Bournemouth Airshow Review

 

Yay for the Reds!

A couple of weeks ago I went on an adventure to Bournemouth Airshow for the first time. 

Sorry 'WE' went

As with many airshows I went with Lynns' Travel with a not too early pick up time of 7.50 (bearing in mind for trips I've done with them to Bath which was a 6.15 pick up this felt like the middle of the day 😂) . I had originally planned to go on the train but thankfully Lynns saved me 4 hours and 3 changes each way. 

As I said earlier I've never been to Bournemouth before and although I only saw the immediate seafront I thought it was really pretty, I loved the gardens leading down to the beach. 

 

 

 

I had a quick wander around the stalls along the seafront (including getting myself confused as to which pier I wanted to sit near - personally I think it's a bit show-offish to have two piers) but was too lazy to climb the steep cliff top path to look at the static exhibits (note to self get into better shape before next year). Once we got onto the beach I was in for an incredible shock ......

THERE WAS SAND!

I'm used to shifting uncomfortably on my picnic blanket atop of sharp stones at Airbourne not comfortably sinking into the beach 😅.

The traditional airshow satsuma

 

A good opportunity to flash my completed Reds tattoo! 

I was initially concerned that it was too misty for the flying to start but unlike at Eastbourne they don't have the downs to contend with so although the cloud was low (hence my photos not being all that great) the show could start. 

The first aircraft on were the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) with their Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota (get well soon Lancaster) and I found it incredibly emotional to hear warbirds thundering over the sea for the first time in two ears (I can neither confirm nor deny that I had a bit of a sniffle as they came over). 

Hurricane, Dakota & Spitfire

Spitfire in the 'victory roll'

Dakota

Hurricane & Spitfire

Next up was one of my airshow favourites Richard Goodwin in his 'Muscle Bi-Plane' he's absolutely crazy the way he throws that plane across the sky (you'll see what I mean in my video I'll be linking below).

A typical arrival - on his side along the crowdline!

Next up we had the Chinook Display Team with their 'Blade Slap' 

The last act before the afternoon break were the Tigers Parachute Team - I'd still love to give it a try one day. 

After that was a quick scurry along the beach to be in the best spot for the Red Arrows!

They included the NHS Pass to pay tribute to the amazing keyworkers and front line workers for their efforts to keep us all safe during the pandemic. 

After the Reds we had the Royal Navy Wildcat 

Unfortunately the show came to an early end after the crash of (and miraculous recovery of) one of the AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers. Thank god the pilot and the wingwalker survived, from what I've seen from news report the pilot is an absolute hero in managing to avoid all the boats in the harbour, hopefully they're both on the mend and ready to take to the skies again soon. 

You can see some of my highlights from the show on my YouTube channel -

I'm really hoping to go again next year and possibly even stay over as they normally have evening flying and fireworks on the Saturday night. 

I was really disappointed not to have seen the Typhoon for the second year in a row as it was part of the cancelled afternoon show. But in a stroke of luck I was summoned to my Flight Radar App when I heard a jet engine. It turns out that the Typhoon was doing a photoshoot off of Beachy Head so I was able to watch it off in the distance for a good half hour circling the cliffs and even managed to take the world's teeniest Typhoon photo. 

This weekend I'm off to the Duxford Battle Of Britain Show for some Merlin engine heaven, hopefully I'll get some good photos and videos 🤞.

Love Jen

XxxX