CalMax in England: Eastbourne Air Show (AirBourne)

By the Beach

Off to the beach - in summer - YAY!!! Eastbourne is about 100 miles from home on the coast, past Brighton.

The “beach” was just so typical pommie – pebbles everywhere ☺. The pavilion on the jetty was just a delightful sight, and one that framed some of the aircraft pictures rather nicely – we were rather pleased with our seats, even though they were somewhat down the beach.

Eastbourne beach - love the pavilion (close-up in the next photo)

The Jetty Pavilion

The "Beach" - no white sand here

Eastbourne "Band Stand"

The Air Display starts ??

Airshow Time

What can I say . . . it’s wasn't the "beach" that brought us here, but . . . an air show!!!! This time by the beach. With Cal’s knees the way they are it was essential to have seating. Not having been to a beach air show before we didn’t realise that for the cost of our seating (somewhat off the centre axis of the display line) we could have bought some good quality deck chairs with a drink and plonked ourselves on the beach, stripped off and blended in with the other beached white whales all over the place!! Just as well there was talent in the air, cos there wasn’t any of either gender on the ground.

OK - now for the flying - this blog could be few words with lots of photos (hey, I was restrained - there are only 28 with aircraft in them!!)

The RAF rescue Sea King, and the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)

So, what were the highlights? There were a few of them: Number one would be the Avro Vulcan bomber. The prototype Vulcan first flew in August 1952, 60 years ago – so she also celebrates a diamond anniversary this year. The aircraft is privately owned, and is kept flying though volunteers and public donations. Mark’s done his bit and got his name in the bomb bay of the aircraft for the 60th Anniversary flight on 30th August ☺.

After seeing the Vulcan, the next on the list would be seeing a Messerschmitt Bf-109 flying – this aircraft is only one of a handful of airworthy machines – and I think most that are flying have been restored to that state over the past decade or so.

The display at Eastbourne had the 109 flying a mock dogfight against the earliest Spitfire (Mk1) flying in the world. No prizes for guessing that Jerry was beaten back across the channel!!! This aircraft (P9374) first flew on the 23rd Feb 1940 as the 557th production aircraft (a total of 20,351 were built). It was shot down on 24th May (about a day or so after 92 SQN got into the war – noting that the Battle of Britain did not start until 10th July 1940). The pilot managed to land the aircraft of the tidal flats outside Calais, where the aircraft stayed in the mud until recovering in 1980. What an amazing restoration work to bring the aircraft up to flight status.

The Breitling Wingwalkers were also pretty impressive. These girls leave the safety of the cockpit of a Stearman biplane (1940s vintage) and perform all sorts of wacky moves whilst the aircraft does loops, rolls and generally flies around at up to 225 km/hr (140 mph).

In terms of display teams, the Blades (ex-Red Arrows pilots) were fantastic, as were the Red Bull Matadors. Both piston engine aircraft, but able to be thrown around the sky. Whilst I struggle on with my camera there were some reasonable shots, but the photo of the manoeuvre that is equivalent of a hand break turn was slightly out of focus, but included just to show the sort of stuff they could do.

The "Blades"

The Blades and the pavilion (imagine Miss Demeanor - see below)

Red Bull Matador

Doing a hand break turn in the air

Speaking of photos (and looking for nicely framed ones)I include the following two gems. The first is a photo of "Miss Demeanor" - really it is!! I had timed the shot to perfection as she came past the jetty pavilion . . . just at the same time as a lady walked in front of me. The second was a shot of the Red Bulls Matador - just as a seagull performed the same trick. Man, I gotta get me a DSLR!!