Hello,
Decided to try something different instead of posting photo's up and add a bit of commentary to them as well.
As with Saturday, up until around 10:30ish the Remote Control aircraft were flying and providing entertainment for the already busy beach, with displays from the B-17, Heinkel, etc.
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At roughly 10:33 the DHFS AS.350BA Squirrel HT2 arrived bringing Red 10 in and five or so minutes later again departed back to Blackpool, which then saw ten or so light aircraft arrived on the beach, the highlight of this was the Slepcev Storch which came in low much to everyone's surprise then climbed out to position itself for a landing on the beach runway:
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The show was due to start at 12:00 with the Red Arrows, and to no surprise they arrived from the rear of the crowdline over Southport displaying the trademark Red, White & Blue smoke in "Big Battle" formation, and unlike Saturday's display in which they performed their flat display, they immediately launched into their Full display, highlights of this for me was the "Palm Split, "Vertical Break" as well as "Python", unusually after they had finished the display they headed straight for Blackpool, instead of forming up for a flypast from Left to Right as they had done on the Saturday
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Straight after the Reds had finished displaying the DHFS Squirrel arrived to take Red 10 back to Blackpool to fly with the rest of the aircraft down to Rennes Airshow in France.
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Once the Squirrel had departed the Shorts Tucano ZF244 ran in from the Left side of the beach, this aircraft is the striking Poppy schemed aircraft with "Lest we Forget" stencilled on the underside of the aircraft, and unlike the Saturday display showed the aircraft off carrying out various Loops, Rolls & inverted flypasts concluding in a left wing dipped flypast to formally end its display.
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Within a few minutes of the Tucano displaying the sound of four Lycoming AEIO-540 engines was heard over Southport behind us and this announced the arrival of the Blades display team, the team which has become one of the most recognised display teams in the UK performed manoeuvres from the "Hammerhead" to the "Goose & Gatling" before finishing with the "Blade Break".
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Up Next was the Plane Sailing PBY-5A Catalina, which for me is always a welcome addition to any airshow display. The display showed off the lines of the aircraft perfectly and also showed it flying with the Pontoons down and the gear down.
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Immediately after the Catalina display the Royal Navy Sea King XV661 in the very distinctive Grey & Red scheme which for the weekend was based at RAF Woodvale, but can usually be found at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall approached from the left to display its SAR Demo:
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The display included winching two lifeguards from the beach and then lowering them back down to the beach, after this had happened, they positioned the aircraft to the left of the beach they flew slowly down the flightline displaying the Royal Naval White Ensign, before vacating to the right side of the show at the end of its display.
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Next in the display schedule was the Scottish Aviation Bulldog and Grob Tutor T.1 in a formation fly past before they each broke off into their separate display's.
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After the pair had finished their formation display's, the Bulldog came in directly front the crowd and began its display, after seeing this last year it was great to see this back as I can remember them from the late 90's being based just a short flight away at Woodvale, although the display started quite high up by the end of the display the pilot was down to around 150feet and which he waved his wings left to right down the display line to conclude its display.
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Almost immediately the Tutor ran in from the front of the crowd, pulling up into a stall turn and showing off the kind of manoeuvres that the pilots entering their flying career in the RAF, before after around 7 minutes it came to the end of its display and flew a nice topside pass down the crowdline.
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Next brought Peter Teichman's Hawker Hurricane Mk IIB "BE
505" Hurri-Bomber colloquially known as "Pegs", to everyone's surprise as on the Saturday the team who provided the pyrotechnics set them off while he was displaying his other aircraft "Jumpin Jacques" instead of "Pegs". Almost immediately on the run in there was a sound of Machine guns firing as he ran in fairly low level to strafe the beach before pulling up into one of his trademark curving turns, during the display the crowd was treated to "Victory rolls", "Barrel Rolls", and long sweeping topside passes before on his final pass the beach erupted with the simulated 250lb bomb's, his display could definitely be described as Sedate as each pass and manoeuvre was designed to show off the definite characteristics of the aircraft.
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Once Peter had finished the display, in the distance you could hear the tell tale noise of the next display act flying in from its base near Blackpool, and as soon as it had reached the pier the speakers started to pump out "Wagner's - The Ride of the Valkyries" and thus started the display of The Huey UH-1H. The display showed off all the angles of the Vietnam era Helicopter, and you could easily imagine the effect of 30 or 40 of these on the way in to an operational theatre and the noise that they would make.
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The next act to display was the Jet Provost XW324, having seen the Strikemaster last year I was wondering how this would be displayed, and to my surprise was displayed like a classic jet of its age should have been done, showing off its various lines & manoeuvrability, with various loops & rolls thrown in as well as a few topside passes.
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Running in almost as soon as the Jet Provost had displayed was the Royal Navy's Solo Black Cat XZ692, in the past years the Black Cats have displayed as a pair but certainly last year & this year has only been a single aircraft display. Although certainly lacking the second aircraft the crew displayed with precision showing why this is one of the most known Helicopter display acts in the UK.
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Next in the display was the Unlimited Aerobatics pilot Ed Cyster flying the Xtremeair XA41 (sbach 300), this was a show of high precision piston aerobatics with Lomchevak's, Knife edge climb's, stall turns & much more.
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The only change to the schedule was Peter Teichman displayed his P-51D Mustang "Jumpin Jacques" instead of the allotted display by the Navy Merlin, compared to his Hurricane display this was more fast paced, with the background music of "In The Mood", as with his previous aircraft his display was a mixture of aerobatics & fast top side passes.
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Running in from the right of the display line was the Army Air Corps last display with the Lynx AH.7, as usual this left a lot of people shocked with the aerobatics that it is able to perform, and it started straight away with a roll fairly high above the crowd before carrying out the move that its well known for, the "Backflip", as it was the last year this is being displayed this move was carried out quite a few times.
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During the above display if you looked out towards Blackpool you could just make out two aircraft taking off, after a few moments it soon became clear that this was perhaps the most anticipated and historic display to take place. In from crowd right you could make out the Battle Of Britan Memorial Flight Lancaster "Thumper", very closely followed by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum "VeRA" and with the Supermarine Spitfire LFIXe MK356 and Hawker Hurricane MK IIC PZ865 the skies above the beach was filled with the sound of 10 Merlin's.
The aircraft flew together for a few passes before the two Lancaster's headed off to the right of the display to wait over Southport to leave the fighters to display together.
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After a short while both Lancaster's could be seen running back in from the right of the display line to show off their topsides and fly together for a few moments before the fighters re-formed up and the formation flew back in from the left side for their final flypast before heading back to Blackpool and then off to the flypast over the Derwent Dam.
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After a couple of minutes wait the Eurofighter Typhoon TP-Y ZK308 started its display from the left, running in and immediately igniting its afterburners and pulling up producing a large amount of vapour from the top of the wings, during the display the pilot showed off all aspects of the aircrafts flying characteristics from the low speed high alpha pass, to the final pass which it pulled up in the vertical axis straight up to around 10,000ft again producing vapour from the wings.
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Apart from the two Lancaster's, the next display act was something I was really looking forward too, catching a glimpse of the sun from both aircrafts wings to the left the Mid Air Squadron's Canberra PR9 & Hunter T.7 made their entrance with a excellent topside pass by both aircraft.
For me the Canberra was the star of the pair and the display definitely was definitely more orientated in my view towards this. Although it was good to see a Hunter T.7 back on the display circuit as the last time one had displayed was in 2007, I personally think that the display should of incorporated both aircraft doing solo displays.
During the display the Canberra came in very slowly as it had its Flaps and Landing Gear down, Spoilers deployed and the Flare Bay open, and carried out a wide 360degree turn following which the aircraft was tidied up as they prepared for the last pass which showed that although she is an vintage aircraft, she still knows how to move.
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As with yesterday the Royal Navy Merlin from RNAS Culdrose didn't manage to winch a crew member down to the beach due to a technical hitch, but the crew kept it closer to the crowd than I've previously seen over the years. Showing off the manoeuvrability and also the power of the three turbines pirouetting down the display line up to the final act of its display, bowing to the crowd.
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This is one act that always gets people talking the RV8tors, unable to display yesterday due to the weather & one aircraft being stuck somewhere else (according to the commentator), these displayed their small Vans RV8 home built aircraft with a mixture of loops, rolls, stall turns and their own version of the "Heart" made from smoke.
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For most apart from the two Lancaster's, the Vulcan would have been the star of the show. Having seen this almost every year since it was restored back to flying status, I have to admit this was the display I'd like to have seen at Rhyl last year. Quite a few power climbs were welcome, as well as a couple of the trademark "Howls".
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Thanks for Looking.
John