron guardian!

XX311 enjoying her retirement 

The all important brew was a priority of course - always - an introduction to Joe from the PR team who was helping to host us, and lots of hellos from various people milling about too, and then Doug explained that we would be sitting in on the pre practice briefing which was very exciting - I have done this before but not for a lot of years. Briefings are fascinating - hearing all information relevant to the next activity being imparted and then the whole intended display plus any likely variations talked through step by step in incredible detail. Once complete, the pilots headed off to get kitted up and we went back to the crew room where someone else I have known for years- P R Manager Andy Morton - joined us. He wasted no time in jokingly pointing out how little I had been about this season - a very valid point indeed! We split into two groups at that stage to head out to datum, Claire and I hopped into the car with Andy driving along with another of our group, David, and a chap called Steve who was there filming, and Doug drove the rest of the group. 

OC RAFAT supervising, Iwan filming - “Rollbacks” in the background

The practice itself was essentially like watching our own private Red Arrows display - and watching everyone get their”game faces” on once the camera kit came out was entertaining. I do wonder what the value of the assembled kit out there was though - I suspect well north of £50k total between us, and that is not counting Steve’s kit and that of the team’s own photographer! New Officer Commanding Wing Commander Sasha Nash was supervising, I’d not met her before so it was nice to have quick chat in between her duties.

Back to the squadron then, and after a bit of a break for the pilots time for the debrief - another treat! Just as fascinating - the level of scrutiny they subject themselves to is astonishing - after all these years we are pretty good at noticing stuff that isn’t quite to the incredibly high standard the team set for themselves and indeed the Boss (Red 1 is always known as The Boss) commented that we were all very good at not posting photos of those moments, but they pick up on the tiniest things that are invisible to us! Seeing the way they call themselves out on errors really underlines why the team motto is “Eclat” - Excellence. 

There was still more in store for us - photos outside with the team, both individually and as a group…thanks to Claire for the shot above - and then a hangar tour where the very lovely Matt, one of the team’s armourers - gave us all sorts of interesting info about the jets in the hangar and the engineering side in general. It is always great to see the jets up close, but being able to look inside the engine bay was a new one for me - with the engine (below) having been dropped out of XX219 to go to Rolls Royce for repair.

Rolls Royce Adour engine as used in the Hawk.

We got the chance to sit in the training jet too - active team jets are off limits to visitors but the training jet has its ejection seat system disabled and so is “safe” for random people! Naturally after all my work with the Blues and circus team in the past I chose the backseat!   Time then for farewells, and heartfelt thank you’s from us - I think we were all a bit shell-shocked to be honest, it was an incredible day and although we didn’t really know what to expect, it wasn’t a fraction of that! - before Joe who had been looking after us through the day drove us back across to our cars.  

Simply a superb day, and an incredible opportunity, one I am so glad to have been able to accept and something I certainly won’t forget in a hurry! 

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

...or "when two worlds collide"! This was something completely different and unexpected for me during last year's trip. We were walking on the beach in Benbecula, and suddenly heard a rather familiar noise which set my aviation antenna twitching. Sure enough, next thing, an RAF A400M joined the circuit for Benbecula airport! Having circuited a couple of times it appeared to vanish, leaving us wondering where it had disappeared to - it was no longer on the tracking apps but could simply have gone out of range of the nearest relay. A lovely and helpful pal with access to more detail on such things than I have was able to tell me that it had indeed landed at Benbecula though, so having finished out walk, we decided we might as well just pop along there and see if it was visible...

Happily, not only was it, but the same pal was also able to give me a rough timeframe for its expected departure, so we settled in happily (well, in my case, MrEH may not have been so chuffed) on the dunes overlooking the end of the runway. I won't lie, it was chilly, and at times damp, but thankfully shortly before my feet went completely numb, we saw movement and she taxied out along the runway! I was able to get a nice little sequence of shots including the one above which really feels as though it nicely sums up the remoteness of the location! Oddly enough, later on during the same trip we were also overflown low and VERY fast by a couple of RAF Typhoon jets - no pictures of those though, they were simply way too quick! 

Robyn

Oh we do like to be...

...beside the seaside - and none the more so than for an airshow, of course! It was a few years since I had been to Eastbourne, but particularly after the loss of The Royal International Air Tattoo last month, a nice 4 day show in the sun seemed like just the thing! We did have one little (!) glitch in the run-up when our accommodation - booked last October - was unceremoniously cancelled by the hosts just a fortnight away from the show, far from ideal allowing for how booked up everywhere gets in the area. Sadly this lead to the pal I was intending to be sharing it with deciding not to go, while I thankfully managed to secure a room in a lovely little B&B a mile along the seafront. This proved an absolute winner with lovely walks along the seafront to be enjoyed and some of the most delicious breakfasts imaginable, and all at a price lower than I was paying for the shared Airbnb place which has been refunded to us. If you find yourself needing accommodation in Eastbourne then "Number Ninety One" comes highly recommended from me! 

The four days of flying did see some variation in the aircraft displaying, although there were some ever-presents across all four days too like Sally B above - the only airworthy B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe and always wonderful to see. Sadly the Red Arrows were unable to attend, being forced to cancel a few days out as they were stranded in Canada following the completion of their tour of the USA with poor weather conditions meaning they were unable to safely cross the Atlantic. As the show organisers firmly said though, "the Red Arrows do NOT make Eastbourne!" - the RAF was still represented well with their Tutor and Typhoon aircraft, and of course the wonderful Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight. 

I think a highlight for a lot of folk was probably one of the "something a bit different" offerings in the shape of the Conair Turbo Firecat pictured above completing one of its water drops - as you can see it is a waterbomber for use in putting out fires which felt quite appropriate with the amount of wildfires burning across the UK at the current time! We saw this at the Midlands Air Festival earlier in the year as well so it was nice to get an extra couple of chances to photograph it! 

The BBMF are of course always a joy to see - this year without the Lancaster which is undergoing major maintenance so we are getting a chance to see the Dakota flying - this weekend planned to be with two Spitfires alongside, although we did sadly lose one of those to a technical fault for a couple of the days. As luck would (not!) have it the one with the fault was also the one being flown by my lovely friend Andy on those two days which was a shame (for him, too!). The BBMF also gave me my favourite photo (so far at least) of the weekend in the shape of the one above taken during the tailchase sequence with Andy (in AB910 with the invasion stripes) tucked in nicely behind the Dakota, and Sqn. Ldr. Al Luckins flying the clipped-wing Spitfire TE311 forming a tidy line directly behind them - even the props on all three aircraft have played ball for me on this one! 

Always a crowd pleaser is of course the RAF's Typhoon Display - with this year's outstanding display clearly being the Saturday one where pilot Tom Nation found every scrap of the moisture in the air on a very humid day! A bit of vapour (or "spluff" in aviation photographer parlance) always makes a display more dynamic to photograph - and never more so than when it is also teamed with a lovely blue sky as it was here! 

Outside of flying times there was plenty of fun to be had with the pub of course being the location of choice for evening socialising. We also had a delicious Italian meal one day, fish & chips on the seafront on another, and some very tasty ice-cream! Tim & Alysha were wonderful company, and it was as always great to see Claire although only relatively briefly this time. I was reminded what a lovely laid back show Eastbourne is too - and although it may not be next year when I next head down, I'm certain I'll back back again at some stage! 

Robyn.

Grump Grump GRUMPY!

 

Red 8 & Circus 8 2014 - "Stop!"

So - right now we should be sitting on an RAF Base in Gloucestershire baking our backsides off and wielding our cameras at lots of fantastic aircraft at the Royal International Air Tattoo - lovely vintage ones, big commercial ones, heavy military ones and whizzy fast pointy ones -  and why are we not, you may well ask? Well, events in Iran have meant the cancellation of the event for this year - as soon as the USA started their little party, and rather a lot of B-52 & B-1 airframes started arriving at Fairford, we had our suspicions that the writing might be on the wall, and sure enough, late May saw the expected email land from RIAT telling us the news. It has to be said at the time it was just a case of shrug, think "not unexpected" and make some decisions around tickets, accommodation etc - but now the dates of the show have come and we're not there it is hitting harder!

2016 - Red 1 & Prince George

I first went to RIAT in 2014, and have been back every year that the show has run since, with the last few years being in the FRIAT (Friends of RIAT) enclosure with its grandstand seating, marquee and (the best bit) posh toilets!  we pay a premium for this of course with tickets pitched at the £300+ level, but also get the benefit of attending right from the first day of arrivals through to departures day which makes for 6 days of immense fun. We've seen ludicrously cold-for-July shows, lovely sunny shows, shows where there has been SO much rain that we've barely seen anything fly some days, shows where the relentless grey wall of cloud has been ever-present and shows when it's been so hot we honestly felt like we were frying. This year it must be said would probably have been one of the latter! Regardless though, it is always one of the highlights of the airshow season, and it does really feel very strange indeed to not be there!

2017 - Italian Tornado creating some heat...

It made me think back to some favourite moments from the years I've attended - with the first shot above being my absolute favourite RAF Red Arrows groundshot from my very first Circus at Work project in 2014. Then Circus 8 Ross was one of the original reasons for these projects starting, and has featured here on the blog a fair few times I think. the second photo I've chosen is also featuring the reds - this time then Red 1 David Montenegro with a rather little Prince George, along with the now Princess of Wales of course. I got a tip off a very short while before this visit happened and was lucky to be able to get myself in position to get some nice shots of their time with the team. 

2019 - Not all grey skies are bad...

Next up the Italian Tornado display aircraft from 2017 - this was an absolute highlight of the show that year and never more than when it took off on day 2 in nasty persistent drizzly rain and produced a sensational display that was worth getting the camera wet for!  Also memorable thanks to weather conditions was the now rather evocative shot of Battle of Britain Memorial flight Spitfire MK356 against heavy grey skies in 2019. I love the way the colour of that cloud brings out the colours of the aircraft, and also that it is being flown by my pal Andy. Sadly this is the aircraft that was lost in the crash at Coningsby in 2024, which also lead to the death of the then pilot, Squadron Leader Mark Long, I still love the photograph but seeing it now certainly makes me think. 

2022 - The Korean Black Eagles

A two year break over Covid in common with most other big events was certainly a blow, but because of the bigger picture was somehow slightly easier to swallow, and of course when we all got back there in 2022 it just felt like the biggest treat!  That year probably the biggest buzz surrounded the Korean Black Eagles who put on some absolutely sensational displays - they are probably the closest display team to the UK's Red Arrows in terms of precision and the dynamic nature of the display and I think pretty much the entire crowd was totally wowed by them. 

2024 - Turkish F-4 Phantom arriving

The 2024 show definitely saw a person highlight for me in the shape of my first sight of flying F-4 Phantoms - the one pictured above being from Turkey but there were also Greek ones attending too. There is just something special about these aircraft - it's far from just me who was excited to see them! The tail art on this one was spectacular too - the Greek aircraft also had tail art but sadly applied by transfers and those didn't survive the stresses of the transit and landing so well!

2025 - Apache pyros

I confess I struggled to choose a favourite shot or moment from the 2025 show - it could easily have been the Spitfire pair from the Aircraft Restoration Company and Rolls Royce, the stunning Danish F-16 solo display in its final ever UK displays, the Reds flypast with the RAF's newest aircraft the Wedgetail or indeed the incredible amount of "Spluff" - the aviation geek's nickname for vapour clouds - produced by several of the fast jet displays. In the end though I settled on the shot above of the Army Air Corps Apache display finale - that year's "Friday special" as it was the only day over the weekend it was performed! That was probably the shot that anyone who was there on the Friday wanted more than any other - and there was a LOT of politics and complaints afterwards about where on the display line it was performed! No complaints from those of us in the FRIAT grandstand though as you can probably tell! 

2023 - sneaky extra F-35 & Harrier shot!

I'm not sure whether that little look back over the years has made me feel better or worse about being stuck at home this year, but at least I know that Alysha, Byron, Marc & Tim are all feeling much the same levels of grumpiness. We're already planning for next year though and looking forward to it - and confirmation from the Air Tattoo team yesterday with the 2027 tickets helped a little perhaps - only a year to wait!

Robyn

Looking back...

 

...and down! A recent trip to Duxford set me thinking about the rather fantastic flight over London I did in the Classic Wings Dragon Rapide back in 2019 - a present from MrEH, and such a special experience!  I think I probably blogged about it at the time - I'd certainly be surprised if not - and there were probably more photos included then (I'm going to need to double check now aren't I!) but I found the one above just now and goodness me what a view of London that is!  We actually got closer to The Shard than that - at one stage it felt as though we were essentially circling directly around the top, although I suspect that was an optical illusion. 

Look carefully and find the Cutty Sark! 

Here we go - another photo that I don't believe I did post at the time - 2 for the price of one on a Looking Back post? Whatever next! 

Is that a Sombrero?!

We were back at the Shuttleworth Trust a couple of weekends ago for their "Festival of Flight" show. Some of my little group went both days, but it was also MrEH's birthday weekend so I opted to attend just on the Sunday - which was an excellent choice as the temperature was a LOT cooler thank goodness - those who were there the day before said it was really quite unpleasantly warm! The show days are structured into two parts with the main flying during the afternoon, then a shorter evening display after a 90 minute break, thus getting the "golden hour" light. 

As always the Trust get together a cracking mix of aircraft - choosing from both their own collection and many wonderful visitors too - it's always hard to know what to peg as the highlights and sometimes it can be the most unlikely things too! I think most people would probably include the beautiful Avro Anson Mk 1 at the top though - it flew alongside Shuttleworth's own Anson (a Mk 19) and then did a beautiful solo display too - ticking all the boxes for almost being worth the ticket money on its own!

The Flying Bulls aircraft are fairly rarely seen in the UK and so always create a bit of a buzz when a show books them - this time was no exception with them bringing over their DC3, P-38 (pictured above), B-25, P-51 and Corsair. Originally planned to be hosted at Shuttleworth itself for the weekend as I understand it, they ended up staying at Duxford instead (they were also booked for their summer airshow the following weekend) possibly because there were simply so many visiting aircraft at the Bedfordshire venue they ran out of space?! Their P-51 flying with the DeHavilland DH88 Comet was quite spectacular - two utterly beautiful aircraft, both of which are a joy to see fly, and truly special to see in formation.

Invariably mixed in with the serious stuff we are presented with a bit of lighthearted fun too - the "Barnstorming" is a favourite and not something you see in too many places, but this year's "World Cup formation" made up of an American,  Canadian and  Mexican aircraft got the crowd alternately laughing at the awful jokes being made and enjoying seeing a couple of aircraft types not frequently seen. The pilot of the Mexican Cap 10 - Stu Goldspink - got fully into the spirit of it too - look...

Somehow that stayed in place right through his display too!

A more mainstream - but none the less popular for that - attendee was the RAF Typhoon Display team - sadly just a #BoringGreyJet this year but it did at least display in the evening slot and during possibly the best light of the day. The timing on the display also served to start to thin the crowd out a bit with a fair few folk heading away straight afterwards, helping to avoid problems with getting out. It's always good when a venue plans like this and it is something that Shuttleworth are really very good at. Indeed, other venues not all that far away would do well to take notes!

Bristol Blenheim

All in all an excellent day with good pals, some great flying and very nice weather indeed. I chose to shoot with the Canon R5 borrowed from my pal Tim - and it confirmed my suspicion that Shuttleworth is just perfect for a full-frame camera. Indeed I have now taken the plunge and ordered a full-frame mirrorless camera of my own in the shape of Canon's fairly new R6 Mk3. It will be the single most expensive camera I have ever owned, so here's hoping it is the right choice for me!

Robyn

A cheeky weekend in Lincolnshire...

 

Spitfire AB910

As we have both a new tent and an extended camping trip over the time we've done before coming up, we decided that a trial run was a good plan, so last weekend saw us heading up to Lincolnshire for the weekend. A campsite was found at East Kirkby - which just so happened to be attached to a pub. Pure coincidence of course...well, partly! (Namecheck for the Red Lion pub & Campsite - which is excellent and comes highly recommended).

A new tent inevitably takes a while to get used to - so pitching takes a little longer than it used to. It's also at least half as big again as the old one, and although mostly the same style, just the sheer additional size means that it's taking a bit of getting used to. Up it went though, and within around an hour of our arrival at the site we had a fully fitted out tent and were cheerfully sitting outside it in the sunshine eating our lunch. We've gained a few extra odds and ends which is making packing the car fun - the way up was distinctly shonky, the way home much better, and I fully suspect that the next trip will prove even better - and preferably without the risk of either of us being brained by a kettle in the event of a sudden stop as could quite easily have happened on the way up at least this time! 

The new tent! 

Lunch consumed, we headed off to an RSPB reserve that we had last visited a few years ago, and would have greatly enjoyed on that occasion had it not been for the torrential downpour that struck half way round, leaving us completely soaked through. Thankfully both a set of dry clothes and facilities to change in were available or the journey home on that occasion would have been very unpleasant. This time the weather stayed dry through our visit, and RSPB Frampton Marsh was confirmed as a really lovely place for a walk - even in the exceptionally blustery conditions of the day. I left my camera in the car and had no regrets about doing so as a result of that wind. As the light dropped, so did the temperature, and after eating dinner back at the tent the evening was spent in the pub drinking very nicely kept pints of Batemans XB.

Artwork at RSPB Frampton Marsh

Saturday morning dawned beautifully bright and sunny, and thankfully that nasty wind had dropped, so after a quick bacon butty breakfast we hopped in the car and drove the short distance to RAF Coningsby where my pal Andy was taking one of the BBMF Spitfires up for a practise display or two. AB910 was the aircraft in question - a MkV machine, and Andy's personal favourite from the fleet - recently returned to the flight after several seasons away undergoing deep maintenance. We stopped first at the BBMF hangar where Andy was just conducting his walkaround - hellos were exchanged and we agreed to catch up after his flight, and after watching him taxi out Mr EH and I drove round to one of my favourite spots to watch/photograph the practise. As a bonus Claire was also there, so a great chance for a quick catch up with her also! A lovely display, and a nice chat, and all in fantastic weather too! 

Andy taxies out in AB910

The Blue Bell pub - Tattershall Thorpe

MrEH and I then decided to have a quick wander to Coningsby village before driving across to nearby Boston for a walk there (and a visit to a lovely Good Beer Guide pub!) before heading back to the campsite via the Blue Bell pub at Tattershall Thorpe - a pub steeped in wartime history and FULL of memorabilia. The picture above shows pennies left by airmen from the nearby bases in readiness to pay for their beer on their next visit. For many of them though there was no next visit, and the pennies remain, wedged into the beams as a very special tribute.  Another evening meal was eaten in the tent, and just a quick beer in the pub this time as we were both quite tired and conscious of the need for a fairly early start to get packed up the next day. 

St Botolphs Church - Boston

As with getting pitched in the first place, a new tent makes everything slower on take-down as well. One big change is that our old (smaller, far lighter) tent used to travel on the back seat of the car - the new one is simply too heavy for this as it would turn into a missile in the event of that sudden stop, so it has to go into the boot. The complication here as you might imagine is that this in turn  means that the tent needs to go into the car ahead of rather a lot of the stuff from inside it, which creates some logistical headaches! We got there in the end, and by 11.30 we were away.

Tattershall Church

First stop this time was back to Coningsby for a walk we hadn't had time for the day before - out to Tattershall Castle and church across the fields, then back via the river and village. A quick stop to grab some lunch and we were back in the car for the hours drive across to RSPB Langford Lowfields - another reserve we'd visited previously although not had the time to really do it justice. This visit we had far longer, and walked did the circuit right the way round the main part of the reserve with bird sightings including this cute little Sedge Warbler...

Sedge Warbler - RSPB Langford Lowfields

All in all a really enjoyable weekend - there should have been more BBMF flying on Saturday, but as is the way of things sometimes that was cancelled. While it would have been nice to see more, the lack certainly didn't in any way spoil the trip and we found plenty else to do. A few days in the tent with an objective eye was a good way of reassuring any concerns ahead of the longer we stay we have planned for a few weeks time, and overall we're still delighted with it, having proper headroom in a tent makes such a difference to camping! A few additional/replacement items have been identified as needed also, so we'll be sorting those before heading off again. 

Robyn

Warbird Heaven!

 

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! 

Robyn.