Stitches, Beads, Rock N Roll: On Cloud 9 with Airbourne

Thursday 14 August 2014

On Cloud 9 with Airbourne

As you all know I'm a self-certified plane geek and sometimes think that if I could attend an airshow a week then it would cure a lot of my problems! I tend to feel awkward in most situations 'cos I simply don't fit into them but airshows are a whole new ball game, I feel comfortable around fellow geeks snapping away at the sky.

Don't mess with the geek in the polka dot poncho!

I always feel proud of Eastbourne every year at the effort we make with the Airshow, this year they've added a stage with various acts performing throughout the day - I'll admit I was initially suspicious of this but then I realised that if the stage attracts people who wouldn't normally bother with the airshow who then chuck a few pennies in the collection buckets or spends money at the stalls then it helps support the airshow for the next year.

Some hardcore geeks can be a little disparaging about seafront airshows like Airbourne and I will always leap to my hometown's show defence pointing out that for 4 free days we get a show that you'd pay £15/20 to get into elsewhere. Even during the disastrous 2008 airshow when they decided to experiment with charging each day I went, I maintained that £5 a day was still a bargain!

The organisers have learnt from that experience and it has remained free ever since whilst still maintaining a pretty damn good line-up. I hear moans and groans that the line-up isn't what it used to be and I badly miss the Tornados, Harriers and Jaguars of yesteryear but these aren't available anymore, currently the only display teams the RAF offers (due to cutbacks imposed by the government - but that's another rant for another day) are The Red Arrows, The Typhoon, The Chinook, The Tucano, The Tutor and The Falcons parachute team. All of these aside from The Falcons are featuring this weekend with the Red Arrows all 4 days which is a pretty damn big deal! This year's major coup is of course the Canadian Lancaster 'Vera' the only other flying Lancaster in the world who is doing a short tour with the RAF's Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight this summer and we had the honour of being the first show she appeared at (more of that later).

Airbourne is a very firmly family-centered show and plays to the crowd by booking lots of areobatics teams such as The Blades and the RV8TORS and whilst I can't say I'm particularly enamored with the wingwalkers (my stance is that I would love to give it a go but wouldn't make a whole beach full of people watach me!) I also figure that if some kid falls in love with flying or aviation whilst looking skywards this weekend and goes on to become an RAF or commercial pliot/ground crew or makes technological advances in the future then I'm all for putting up with girls stood on Boeing Stearmans!

Today we were incredibly lucky with the weather, aside from one torrential downpour before the show started it was all dry, despite some very threatening looking clouds! My highlights were the BBMF with the Canadian Lancaster and the Red Arrows. Here's a few highlights -