The Reds at Dawlish

Dawlish is the other "must do" sea front airshow, again to the west there is a high vantage point where you can look (and more importantly photograph) down at the action; what I liked most was the number of helicopters as I have not had many oportunities to shoot low-fly images of them.
The stars of the show were the "Red Arrows" (Dawlish is the number-one place to photograph the RAF's red Hawks in action) and that big tin triangle XH558, the Vulcan!

Don't jump theres an airshow on!!!

There are two "must do" airshows on the UK airshow calendar, usually they are close together at the beginning of August, this is the first of the two; Airbourne at Eastbourne on the south coast is not the biggest of air displays, but its along the seafront, to the west of the town is the mighty "Beachy head" this is a great vantage point!
I was just going to do the Saturday, however the Dutch F16 gave a great show, as did the Red Arrows so I stayed for Sunday as well in order to try shooting from another position, of course there was no B&B available so I slept in the car, but only for about 2 hours at a time in between being woken by either the police or the chaplains that patrol the place to prevent suicides jumping of the cliffs! I drove inland a mile or two to get some peace and quiet!

French visitors in the valleys

The weather looked promissing and there were Dassault Dornier Alpha Jets from the Armée de l'Air (French air force) at RAF Valley, so all the signs were that the Mach loop in Wales was the place to be!
A good mix of aircraft over 3 days, F15E, Harriers, GR4s, lots of Hawks, a Typhoon that annoyingly shot of up Bwlch-Y-Groes, another valley, but the stars of the show were the French; 17 snappy fast passes on Friday while I was at the low shelf on Bwlch Oerdrwwys, they were still below my vantage point!!!
A great time with lots of good mates on the hills, pretty good weather and I came home with some of my best ever Low-level shots, can't want for more really.

RIAT departures

I could not get to the show as my weekend was fully booked with other things, very bad planning! However I did get to Fairford for the departures.
A good day marred by the overzealous security, that was frankly utterly farcical and caused long delays and frustration; the sodding about with parking and the dreadful old manky open-topped busses into the grandstand, a fine example of demonstating how terrorism has won, in that we all have to endure (and pay for, in high ticket prices) the expensive charade.