First off I can't believe how lucky we were with the weather in the end. Most of the country was being battered by wind and rain but somehow, aside from some rain before the show on Friday, we were at least dry if not a little chilly! The aforementioned weather meant that some of the aircraft weren't able to make it every day - the poor BBMF were stuck at RAF Coningsby until the weekend and a combination of poor weather and technical problems meant that the Sea Fury only made it on Sunday (well worth the wait!).
Line-up wise the organisers did a pretty good job of making up for the Red Arrow's absence, whilst the show might not have pulled in quite as many people (e.g those who come purely to see the reds or those put off by the awful weather forecast) those who did make it down had the most varied show I can remember in a long time.
If you were a warbird fan in particular then you were spoilt for choice this year, even without the BBMF every day we had Mustangs, Spitfires, a Thunderbolt, an ME109 and the Sea Fury (more on those later).
As I mentioned in my preview 2019, was the last season for the RAF Tucano display and it's display reminded us of what we'll be missing. The team gave a really dynamic display with some great knife edge passes.
The show kicked off on Thursday and brought the sunshine with it. Photographing aircraft is so much nicer when they're glinting in the sun like the Strikemaster .
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The Blades bought their fast and furious display including some incredibly close manuvers like this one here!
Returning this year was the beautiful P51 Mustang Miss Helen with lots of diving manuvers to really get the air rushing over the gun turrets to make the famous Mustang whistle.
Friday's show started off with a lovely surprise when I saw that one of my photos from the previous day had been included on the 'Twitter Wall'.
In fact I was lucky enough to have several of my photos displayed over the weekend
 
Breaking through the gloom to finish the show on Friday was the mighty Typhoon,when they blast AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' over the PA system as it arrives it really sets the mood for what you're about to see (not that you hear the song for long!). The team have built on last year's display making it even more dynamic and most importantly noisy!
Here's a round up of Friday's other highlights -
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| Welcome back BBMF! You were missed! |
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| Rich Goodwin brightened the grey skies with his Pitts Special |
Saturday also saw the debut of my favourite act of the weekend, the Ultimate Warbirds .Up until now I'd only seen their P47 Thunderbolt at Dunsfold Airshow earlier this year. Words can't adequately describe the stunning noise of their Thunderbolt, Mustang, Spitfire and Buchon in formation. It sounds like I'm being over the top when I say it was almost musical. Their display consisted of four sections, the first was formation flying to give the crowd a chance to hear the thunder of all those engines together, after they split the Spitfire & ME109 Buchon engaged in a Battle Of Britain- style dog fight before being replaced by the Mustang and Thunderbolt for some close formation loops. The display finished up with the 4 aircraft back together again treating us to the sound of those engines. I really hope this fantastic team come back again season after season.
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| Clockwise - Spitfire, Thunderbolt, Buchon and Mustang |
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| The Mustang and Thunderbolt in close formation |
Here are Saturday's highlights -
For the final day of the show on Sunday we took advantage of a slightly different viewpoint at Beachy Head . From the downs you look down over the seafront and get a pilot's eye view of the show. You can also get some interesting photographs from the cliffs as the planes fly below you when they run in for their displays.
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| The BBMF Dakota flying level with us |
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| The Typhoon with the Sovereign Lighthouse in the background |
Another benefit of watching from the downs is that you occasionally get a private air display whilst aircraft are waiting to run in for their display or if teams have 'split' and one half is circling out of the way. We had quite a few overhead passes from the T33 Shooting Star whilst the MIG 15 was completing the solo component of their display.
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| The MIG 15 & T33 Shooting Star of the Norwegian Airforce Historic Squadron |
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| Absolutely gorgeous |
Some highlights from Beachy Head
Each year the airshow is rounded off by the traditional fireworks display on the Sunday night and for the last few years has featured an evening display by The Fireflies. This year I finally made it down to see them and they were absolutely fantastic. Being a bit of a pyromaniac fireworks on planes is awesome to me!
Each year the airshow is rounded off by the traditional fireworks display on the Sunday night and for the last few years has featured an evening display by The Fireflies. This year I finally made it down to see them and they were absolutely fantastic. Being a bit of a pyromaniac fireworks on planes is awesome to me!
Airbourne 2019 was a great success with old favourites like the BBMF, Typhoon and The Blades alongside new and exciting teams like the Ultimate Warbirds. I hope 2020's show will be as good.
See you then.
Love Jen
XxxX
