Southport Airshow - September 2007

Photo Gallery:

Supermarine Spitfire	Supermarine Spitfire
Grob 115E Tutor	Blades Display Team
Blades Extra 300 LPs	Blades Display Team
G-ZXCL Extra 300 LP	Blades Aerobatics
Yakovlevs	Yakovlevs
Yakovlevs	P-51D Mustang
N-167F Old Crow	Messerschmitt 108 NJ-C11
Messerschmitt 108 NJ-C11	Typhoon
Afterburn	Typhoon QO-L
RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team	RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team
Black Cat Display Team	ZD251 Navy Lynx
Westland Lynx Helicopter	Red Arrows Display Team
Red Arrows at Southport	Red Arrows 2007
RAF Red Arrows	Southport Airshow 2007
XX179 Red Arrows Hawk	Red Arrows
Break

This is the second year that we've been to Southport Air Show and it won't be the last time (for one thing I want to be there when the weather's a bit better), this year we met up with my wife's parents and had a nice family weekend in the area.  The weather forecast was for clear skies so we headed over the Pennines with high hopes, unfortunately the reality didn't live up to the forecast and it was mostly overcast with some light showers, while this didn't affect the show too badly it did make the photography a bit more challenging.  I tried to make the best of the odd breaks in the cloud and (except on the Spitfire) have resisted the temptation to composite a better sky into the image.

Last year we missed the start of the flying as we had no idea how long it would take to get there through the traffic and get parked, so this year we made sure we were there in plenty of time, this enabled us to see some rather impressive model planes, not too mention a dog show and some samba drummers which passed the time while we waited for the main event to start.

At about 13:00 we joined the crowds lined up on a rather wet beach, don't know what it's like the rest of the year but it didn't seem like the sort of place I'd want to go building sandcastles.  The displays kicked off with the RAF parachute display team, the Falcons all parachute jumping instructors from Brize Norton, their colourful parachutes provided the first photo opportunity of the day.

We were then treated to a number of individual planes, including a Supermarine Spitfire (PT462), which has a long history, initially serving in the Mediterranean at the end of WWII and joining the Israeli Airforce in the 1950s, it was then donated for use in a playground in Gaza.  Luckily the remains were discovered in the 1980s and it was restored, it now belongs to Anthony Hodgson and is based at his private airstrip in North Wales.

Next up were Grob Tutor 115E (G-BYXM) and a Hawk T1 (ZF295) both used for training by the RAF.  The Hawk is also used by the Red Arrows, so we saw several more of those later.

The Blades Aerobatic Display Team, all ex-Red Arrows pilots gave an excellent show in their Extra Flugzeugbau 300 LPs, designed by Walter Extra specifically for Aerobatics and used by display teams around the world.

The Royal Navy Black Cats display team were due to demonstrate their aerobatic prowess in Lynx Helicopters, but unfortunately only one of the was present, I'm not sure why as we couldn't hear the tannoy.  I had some fun trying to photograph them as it the shutter speed is too fast the rotors look stationary, but too slow and the rest of the helicopter has moved and so is blurred.  I had to throw away quite a few of the helicopter shots I took.  Speaking of photography, I again took the 20D in preference to the 5D.  I felt that the 1.6x crop and faster frame rate would be more useful than the reduced noise at high ISO and full frame, in the end it was probably a bit six and two threes, the grey skies meant as I was shooting at ISO 800 and 1600 quite a bit of the time and I've had to rely on Imagenomic's Noiseware (excellent noise reduction software) to clean them up.

The Yakovlevs from Dorset put their Russian designed Yak aircraft through their paces, performing some impressive stunts, sadly their silver grey colouring doesn't stand out against the grey skies so the photographs don't do them justice.

An airshow wouldn't be complete without a Battle of Britain fly past and we weren't disappointed, a couple of German Messerschmitts 108s and an American P-51D Mustang also made an appearance along with a slight improvement to the weather.   An RAF Typhoon was also present, making an incredible sound as it flew up and down the beach, a very impressive plane.

Finally the Red Arrows arrived, the kids had been looking forward to this all day, in fact my six year old had been going on about them for about a week.  We saw them last year at Whitby and Southport, both grey days so they only did their low level display, although it wasn't exactly a clear day they did do more of the high level stuff.  One day I'll see them in a nice clear sky.  They were, as ever, excellent and put on a really great show, I could watch them over and over again.

And that was the end, obviously everyone had stayed for the "Reds" and so now there was a mass exodus for the carpark, it took about an hour to get from the beach to the edge of Southport, after being stood up all day it was a great relief to get back to the hotel and settle down for a meal and a drink.  We may have to think it through a bit differently next year.