However, there is no football either?! Does that help? And there is some blue sky and sunshine.....
These are the RAF Falcons skydiving display team. They didn't actually do any skydiving on Saturday due to the low clouds and high winds, just jumped out and opened their shutes. But they were very precise and made pretty patterns in the sky and when they walked round with free handouts later, they were extremely muscly and nice to look at (I didn't touch or take a photo, what do you take me for??!) so I'll let them off!
Below is the Tornado doing an extremely realistic demonstration of what they do out in Afghanistan. Bombing and shooting and trying to scare off the enemy from patrols on the ground. It was sobering trying to imagine what it must be like for people on the ground. So loud and terrifying. And all being offered up for our enjoyment and education.....a bit weird to be honest. They were trying to get across how they don't go in all guns blazing but do several passes to scare off non-combatants before returning to bomb the sh*t out of anyone still there. I THINK I felt better...
Helicopters can fly backwards. Who knew? It looks like I caught them crossing but no - they flew side by side like this the length of the runway for our amusement.
Then they bowed to us.
A Dutch fighter jet showing off. He was cool and extremely loud!
Right side up.
Wrong side up.
Safe and sound.
We had a lovely
weekend over in the flats of Lincolnshire. We went over to my parents' on Friday
evening and had a good night in the local with Dad and his ancient pals. Then
Saturday morning we were off to the Weddington Airshow. It's a really good day
out (honest) and we were lucky in that we picked the best day of the weekend for it.
Despite an inauspicious start of torrential rain (while we had breakfast peering
disconsolately out of the kitchen windows), it cleared up and stayed fine all
day. We had spells of sunshine and blue sky and spells of chilly cloud cover
but the organisers (being military chaps and chappesses) managed to arrange for
the big displays to coincide with the sunshine so the Red Arrows, South Korean
Black Eagles and Italian Frecce Tricolore teams all had blue sky and managed to
show off their incredible technical ability to best effect.
As you might guess,
I took a LOT of photographs! and you will be seeing a few of them here now that
I have exhausted my Pembrokeshire stash. I am
as nothing, however, to the proper nerdy planewatchers who congregate at these
events. You know, the weirdy beardies who think they actually ARE in the
military despite the fact that they're attending an airshow WITH THEIR
MUM!
These strange types
(the plane-spotting equivalent of twitchers, trainspotters, stamp collectors,
autograph hunters etc) make a virture of seeming to be unimpressed by the showy
display teams like the Red Arrows (presumably we're meant to think that they've
seen them too many times to be impressed by mere pinpoint accuracy and stunning
beauty) but then get all excited when a lumbering Saab cargo plane which has only
just come out bores its way down the runway. They wear overly tight combat
trousers and big black military style boots (as if they were in some sort of
SWAT team on the streets of LA rather than being on a perfectly flat and dry
airfield in rural Lincolnshire). They have walkie talkies strapped to their
chunky belts and a high proportion of the older ones sport bald heads and pony
tails!
They arrive early
and stake out great swathes of the runwayside with their high-tec folding
chairs, often creating little exclusion zones using bungee cords and
windbreakers. Their cameras are earth-shatteringly high-tech with lenses over a
foot long and great tripods and even sound recoding devices. Although they are
sitting in the front row, they stand up and block the view of all the old
people and children behind them thus forcing them to stand up too. In short
(well, not that short) they are a pain. The vast majority of people at these
events are great - 50,000 turn up and coexist pleasantly - but there are always a
few fanatics who have to irritate. Harrumph!
Undetered, I
squeezed by "little" 8 inch lens (virtually a point and press job compared to
the big boys' toys around me) to a place where I could just about see stuff
without standing in front of any "civilians" and clicked away to my heart's
content. Rich loved it too. It was so absorbing - we found our space and
stayed there from 10 'til 5 moving only for trips to buy the odd coffee or beer
and to the loo. We were taken by surprise by how quickly the time flew by - a
Tornado demonstration, the Red Arrows, Chinook, various helicopters, loads of
aeronautical display teams and solo jets, the Eurofighter and, of course, the
wonderful Battle of Britain Memorial flight. I love the sound of the Lancaster
lumbering through Lincolnshire skies.
Our picnic was not
SW compliant but not bad either and no real nasties so I don't even feel too
guilty. I won't be able to go to WI until next Tuesday anyway as I'm golfing
this evening.
Sunday was just a
chilling day, recovering from all that fresh air, driving home, walking the
dogs and unpacking etc. I woke this morning feeling positively refreshed and
wide awake. I didn't even want to turn over and go back to sleep! I hope this
feeling lasts all week. And for you lot too!
No comments:
Post a Comment