Those of you who have never been to the Bournemouth Air Show or attempted to go but it was cancelled due to poor weather are missing out. The last time I successfully visited the Bournemouth Air Show was in 2009, and you can read more about that visit here: Air Show on the Beach. When I say successfully, I mean I did attempt to visit the following year or the year after that, but it poured with rain and they cancelled it. Formerly, the air show was held on the Bank Holiday weekend (the last weekend in August), but they moved it back in the hopes to prevent the rainy Bank Holiday weather after a few wash-out years. This year was a treat with the introduction of the dusk displays with some aircraft performing special flights and displays with light-up LEDs and fireworks launched from the wings. Of course, the standard Bournemouth fireworks on the beach take place a little bit later every Friday and Saturday night in the summer months.
This year the bloke wanted to go, and I felt sick over the past couple of days and had half of one of my tooths break off completely on the Friday morning. On top of that, I woke up with the same migraine that I went to bed early with the night before and missed out on leaving drinks for an ex-colleague, which I am still gutted about. Although I felt horrible, I dragged myself out feeling nearly sick in the car and for half the day. However, sitting in the sun and having a bite to eat made me feel a little better, and by the early afternoon, I was feeling fine. It was honestly too nice of a day to feel sick and stay at home in bed.
Because of bad traffic from London down to Bournemouth, hopes to arrive at bloke's brother's house just before 10:00 were fruitless. In fact, we just decided to all meet in town because of the time, and we arrived at about 11:15 with only moments to spare for the 12:00 Red Arrows. The Red Arrows are not to be missed, and a lot of people visit the air show just to see them. For those who are not familiar with the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, they are a group of famous planes that create aerial displays and are made up of some of the best air force pilots to promote Britain and have been doing so since 1965. They use red, white, and blue smoke during some of their display to create patterns. They are always a treat to see as the planes are so fast and the pilots use precision to create the display.
The air show can be watched from Bournemouth Beach, where the display centres around between the two piers (Bournemouth Pier and Boscome Pier). Visitors can also watch from the cliffs themselves where they are sometimes in line with the aircraft flying low. The beach is always a pleasant place to watch the planes fly. In 2009, I watched most of the display from the beach but also went up the walkway up the cliff.
This year makes 100 years of the RAF (Royal Air Force), so the Red Arrows team had created their own display especially to mark this. At the end of it, they drew out "100" in the sky.
After the Red Arrows, we got to watch these men wearing jet packs, and they were loud. The jet packs are Gravity Industries Jet Suit Display Team. These jet packs are in the process of being created and tested, so they have quite a lot of testing and learning to do. I've never seen anything like this, so it was fun to watch even though they were loud. The two men started from Bournemouth Pier and hovered in the air and then down the beach very quickly. However, the one stopped short of us as they were having problems with the suit, and the other one fell in the water further up. The team used this as a learning exercise. You may wonder why we need jet packs, but they are not just for films or sport (they are expensive as they run on the same fuel as jets do, and you would need a lot of training to be able to use one). They would have use in professional films of course (possibly hand-held cameras, stunts, and so on), but they also have use for rescue teams.
The weather was perfect, so this attracted a crowd on the beach.
After the jet packs, The Tigers displayed. These free-fall parachuters jump out of a plane very far above Bournemouth Beach. I saw them in 2009, and they try to land on an 'X'. The group is from the British Army, and they have to complete at least 200 jumps to become experts for this.
This next one is hard to beat as it involves vintage planes. I absolutely loved seeing these vintage planes. The Royal Air Force "Battle of Britain" Memorial Flight and The Bremont Great War Display Team showcased several iconic aircraft from the World Wars. They also flew for quite a while, showing off the planes and pretending to have their own dog fights over Bournemouth Beach. On display for the "Battle of Britain" were the Hawker Hurricane, the Douglas C-47 Dakota, and the Spitfire. The Great War planes were constructed from original plans in Argentina, and they had pretend dog-fights in the sky above the beach. They included a mixture of British and German aircraft and bi-planes.
The Flying Circus by SuperAreoBatics displayed this year at Bournemouth Air Show, and I saw them perform in 2009 with their wing-walking girls. The wingwalkers are strapped to the biplanes and perform various actions while the plane loops, tilts, and climbs. This display is always so photogenic that it was difficult to just choose one photograph of them.
Team Raven performed for the first time at Bournemouth Air Show this year, and these little planes have been built and customised, and they were fun to watch.
Breitling Jet Team were next to display, and they have never performed on the south coast of Britain before; in fact, the last time they performed in Britain was fifteen years ago. So, these were new to me. These jets had two displays. One display was during the day, and the other one was at dusk. Their final stunt included fireworks and looked especially stunning at dusk. This display lasted awhile where the aircraft demonstrated the different maneouvers.
I did not mention the weather, but it was baking this weekend. The beach was very hot, and I think it caught some people off-guard because it was chilly throughout the month of August. So, I treated myself to a cooling slushie from one of the food kiosks. This year, several food and drink outlets were set up along the beach.
I cannot find this plane in the guide I got from the air show, but it is an American plane and the commentator said that this plane was used during the Korean War.
The Vampire Pair was the next in the line up of the vintage planes; they are from the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron. The Vampire Pair include FB.52 and T.55 Cold War fighter jets. This display also included the BAC Strikemasters, but I didn't seem to get decent photographs of them.
The SallyB also visited Bournemouth to show off the plane. This is the last airworthy B-17 bomber plane in Europe. The first appearance of SallyB was in 2009 at the Bournemouth Air Show, and I saw her perform then and remembered her. When she isn't flying, she is available to view at Imperial War Museum Duxford. Only about 47 of these planes remain out of 1,300 built in time for World War II. They would have been slow and would have required fighter planes to cover for them before they could drop their payload. Also, SallyB has appeared in a number of films.
SallyB (top) with Dakota and Spitfire (bottom)
Next up was the "Super Pitts Muscle Biplane G_EWIZ Pitts S2-S". This little nippy plane is very powerful, and the pilot used gravity and the power of the plane to throw it around, causing it to "free-fall" and spin around. It was a pleasure to watch this little powerful plane.
The RAF Chinook displayed again this year with some air maneouvers. I see these a lot, particularly when I lived in Basingstoke as there is a base there, and they were always flying around the town centre and in the evening when it was quieter. In 2009, there was a longer display with these helicopters, which are an icon of Britain's power and can transport supplies and troops. They have a distinctive sound with their blades, and once you hear them, you know what it is in the sky without looking.
The Blades also did a great performance with their aerobatic maneouvers. They are similar to the Red Arrows, and they are a civilian team who have shown off the planes in Europe and the Middle East.
The air show has gotten larger with more attractions held not just on the beaches but in the lower gardens near the beachfront too. Birds of prey and other attractions could be seen this year, and visitors could go inside planes and tanks as in previous years. Music and vintage could be seen and heard, and the event took place over four days. It isn't possible to do everything, so I just watched the planes this time.
After grabbing some dinner at Wagamamma's above the Lower Gardens, we headed back to the beach for the dusk show. An ice cream was the perfect treat for the beach while waiting for the dusk display, and it had already started to melt by the time I walked a few paces. The beach was not nearly as busy with most people staying for the main air show instead of watching the dusk flights. However, the dusk airshow did happen on the previous nights as well.
Breitling Jet Team were first up with a similar display to their daytime display that I watched earlier. They were still great to see again, and the finale for them was the final stunt with the launching of fireworks from the wings, which just sizzled in the darkening sky.
The Fantastic Fireflies (Twister Aerobatics Team) performed their aerial stunts while lighting the planes up with red or blue LEDs and launching fireworks from the wings. These were amazing; I've never seen anything quite like this before. While performing the loops, turns, and displays, these planes lit up the dusk sky along the beach.
Last, but not least, Otto the Helicopter closed the show set to music from "Star Wars" with fireworks exploding out from the helicopter. This was a wonderful display, and I wish I'd gotten some photographs from a distance instead of close-ups. This display did not last too long.
Have you ever been to the Bournemouth Air Show? I would recommend a visit as long as the weather will be nice. As mentioned before, if the weather is not nice, they do cancel the aircraft, although there are now more attractions to do besides watch the planes probably due to cancellations due to poor weather in the past. I'd suggest going for a weekend (and hope the weather is nice) or set out very early the next day with nice weather, though sometimes the weather can quickly change as I discovered with my plans in August.
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