Cosford Air Show 13 June 10

Bit of a mixed day this one.
Weather in the morning was ideal, nice and light with broken cloud, by mid afternoon it had got overcast and surprisingly dark, and by 1600 the predicted low overcast and heavy rain had arrived.
It was a nice little show with modest static, and a good flying programme.
I must apologise now for the quality of the pics, but I as using my old knackered zoom lens (honest!) and from about 15.30 it was too dark to get reasonable pictures, even with the ASA ramped up.

Technical training airframes

Displays were good, though one disadavantage with Cosford is the short runway, this meant that the static display was very small, and the flyers that did land and parked up for the show were situated away from easy access and photographs. I think they sort of made up for this by having there usual high standards of hangar displays, with Jags and Tonkas stripped down, sectioned engines, and ejector seats etc on show, the amount and quality of which would put most museums to shame.

Battle of Britain rememberance Hurricanes and Spitfire

Flying displays were good, though some gaps started appearing in the afternoon, with the the heavy rain forecast I was slightly surprised that they didn’t decide to fly the two Hurricanes and Spitfire that were on the ground earlier than planned, they were due to fly the finale’ tribute to the BOB display and unsure if they actualy did or not?

Great war air display

Shocker of the show for me were the Blades, I was expecting ‘just another light aircraft time to go to the burger stand’ display. What a surprise, I was transfixed on them for the entire display and I have never witnessed aircraft doing the manouvres that they did, let alone in absolute coordination and close in flying! The part where they flew along facing different directions and holding this stance perfectly along the entire crowd line was fantastic. Didn’t get any pictures of these due to being too busy watching them!

Other good displays were put on by the Great war air display, Dutch F-16 (never tire of that), Yak four ship, Tonka ground attack demo, the Reds, Tucano, Jet Provost, King Air, tutor, Hawk and Typhoon.

Highlight for me were the two Venoms and the F-86A and Hunter displays, fantastic seeing these classic jets about, as mentioned earlier they couldn’t land or base themselves at Cosford which ensured that both pairs swept in low for a dramatic arrival. the F-86 is simply fantastic and is a first for me to see it fly, nice and smokey aswel. Apparently it was nearly sold back to the States lately, so bonus for me that it didn’t.

Well, they’re getting on a bit now, Belgium Seaking and R.Neths F-16

The BBMF arrived at about 15.30 with one of their Hurricanes and the silver Spitfire (first time I’ve seen it) and they did a cracking display in the lowering cloud base, but I was staggered to see the Spitfire then go on to display with the Typhoon in the rain! It was an amazing display, with well thought out manouvres and good close formation flying (the Typhhoon just hanging in the sky), possibly looked more dramatic in the rain with the twinkling lights and burners showing up nicely.
I actually thought that would be it, and there was a small gap, but the Harrier perfored its show pieces, again even more dramatic in the heavy rain with spray blowing everywhere. I was amazed to see the two twister then get airborne and do their fantastic aerobatic display at low level, and the Stearmans and wing walkers arrive and do an aerobatic display that I have never seen performed by these biplane – those girls must have endured an awful time in that weather! I was in the car by the time the next display arrived, but it looke to be a six ship of Harvards? If they were they also put on a brilliant and brave display.

A well done and thanks go to the organisers, and more importantly the aircrews that saw fit to carry on pleasing the crowds in murk and rain.
Also thanks to all the ‘blue suits’ that were on duty to organise the proceedings and most of which were thoroughly soaked by the end of the day!

My only gripes about the show, was the entry charge and the traffic control.
I realise the traffic situation is beyond the control of the display organisers, but it was sheer chaos, getting both in and out, I have never seen traffic that bad, n ot evean at the RIAT shows.
The entry charge was £20 per adult. I kind of expect that at say Kemble or similar where all the displays are brought in and a civil airfield has to pay heavy charges, but for an essentially RAF at home day with most of the displays coming from their own PLC I was really suprised at this cost. However I see RIAT is almost £40 ea, so I’m guessing that’s how it is with prices now.