Airshows are about family entertainment. In an ideal world they're about a colourful variety of aircraft, spectacle, smoke trails hanging in blue summer sky, ice cream stalls doing a roaring trade and things to do and see on the ground. In this regard, the Southport Airshow 2011 can be classed as a perfect family airshow.
Not that that's a surprise. Southport, like all the seaside airshows round the British coastline, offers a beguiling mix for the family - a spectacular, unusual day out combined with that great summer tradition of a day at the seaside. Sun, sand, sky, aeroplanes and ice cream makes for an attractive combo.
This, together with some sunny mid-summer weather, the big local catchment area and the fact that Southport is the biggest airshow in the region, all combined to pack out Southport seafront on both days. The sea wall and car parks were fuller than your correspondent has seen them for many years. Official figures are yet to be announced, but expect them to be north of 100,000.
As described in the pre-event preview Southport is different to the other seaside venues in that the wide expanse of sands on the Sefton Coast enables car parking on the beach and operations by lighter aircraft. Combined with the long sea wall providing a raised viewing platform, everyone gets a good view.
So what did they see? Like all the seaside airshows Southport has always been about variety, mixing fast jets, helicopters, aerobatics, biplanes, display teams and parachutists. Personally, I think this is when airshows are at their very best - a little bit of everything providing different sights and sounds.
For the public and aircraft enthusiast alike, the highpoint on Saturday was probably the appearance of the Vulcan. A lot has been written about the perceived rights, wrongs, whys and wherefores about XH558, but - when push comes to shove - the Vulcan has stage presence. Big, noisy, a distinct shape and displaying in what commentator George Bacon rightly described as "epic light", it was good to see it over its North West England home turf - or in this case sand - again.
Stage presence is also something the Royal Air Force's Tornado GR.4 Role Demonstration has - especially when the sand provides an ideal base material for the explosive effects used to accompany the routine. This must have been a high point for a lot of the crowd given the number of people I heard muttering the word 'Tornado' when walking away from the seafront and travelling home on the train on Saturday.
But seaside airshows are not just about noise and power. An important ingredient is smoke in the sky - white contrails left hanging in the air, making for pretty pictures and adding to the atmosphere of a day out at the seaside. With the fine weather the displays by the Breitling Wingwalkers, RV8tors, SWIP Team, GliderFX, The Blades and Gerald Cooper flying an Edge all made quite an impression. The smoke they left in the sky also showed that despite the sunshine there was a strong on-crowd wind on both days, so kudos to all the participating pilots and crews. The RV8tors, GliderFX and SWIP team also operated from the beach, joining a number of light historic aircraft and locally-based microlights in a display on the sand.
Alongside the Tornados, the Royal Air Force provided its full complement of solo training aircraft displays - Tutor, Tucano, Hawk and King Air - which together with the interactive ground displays and static mock-ups, reflected how important the armed services regard seaside airshows as a place to meet the public.
Jonathan Whaley's Hunter 'Miss Demeanour' and Peter Teichman's P-51D 'Jumpin' Jacques' perfectly suit seaside shows with their distinctive paint schemes. Both pilots flew sweeping displays, the respective sounds of the Rolls-Royce Avon and Packard Merlin attracting the attention of the crowd just as much as their paint schemes glinting in the sunshine. Peter Teichman also displayed his Spitfire XI. Further history was provided by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with a Hurricane, Spitfire and the Lancaster (just the 'Spit' and 'Lanc' on Saturday). Squadron Leaders Ian Smith and Dunc Mason's excellent tailchasing in the fighters on the Sunday noticeably quietened the crowd.
Certainly the wind effect was also visible with the display by The Tigers, the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment Parachute team, on a rare foray to northern England. They jumped out of the Royal Navy Black Cats Lynx pair, which along with a Merlin HM1 provided the modern-day Senior Service presence at the show. On Sunday the Black Cats also flew by in formation with the Royal Navy Historic Flight Swordfish LS326 in a pleasing nod to Fleet Air Arm heritage. The Swordfish gave its own solo displays recalling nearby Liverpool's links to the Battle of the Atlantic.
2011-07-29 -
Excellent write up, stunning pics.
Southport is my home town good to see a truly positive mention, thank you.
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