This really was a fantastic day.
While I was there on Saturday afternoon they had to start turning away helicopters because the seafront was full; people were diverted to the Helicopter Museum.
I counted 41 helicopters on the ground at that time, not counting the two Polo 206s that were flat out running joyrides down on the beach.
Types - from memory, obviously all the 22s and 44s, a lot of JetRangers, Gazelles, a Brantly, an Alouette, several Bell 47s, 500s, a 269, a couple of Squirrels, two Bell 412s, one from a German rescue unit, a Lynx, a Chinook from the Netherlands, a German military Bolkow, a Scout, and a few I've forgotten.
The most wonderful thing was the reactions of the people who'd paid their money to go into the helicopter enclosure and see these things close up. (Security was good, too. I didn't see anyone get too close.) They absolutely loved it. I was in a crowd who were watching a Gazelle fire up and take off, and they were thrilled to bits, especially the younger ones.
Who says the public have a problem with helicopters? On this showing, they can't get enough of them. More of this, please... why (when you can stage an F1 show there) should it not be possible to do something similar in central London?