Southport Airshow 2012
We attended the above mentioned show on Saturday 8th September. The show was opened by the Red Arrows, who when assessing the weather, decided to do their "low level" performance. Unfortunately(?) during their display, the cloud cleared dramatically, giving them adequate height to perform a high level show. Sadly this did not come soon enough for them to change their display decision. What was important however that their display was disrupted by the incursion into their "box" of another non-show aircraft. They had to suspend their performance for some minutes in order to allow the errant plane to depart.
If anyone has the chance to see "The Blades" I would definitely reccommend they take it up. Reported as being four ex-red arrow pilots, they did things in their Extra 300's that their former team could never do. Four simultaneous Zimmelmann turns perfectly timed was to me the highlight of their display. The RV8tors brought a new element in their home built formation team. The Eurofighter was fantastic in it's manoeuvrability. There almost too many displays warranting a note here, but when the Typhoons arrived, the loud bangs at first seemed to indicate they arrived at above Mach1. However the bangs were provided by the organisers by letting of maroons to co-incide with the passing of the aircraft!
As with any airshow and the problems that arise, circumstances provided an unscheduled 45min gap in the proceedings half way through the schedule.
I didn't see the show on Sunday but apparently the new captain of the Vulcan performed at least one roll, perhaps to dispell the accusations that the aircraft is flown too gently nowadays. Is this the standard performance for this aircraft now?