Hi guys! Yesterday I went up to London to try a second time for a royal flypast after rain stopped play at the coronation back in May (see A Slightly Soggy Royal day Out). Yesterday was the annual Trooping The Colour a celebration of the king's 'official' birthday (yep us Brits let the monarchs have 2 birthdays, add it to our other peculiarities along with our love of queuing) which involves troops from all 3 of the military services (RAF, Royal Navy & Army) and members of the royal family marching or riding along The Mall and, like last year's Jubilee celebration (and what should have happened at the coronation) culminates in a flypast by all 3 services. So up to London Corney and I went for a morning of history and geeking.
When we got to London we had an hour or so to kill (I didn't want to stand for hours waiting to get onto The Mall with the occasional glimpse of the top of a horse) so what better place than The British Museum.
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| Even my love of being British didn't tempt me to buy these awful teapots |
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| Such a lovely building |
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| Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this building looks like the top of an octopus? |
As I didn't have much time I decided to go to the Egypt section first. The Egypt section is always an excellent place to play 'Spot the pupper' as everyone thinks Eos looks like the god Anubis (it's the ears). There were plenty of comparisons to be made ...
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| Uncanny |
After the Egypt section it was time for a cuppa before heading across London. How cute was the cup? The bunnies reminded me of Merlin & Maverick with their little ears (If you haven't seen my Top Buns yet then check out my blog making all the necessary introductions)When we got to The Mall the flypast was just finishing up so we saw these adorable police horses.
The public gets let onto The Mall about 20 minutes before the flypast (I hadn't made it anywhere near The Mall for the jubilee or coronation as it was so busy) so Corney and I took our places.
This little girl's balloons caught my eye as the matched the colours of the union jack perfectly and made for a cute photo.
The flypast started at 1pm, opened by the helicopters (including everyone's favourite the Chinooks). Here are some highlights -
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| Chinooks & Puma |
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| The Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight - Lancaster, Hurricanes & Spitfire |
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| Phenom & Texans |
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| Phenom |
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| It was a farewell to the RAF Hercules as they go out of service at the end of the month |
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| Globemaster |
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| Voyager & A400M |
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| F35 Lightnings |
Much like last year's jubilee flypast and the RAF 100 celebrations back in 2018 I had the inkling that the RAF would do some kind of formation with the Typhoons for the coronation and when they announced that they'd be using the formations intended for the cancelled coronation flypast I hoped that meant something special and I was not disappointed as 18 Typhoons in CR (Charles Rex aka King Charles) roared over The Mall.
It was left to the Red Arrows to close the show with a flypast with the RAF's new Envoy IV aircraft.
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| The smoke left over The Mall, again I thought it made a cute photo |
You can watch footage of the flypast on my YouTube Channel and I've linked it below. Ok self-promotion over 😅
Rather than try and get through the crowds Corney and I decided to have a sit in the shade in Green Park. Until someone started to play the bagpipes badly and we beat a hasty,sorry tactical, retreat.
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| The calm before the bagpipes |
I'm so glad I went up for a second attempt at the flypast, the atmosphere is always so fun and I get to see my favourite aircraft before the airshow season starts. Although I don't have long to wait now as Dad and I are off to Headcorn Airshow in a couple of weeks.
Love Jen
XxxX
