WesWorld

Yesterday was amazing, a day that one dream was fulfilled. I saw, and heard, and felt, the Vulcan in flight!

Yesterday was the Windermere Airshow (right on my new doorstep), the Vulcan had cancelled its appearences on Friday owing to a bent undercarriage door bracket but checking the XH558 website gave no further bad news so it was green light!

Missed the Yakovlev display team owing to parking difficulties, and the Jet Provost (though I heard it and just saw the fin flash over the treetops of the carpark.

Windermere and Bowness (where I was) is on the shore of Lake Windermere, the display routine came over a spit of land that juts out into the lake thus making the displays longer and doing turns at each end for the benefit of the crowds along the Bowness shore. Of course hills on either side, we were just to the left of the spit with no trees (only to the right and behind us) and excellent field of vision up and down the lake.


The next event was the P-51 Mustang "Jumpin Jacques". It was a display that made the hairs on my neck stand up, that brutal sound and gleaming wings was incredible, it made several passes over us flashing past the treetops to my right and arcing in front of the hillside ahead and making turns and diving back in. You could get side, below, top, head-on and tail-on views of the whole airframe.

After an half-hour pause in the programme was the BBMF Spitfire and Hurricane. Pure Merlin heaven, hearing two at once is great. Both made seperate displays and then made a very close paired final exit. They were 10 mins late and I think they probably cut the routine short to make way for the Dakota which followed (which was also slightly late).

I caught it just flying over the hills on my left and was ready as it headed up the lake. Nice and stately and lovely to see.

Now for the final, and main event. Camera twitching, waiting, Vulcan is slightly late, straining my ears to catch any sound in the wind (which is strong blowing south to north plus loads of marine engines making it had to distinguish sounds). Now I should note here everythng so far has flown up from the south end of the lake on its first past so everyone is watching that end. We can't see the north end because of the spit of land and trees on it.

At about 5:10pm I hear the roar of jets, I just turn round (he's sneaked up on us from the north) and BLAM the might Delta herself roars over the trees right past us then goes up like a rocket, the pilot banks so damn fast I'm convinced he wants to roll the damn thing!!! (I swear he must have nearly gone over 90 degrees) and then that jet sound fully hits you like a sledgehammer, it noise you can't describe in words. The Vulcan then banks, dives down at us and roars past us along the lake showing the undersides off, it does its turn for the folks at the northern end and it makes another climb we can see and its a high one and he opens those engines up and the whole valley is filled with sound. He goes down, we can't hear it (the wind is blowing the sound away), he then comes in low again, zooms over and climbs like an elevator and those damn nozzles are facing me!! I'm trying to take a photo, the air is filled with roaring, the ground is shaking and the camera is shaking wildly (I'm exicited and shaken by the power of the whole thing). Its the loudest and most physical noise I've ever heard. I know I probably won't here it again and the kids around us probably never will neither.

Well then it skirts along the hilltop (if I had a million quid in my pocket by now I know where it would go) and then dives the other side of the spit. He makes another pass (not quite as noisy or maybe be now I'm deaf?) and then he climbs to go home, and I mean he climbs, he then flies right above us and turns south for home.

It was the most incredible thing and I'll post some pics here (they are blurry and although on the camera maks out it was miles away it was not!).
Now my final must-do is to see and hear a Lightning.

Windermere is the most spectacular location for such a display, the sound echoed off the mountains and it was just perfect.

Lets hope she returns for 2010!

Sounds GREAT Hood, thanks for sharing, your words helped bring it to life

Man I'd kill for a view like that from my place!

The last time I was at the Abbotsford airshow I have to say the most awesome thing to watch was an F-14 Tomcat stand on its tail wings and climb straight up like a homesick angel, its the kinda thing that makes you grin from ear to ear! I'm sure the pilot was too for more than one reason

Sounds good, I've only seen the Vulcan from a distance so far. I imagine the Lakes are fairly scenery for the displays. Eurofighter is pretty loud as well when the pilot banks away from the crowd and kicks in the reheat. I saw one of the EJ.200s on test down at RR Bristol before christmas that was pretty loud even outside the heavily soundproofed test cell.

That's right folks, the big Delta herself came back to Windermere!!

A last minute sponser saw the Vulcan come back to Windermere. With only three hours notice I bundled into the car, headed up the M6 and grabbed a really good vantage point.
Although not as high energy and loud as the previous performance in 2009 (I guess they are conserving the wear and tear for future years now they've flown for three years) it was impressive. From where I was it flew over my head about three times and you could feel the power, let alone hear it!!!

Overall I felt the airshow this was skimpy, perhaps many operators now are conserving fuel due to costs? Has anyone else noticed less passes at airshows this year?

The BBMF made two passes with the Lanc, two passes with Lanc and Spit in formation (pure Merlin sound!) and the Spit made a very brief solo display. The RAF Hawk made an excellent solo display, a Jet Provost made two quick passes and was gone, the RAF Falcons made an impressive paraglide performance and the Breitling Wingwalkers were very noisy and smoky (they made the longest show of the lot but somehow wingwalking just doesn't float my boat). I never knew Stearmans were so damn noisy!
All in all though a great day.

Fantastic report Hood. I can only imagine the effect. Haven't been to an airshow in thirty-plus years now - they don't do them in my neck of the woods any more.

I was wondering where the Vulcan was going as it passed over my parent's house yesterday. I imagine the Lakes are a pretty good backdrop for an airshow. I agree on the loudness front - the Vulcan beats just about anything. It took off from Farnborough last year for the start of the display which was awesome.

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Has anyone else noticed less passes at airshows this year?

Well, the Thunderbird show at Koksijde had definitely less passes than what I saw last year at Abbotsford and back in 2008... but that may have been caused by the torrential downpour that was fast approaching and not the cost of fuel.

I saw the BBMF twice last year (at Farnborough and at Gilze-Rijen). They were supposed to come to Koksijde, but didn't show up due to the bad weather across the North Sea. They should be at the Airshow at Leeuwarden in September, so I will keep an eye on it (if the weather permits it).

It is quite possible that it is a mix of the cost of fuel and what the Airshow organizers are willing to pay. Perhaps it is a simple matter of 10000 Euros per pass or so for things like the BBMF and the Vulcan.

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It took off from Farnborough last year for the start of the display which was awesome.

Totally agree.

Cool!

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Cool!

*sends torrential downpour to Brock's location*
Hopefully that'll cool you down.

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Originally posted by Rooijen10

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Cool!

*sends torrential downpour to Brock's location*
Hopefully that'll cool you down.

I got one of those last night, actually - three hours driving through one of our impressive High Prairie Thunderstorms.