Airbourne 2024 Review

 

I always love a birthday party and this year I got to attend my beloved Airbourne's 30th anniversary celebrations. It was a great party with some of my favourite aircraft, friends, family, fireworks and shockingly only one day of iffy weather 😨 read on for my highlights of each day. 

Thursday

I headed down early (although guttingly not early enough to see the two Typhoons that came through in the morning *autistic grumble*)  to have a nose around the displays and stalls before settling on the beach with my favourite airshow buddy.

The Red Arrows kicked off the 30th birthday in style with their final UK display of the summer (they left for Canada at 10am the next morning!). They came in lower than I've ever seen them and were fantastic as always and brightened up the grey sky with their red, white and blue.

                            Note the seagulls getting out of the way as they run in 😂

My favourite move of this year's display

Tornado

Red Arrows on Instax

Although it was dry it was really windy which put paid to the warbird displays (safety is the most important thing) and also the Draken as the weather was too bad for it to take off from it's base.

We still had displays from the Bronco, Jet Provost and Pitts but they were a little limited due to the wind and serviceability in the Jet Provost's case. 

Jet Provost

Bronco

Here are Thursday's highlights -

Friday

Friday dawned sunny and with only a slight breeze, the perfect day for Auntie and I to sit and watch some planes. 

The day's flying was kicked off by the aircraft top of my spotting bucket list - the SAAB Draken and it was everything I expected it to be. It looked like something out of Star Wars and sounded great. 

Friday saw the emotional return of the Lancaster to the seafront, roaring in from crowd-rear (check out my video) and being her beautiful self. 

Welcome back beautiful lady

Friday also meant ..... Phoon time! There were afterburners, vapour and rattled eardrums all round!

The rest of Friday's highlights (including the incredible Lancaster arrival) -

Saturday -

Saturday started on a very civilised note with lunch in town with Helen before Amanda, Phil and I headed to the seafront. 

A week before Airbourne my wonderful Mum passed away from cancer and we drank Pimms in her honour. I love you Mum and I miss you so much.

The show was opened by The Starlings who were great. I really enjoyed their display.

Really tight formations.

Showing the crowd some love

Saturday was the first day of the Aircraft Restoration Company's D Day formation of it's Blenheim and 2 Spitfires.

Blenheim

                                                      The full formation

Rolls Royce Mustang

The Typhoon closed the show again -

Vapour!

Thanks for sharing me in your story, the noise was certainly brung 😂

Here are some more Saturday highlights -

Sunday -

The final day of the show saw some more great displays. 

Hilary, Lydia, Luke and me

Having a G&T with the Lancaster

The Starlings on the break

Blenheim & Spitfires

Whilst we're on the subject of warbirds the Rolls Royce Heritage Flight Spitfire & Mustang looked beautiful over the sea -

Jet Provost

Another highlight of all 4 days was Rich Goodwin with his Pitts -

Thanks for the instagram shout out!

The Typhoon closing the show

Highlights from Sunday's display -

Rather than going home in my normal depressed slump after the final plane (Autumn always starts for me as the final plane departs) it was off to The View Hotel for restorative coffee.

We stayed for their carvery and then watched the fantastic end of show fireworks from the balcony.

                                            Best seat in the house!

It was another fantastic 4 days that also took my mind off what's been a pretty rubbish few weeks. You can also check out loads more of my photos from the 4 days on my Instagram

Here's hoping for another 30 years!

Love Jen

XxxX

PS if you're able to then please consider supporting the show by donating to keep Airbourne flying here