I’m genuinely astonished at what Kev Wills et al – with a very limited pot of resources – manage to achieve each time it’s staged. Sadly, the proverbial ‘sun, sea and sand’ tagline wasn’t fully supplied this year, with inclement conditions hampering the final couple of hours of the flying programme.
Dawlish Air Show 2011 had the potential to offer one of the most outstanding line-ups yet – a gallery of airshow stars that, in the weeks running up to the show, got ever more impressive. As the event drew closer, two of the major highlights were forced to withdraw, for different reasons, while, on the day itself, several items just couldn’t make it to the local area, such were the weather conditions elsewhere. This resulted in a truncated flying programme but one that was still able to showcase everything that’s special about this most spectacular of venues.
The forecasts suggested Dawlish and much of the southern coastline would experience quite horrible weather for much of the day. As it transpired, Dawlish got off fairly lightly. Conditions inland were pretty dire – a constant stream of very low cloud and mist could be seen shrouding the trees and hills to the north but, looking out to sea, the visibility was clearly much better. The cloudbase stayed pretty low all day and there was some heavy early rain and a few spots during the show itself, but it could have been far, far worse.
As was widely reported, Bournemouth Air Festival’s opening day saw all flying cancelled, after the area was hit by flash flooding. With Bournemouth Airport hosting many of its participants and, consequently, Dawlish’s too, this extreme rainfall indirectly limited the show’s running order but not before the hardy, well-wrapped crowd (it really was quite a cold day, too!) had enjoyed eight very different displays from a wide mixture of items, both civil and military.
Traditionally, the Dawlish Air Show morning is the domain of the helicopters, with various arrivals and local sorties. This year was no exception and both an RAF Griffin and a 671 Sqn Army Air Corps Lynx AH7 flew in to join the party. Dawlish has two helicopter exhibition areas, bookending the site, with Dawlish Warren at one end and the Smugglers Inn at the other. After carrying out a lovely, low approach, the Griffin carried out a brief recce hover over the Smugglers Inn landing zone before transiting to Dawlish Warren, where it would be parked for the rest of the day.
The Lynx, though, did land in front of the Smugglers and stayed there for the remainder of the show. No 22 Squadron’s hardy Sea King HAR3, ZH545, was the undisputed star of the morning, carrying out several sorties and, each time it returned, approaching the landing zone at a slightly different angle – a boon to the photographers on the Smugglers Inn hillside who, correspondingly, were able to frame it against a multitude of backdrops. On a personal note, ZH545 – which lives at RMB Chivenor – is a helicopter I see almost every day, but never at this kind of close range. I’ve written before about my quest to capture just one decent photo of her – having never managed it in the six years I’ve been living in North Devon: thanks to Dawlish, I’ve got one now!
On a separate issue, the point also needs to be made that the Smugglers Inn hill doesn’t fall within the show’s officially-designated spectator area – the situation’s much the same as Eastbourne seafront and Beachy Head, or RAF Fairford and Totterdown Farm.
It was very unfortunate and, to be honest, pretty ironic that the Sea King, which would have carried out a simulated search and rescue demonstration during the afternoon, ended up performing a real-life emergency rescue, in full view of the seafront crowd. Up on the hill, we couldn’t see exactly what was happening – the lie of the land obscured the view – but it transpired that two girls had fallen off the sea wall. Since the show, it’s been reported that both sustained only minor injuries, thankfully, and GAR wishes the pair a full and speedy recovery back to full health.
Back to the show itself which, at 1230hrs on the dot, was opened by Flt Lt Shaun Kimberley in the RAF Tutor T1. With all credit to his tightly-choreographed performance, in a relatively low-powered aircraft, it’s one that, out of necessity, is very much positioned over show centre at all venues so, at Dawlish, it was well out of photographic reach to those of us up on the Smugglers Inn hill. With my camera out of use for a few minutes, though, it was nice just to watch Flt Lt Kimberley dance over the sea for a few minutes. The cloudbase at this point really was low and, as a result, ‘Kimbo’ performed an elegant flat show, consisting mainly of horizontal rolling manoeuvres and wingovers. The Breitling Wingwalkers should have been next on the bill but were weathered-in elsewhere: a real shame, as I’d been looking forward to hearing the Stearmans’ radials echo across the bay and photographing them from our vantage-point.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Dawlish is the element of surprise that often emerges. With the Sea King powering down after landing off yet another excursion, I’d be willing to bet that not many of the hill-dwellers managed to capture Flt Lt Dan Hayes’ sneaky entrance in the RAF Tucano. The six minutes that followed presented another flat display but one that covered a much wider area and, thus, gave us our first overhead passes of the show proper – game on! Flt Lt Leon Creese did much the same in the RAF King Air, with several of his repositioning turns taking him over the top of the hill and dipping down towards the display line – lovely stuff!
In The Blades, the UK has probably one of the world’s best civilian teams equipped with unlimited aerobatic aircraft. While the display started as a flat one, a very slight lift in the cloudbase allowed the team to perform a full second half. This was the first time I’d seen The Blades this year and I really think they’ve never been on better form. Sure, watching the likes of the 'Crazy Flying' – with all four aircraft flying at opposing angles – head-on, is an incredible spectacle in itself, but the whole package seems to have got slicker and even more exciting. Mark Cutmore’s solo portions were excellent, too: I don’t think I’ve ever seen four consecutive four-point rolls and all of them executed with rapier-like precision! It’s no exaggeration to say that much of the display elicited some very worthy “oohs” and “aahs” from the spectators on the hill – something that’s always very pleasant to hear. The SWIP Team also extracted appreciative noises from those watching them and, again, looked impressive as they gyrated over the waves.
Flt Lt Jules Fleming gave a neat Hawk T1 display and, again, made a couple of overhead approaches down towards the display line, but it’s probably fair to say the full routine – not presented this time - is a more impressive showcase for her abilities and, so, Dawlish wasn’t treated to her best. Heritage Aviation’s Jet Provost T5 XW324 was a late addition, replacing a billed Team Viper Hunter solo. Flown by Sqn Ldr Dan Arlett – Hunter T7 G-VETA’s usual pilot – it gave quite an effective display, with another sneaky arrival, lots of aerobatics and a visually-impressive gear-lowering turn into wind.
The RAF’s final contribution took the form of several passes from a solo Tornado GR4, thundering across the bay with wings-swept and vapour wrapped tightly around it. This should have been the standard, two-ship GR4 Role Demonstration but, with one aircraft having gone unserviceable, it was reduced to a solo performance. Maybe ‘reduced’ isn’t quite the right word, as it was still quite the spectacle, but I couldn’t help thinking of what could have been. That, unfortunately, was the last display of the day – with the RN Sea King, BBMF and RAF Red Arrows all cancelling. News of the withdrawals perhaps wasn’t that unexpected, given that we knew of Bournemouth’s extreme weather, but it was no less disappointing for that.
This was my third trip to Dawlish (I missed last year, but attended in 2008 and 2009) and the previous raft of memories and standout moments got several new additions from it. True, you have to be positioned in the right place to really experience the show as nature intended, but I can’t imagine many of the seafront spectators would ultimately have been let down by what they saw, either. It’s been a joy to witness the show grow, as it has, over the past few years but, due to the weather, it’s been reported that crowd numbers were down on previous years, although Dawlish town seemed very busy. In the Smugglers Hill, the show really does have an unrivalled viewing area although, as mentioned earlier, it’s strictly off-site and, as such, a very small charge is made by the owners. What was once an almost-secretive elevated vista has clearly gained in popularity – it’s not just the enthusiasts that gather there - witness the bouncy castle, face-painting stall and catering present this time around!
I hope that some donations have been forthcoming as the show’s future security is heavily dependent on them but, with healthy sales of both programmes and merchandise and savings made elsewhere, according to Kev, there’s already a good platform to build on for next year’s show. I also hope the organising team isn’t too disheartened with the way things panned out in 2011 – in more favourable weather, and without the run of bad luck that preceded the show – Vulcan XH558’s fuel leak included – it would have been another cracker. Here’s looking forward to 2012 and, fingers-crossed, a decent (and long-overdue) British summer!
I’ll leave the last words to Kev, whose comments were written after the death of Red 4, just two days after the show. “Dawlish Air Show 2011 was a testing one for sure”, he says. “We had arguably the best line up of display acts ever. We also worked so hard in the lead up to the show to make sure all the best infrastructure and support was in place to make everything run so much more smoothly, so the team and I are so disappointed that the good old British summer conspired against us. That said, however, all our woes are nothing in comparison to the tragic event that happened at Bournemouth on Saturday. The Red Arrows have been an integral part of making the Dawlish Air Show the spectacle it is now, so the sad loss of Flt Ft Jon Egging has touched us all deeply.
“Our condolences go out to his wife Emma, their family and friends and to Sqn Ldr Ben Murphy and the whole of the Red Arrows Team."
2012-01-15 - Trevor
We were there with my 5 year old son and 1 year old. My wife wasn't impressed with the weather but my son loved the displays. It was a real shame that the weather was poor and caused a number of the displays to pull out but what we got to see was great. Planning to go again this year!
2011-10-10 - Ross McKinnon
Very well written Paul, even I learnt some things from your review!
Good to see you on the hill...even though we only live 10 mins apart (never see each other apart from shows).
Keep up the good work, very impressive.
Ross
2011-08-26 - yorky153
Great review. We were over at the Warren, so did not see too mutch. However, as the SWIP Team departed, I was listening on airband. They went from 122.10 to 118.00 and they were chatting to each other about how they had enjoyed doing their display.
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