Jersey Airshow 2007
Took the day off yesterday (13th September) to enjoy the Jersey airshow. Its a big'un, 4 hours of aircraft all shapes and sizes and era's - see new photo album - Jersey air show 2007. The show includes a static display of quite a few of the planes up at Jersey airport (though they don't let you get too close unfortunately, such are the times we live in!!
I reached my pre-determined photo location at about 11am and it was already getting busy for the 12.45 start! The choice spot appears to be on the concrete 'steps' to the sea side of 'le fregate' in St. Helier the display being planned around the West Park side of town. Was it a good location...? Well yes and no actually. Modern safety requirements are such that the hard deck for flying is at or about 100ft a.s.l. and the flight line was marked out at approximately a thumping quarter mile or so offshore!!!! Sum result is even using the good old T90 with a 300mm lens the photos are all a bit distant, certainly more distant than I would like. The vast majority of the 450 or so photos from the E10 digital with 140mm equivalent lens were a waste of time :-( - (results from the T90 will be posted here though once I've saved up nough to get them processed and digitised). Not only but also St. Aubins bay faces south so most of the time and especially after 4pm at this time of year the planes are backlit pretty much of the time. The answer is to be at Elizabeth Castle with a good lens or on a boat out in the bay!!
Anyway it was still a good show, popular highlights were of course the red arrows (marvellous) and the noisiest the Typhoon Eurofighter (awesome) especially with an 8g turn and stratosphere chasing vertical climb to about 8000 (?) feet to close his display - he basically went vertical in full re-heat until you couldn't see him anymore - even through a 300mm telephoto lens!!!! Personal favourites though (apart from those) had to be the B17, A26 Marauder, P-51 Mustang and the good old DC-3.
Most unusual were the Antonov AN-2 flying at walking pace without stalling (!!) and the Junkers JU-52 which with its three BMW radial engines just sounds..., weird!!!! Talking of sounds though who can beat a good old Rolls Royce Merlin (Spitfire, Hurricane and Mustang) at full chat and in a slight dive across the bay, sunlight glinting off the plexi-glass canopy. Oh why didn't I become a pilot when I could have had the chance?!
Breathtaking as well was the Blue Falcons army helicopter display. If you've ever watched and marvelled at a prop driven stunt plane climbing and hanging on the propellor before falling out into a vertical dive then the sight of someone doing that in Lynx army helicopter is something to behold!!! I'm probably more than a little pleased that I wasn't actually on board though!! ;-)
P.S. For both aviation and motor enthusiasts it was a bad weekend (15th and 16th September 2007) with the news of the death in a helicopter crash of the outstanding rally driver and former WRC world champion Colin McRae (and his young son and passengers) and also the fatal crash of one of the Hurricanes at last weeks Jersey air show at the Shoreham air day with the death of the pilot Brian Brown. Respect is due to both of them and condolences to their families.
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 15/09/2007.
- Rob Luscombe's site
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