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BAeA Power vs Glider Match
4th Octoberr2009

The Power vs Glider Aerobatics Match marks the end of the British Aerobatic Association's calendar. This year Wickenby hosted the event, where the years’ National Champions from both Power and Glider contests are pitted head to head.

The format of the competitions was to pair off the equivalent classes in the two disciplines, awarding the Competition pot to the team with the most wins, individual medals for the pilots with the highest individual scores.

Competition aerobatics are very similar for both gliders and powered aircraft, so it is not unreasonable to compare pilots in this way. Both disciplines perform their competition routines in a 1km square cube, called “the box”, and are scored to the same criteria by the same judges.

Each pilot was scheduled to fly 2 programs, a ‘Known’ routine, published at the beginning of the year and well practised by each competitor. The second, an "Unknown" sequence, is kept under wraps until just before flight.

Team pilots Mike Newman and Paul Barker flew the S-1 Swift in the competition. Saturday became a tea drinking contest as gales lashed the Lincolnshire flatlands. Sunday dawned bright and fresh and the whole contest was completed by 4pm.

Unlike Last year, the glider team's performance in the Known programs was disappointing, with a single win from Paul Barker (74.08%). The Unkowns reversed their fortunes somewhat with another win for Paul Barker (77.73%), but also Maz Makari (78.10%), David Gethin (74.83%) and David Gibbs (68.28%),  

The Power team won the contest 9/5. The Glider Team's saving grace was the individual medal haul in the Unkown Program, Maz Makari and Paul Barker taking Gold and Silver respectively.

The full BAeA report can be found here.

Southport Airshow
26th-27th September2009

Team Pilots Peter Wells and Paul Moslin made the long transit to Southport on a perfect autumn afternoon, to leave Guy Westgate and Paul Johnson to make the red-eye trip north through the traffic jams of the M25 and M6.

The seaside display, in its 17th year, was delayed until the end of September to coincide with a low tide, but the Indian Summer blessed Lancashire with dry and mild conditions and a record 90,000 spectators flocked to the show, tagged as the biggest aviation display in the North West

Southport’s beach is unusually flat, and home to Birkdale Sands – a CAA recognised sand strip that for many years this was used for pleasure flights. Unlike last year, the sand next to the pleasure pier was firm and dry and Sephton Borough Council brought a taste of South America to the beach by preparing a series of crossing runways that resembled the fabled The Nazca geoglyphs of Peru.

Despite the multiple sand runways and the twenty 'fly-in' aircraft that were parked on the sand, we were the only display aircraft to use the beach as the Sea King, Merlin and Chinook helicopters suffered last minute technical problems and availability issues.

The show had a distinct ‘end of term’ feel, as it signalled not only the end of our UK display season, but was also the last display for Vic Norman’s Wingwalking Team under Guinot sponsorship. The low cloud dictated a flat show for the Red Arrows last display too.

With the future of the Vulcan also unsure, it was fitting that it closed the show on Sunday - the end to a very successful year!

We would like to thank RAF Woodvale who hosted the team for the weekend, and to Karl Drage and Gareth Stringer who interviewed the team and covered the event for their new website, Global Aviation Resource.

Kemble Battle of Britain Airshow
19th-20th September2009

15th September is Battle of Britain Day and Kemble, now rebranded the Cotswold Airport again remembered our flying heroes from 1940 with a weekend fly-in and airshow.

The successful event drew crowds of almost 4,000 over the weekend, to watch a short but varied flying program in support of both the RAFBF and Fly2Help charities

The event clashed with both Brize Norton's Family day and Goodwood’s Revival but allowed Kemble to share some headline acts including the Vulcan, Rolls Royce Spitfire, BBMF and VC10.

Unlike the larger Kemble airshow in June, the crowd-line was on the north-side of the airfield, providing a more intimate feel for the displays centred on the Control Tower. 

Team Members Mike Newman, Peter Wells and Guy Westgate flew in very hazy conditions on Saturday, for Mike's second roll-on-tow display flight. Sunday provided clearer conditions for Brendan O’Brien’s first display as Pawnee tow pilot, Guy taking his more usual seat in the Swift glider.

Thanks for the Weekend must go to the Cotswold Gliding Club at Aston Down who hosted the team for the weekend and to Pat and Sarah for accommodating us.

Also to photographers Paul Johnson and Karl Drage for covering the event.

As we prepared to return to RAF Halton, Bidford Pilot Maddy Findon landed a Blanik at Aston Down completing her 50km Silver distance flight.  It was our pleasure to tow her home, formating with her Dad Dave over the Cotswolds in his Tiger Moth.

Saltby Open Glider Aerobatics Competition
11th-13th September2009

Mike Newman competed in the British Aerobatic Association (BAeA) Open glider aerobatic competition at Saltby airfield. The competition is won by the competitor with the highest score, with all pilots flying 2 unknown programs at their own level of competition. The contest is unusual as an Unlimited pilot can compete on a level playing field with a beginner - both flying programs whose difficulty reflects their own skill level.

The weather defied all probability and September temperatures peaked at 24C to give one of the best competitions Buckminster Gliding Club has known.

The 15 pilots concluded the ‘Classic’ Open competition by the second day, so the schedule was extended with a Freestyle contest on Sunday. Mike struggled with some challenging unknown manoeuvres and placed 11th in the Open, but won the Freestyle event.

• David-John Gibbs (Intermediate)  79.13%
• David Gethin (Sports)    75.72%
• Graham Saw (Advanced)  75.47%

Click here for the contest director's report

Seething Chairty Air Day 2009 and Northern Ireland International Airshow
5th-6th September2009

The 9th Seething Airfield Charity Air Day saw about 4000 spectators take to the old WW2 airfield in Suffolk. With the poor weather and flooding of recent years, the organisers had a plan B - to put the stall holders and crowd line on the runway and fly the display acts from Tibenham. The weather gods smiled however and the Sun shone (for most of the day).

Seething is special for several reasons – First the catering is now legendary and the culinary delights in the clubhouse did not disappoint. The team line-up had a shake-up too, with Mike Newman flying his first roll-on-tow display and Guy Westgate towing in the Pawnee tug. Peter Wells flew his UL-powered Twister.

This years show was dedicated to the late Ian Davies, who helped organise many of the previous charity air days. 

Besam’s ops director Steve Wallis also passed away this week after a long battle with Cancer. Steve met the team at Duxford in May and was a key figure in supporting our display sponsorship. The swift glider wore a black armband in respect – he will be missed and remembered.

Meanwhile Team Member Ian Gallacher flew in the 8th Northern Ireland International Airshow at Portrush. Ian piloted an ASK21 from Ulster Gliding Club and as last year landed on the West Strand Beach in front of the crowd.

The airshow regularly boasts daily crowds of 200,000, packed around the bay from Castlerock to the historic Dunluce Castle. This year however the forecast of ferocious gales kept some people away and caused problems for the flying acts. Although the rain stayed away, the strong winds and cloud made for two challenging days of glider flying. Highlights of the weekend were the Airbus A380 and the Red Arrows.

Particular thanks must go to Tugmaster Jim Lawn and CFI Mark Wright of Tibenham who let us rig the S1 Swift glider and practice over the airfield in Norfolk.  Also to Paul Johnson who helped with driving logistics and photographed the event. In Ireland thanks must go to Tug Pilot Phil Hazelhurst who did well to rescue the glider off the beach, with very strong winds and a rising tide. Also to John Laverey and Jay Nethercott of UGC.

Clacton Airshow, World Aerobatic Championships (Silverstone), Little Gransden & Dunsfold Wings and Wheels
27th-30th August 2009

Now in its 18th year, Clacton Air Show, organised by Tendring District Council attracts in excess of 120,000 visitors to the midweek show.

The dominant feature of the week was a strong south-westerly wind that initially helped Jon Gowdy and Guy Westgate make the long transit from Southdown Gliding Club in less than an hour. Peter Wells joined the team at Clacton Airfield to be interviewed by ITV Anglia’s Lorna Ramsey, and later by Jenny Line of Dream100 Radio.

Clacton is unusual amongst seaside shows, as the glider can perform solo aerobatics and land at the Airfield - only 2km from the display line. Thursday presented blue skies and a stiff breeze but by Friday the surface wind was gusting 25kts across the runway and occasional showers made for a challenging day for photographers and pilots alike.

The following day was one of the highlights of our display calendar - The final day of the World Aerobatic Championships at Silverstone, and the first time the competition has been held on UK soil since South Cerney in 1986.

Over the past 50 years, World Champions have typically come from the Eastern block countries, but this year belonged to the French, who took the team trophy and crowned the new Champion of the World, Renaud Ecalle. With the “Classic” competition completed before we arrived, day 10 of the event was the 4 minute Freestyle, an opportunity for 15 select pilots to impress the judges with their choice of manoeuvres set to music.

Frustratingly for Brit, Mark Jeffries, the entry rules were changed and the 2 British Freestyle places were taken by Gerald Cooper (who finished 7th in the Classic competition) and Frenchman Eric Vazeille who was nominated as the UK Freestyle specialist..

The two pilots who impressed the most however, were Jurgis Kairys in his Su26M3 and Renaud Ecalle, who got a clean sweep in his Extra330SC with an incredible rolling loop and a performance that combined aggression and grace to win him his second World title of the year.

The Air Show which followed was a great mix of the country’s best acts including the Blades, Aerostars, Guinot and the Vulcan. Paul Moslin took his familiar seat in the Pawnee for the rest of the weekend and we were assisted by team members Mike Newman and Paul Barker for the day.

The last day of our Bank Holiday weekend marathon started at Little Gransden for the Charity Car & Air Day in aide of Children in Need were we met Mark Jeffries draining the red dye from his Extra330SC smoke tank that he had carefully prepared for the WAC freestyle, but not used.

The charity show has built up quite a following under the leadership of Dave Poile MBE and a capacity crowd of 5,000 helped a record donation to Pudsey’s charity.

The wind remained strong as we flew south towards Dunsfold in the afternoon and we reached a slow moving weather front west of London. Initially visibility remained good away from the showers, but soon cloudbase was dropping and we only just cleared the North Downs to be treated to the Vulcan performing under the low cloudbase. A very impressive sight.

Several flying acts had cancelled with the weather and a range of technical problems, but that did not detract from record crowds of 25,000 for the Wings and Wheels event.

Thanks must go Mike Rivett and Paul Johnson for covering events over the Weekend and to the Clacton Aeroclub.

Bournemouth Air Festival and RAFA Shoreham 20th Anniversary Battle of Britain Airshow
22nd-23rd August 2009

The Weekend that promised so much for British Aerobatics started with a tragedy. The World Aerobatic Championships (WAC) suffered its first ever fatal accident at Silverstone. American pilot Vicki Cruse, crashed her Edge540 during a competition manoeuvre and for the Swift Team the atmosphere was similar to Shoreham in 2007 after the loss of the Hurricane – we flew in the knowledge that one of our own was gone.

Our weekend of coastal transits started in light drizzle as team pilots Guy Westgate, Paul Moslin and Peter Wells met at Bournemouth Airport, but by early afternoon the sky was clear and we opened the 2nd Bournemouth seaside Air Festival in smooth air and wall to wall sunshine – a delight after the turbulence of Eastbourne the week before. The commentary team were our old friends ‘Flash and Smokey’ and they wound up huge crowds to expect a new world record for rolls on tow.

Next stop was an hour up the coast at Shoreham for the 20th Annual RAFA show, and our 14th consecutive year displaying at the venue. Shoreham put on its best show yet, with quality acts including our favourites; The Matadors, Typhoon and WW2 warbirds aplenty. The Vulcan display was impressive as was Justyn Gorman in the Shoreham based Extra300L.

The recently re-branded ‘Aircraft Illustrated’ magazine, now just ‘Aircraft’ ran a competition to fly in a glider with the team, and we flew Nigel Rolings in an ASK21 from East Sussex Gliding Club. We gave Nigel the full Airshow experience, with the Twister barrel rolling around the aerotow and aerobatics over Shoreham.

Thanks must go to Dave Williams, former CFI at Ringmer who looked after us all weekend at Shoreham and Barry Seargent for his help at Bournemouth’s Airport.

Our Title sponsors, Besam Assay Abloy sent some key staff to Shoreham and they watched the display from the comfort of the VIP enclosure then met the team on a flightline tour.

Quote of the weekend goes to Mustang pilot, Rob Davies, whose comment on the Typhoon in reheat at Shoreham was “Now that’s what a Carbon Footprint should sound like!”

Sunday was a reverse schedule, starting at Shoreham and finishing in a 2 hour long aerotow marathon from Shoreham back to Bournemouth before returning to Southdown Gliding Club. The weather was again perfect, and we toured the west side of Isle of White and the Needles waiting for our slot. Bournemouth had their busiest day ever - a monster crowd reported as 340,000 – making the 4 day show total an estimated 1.3 Million!

The Weekend’s endurance prize goes to Mike Newman, who drove 9 hours across Europe with the MDM-1 Fox glider to display at Buurse in Holland. His saving grace was his able crew of Steve Jarvis and Kasia Wlodarczyk and his tow pilot - none other than Frank Versteegh of RedBull Airrace fame, in his stunning red and yellow Extra300L.

Dutch airshows tend to run an unusual format, basing the display at a greenfield site with a fairground and a whole host of family attractions and Buurse was no exception with an estimated 8,000 spectators enjoying the sunshine. The display aircraft were based 13km away at Stadtlohn in Germany and the glider was unique in being the only act to land at the display site.

Back in Great Britain, the Sunny weekend finished on a positive note for all the country’s cricket fans too as England won the Ashes at the Brit Oval, for only the second time in 20 years.

A review of Bournemouth Air Festival 2009 can be found here.

A review of Shoreham Airshow 2009 can be found here

Airbourne 2009 - Eastbourne International Airshow and Heart Air Display and Classic Car Show, Rougham
14th-16th August 2009

The Eastbourne’s airshow “Airbourne” entered its 17th year looking to re-establish itself as the world biggest seafront airshow after a contraversial 2008 when a £5 entry charge was enforced dramatically reducing attendance figures. Though other venues claim to be the biggest, Eastbourne is the only airshow officially recognised by the record books for hosting the largest seafront airshow back in 2006. Luck stayed on Eastbourne's side in 2009 with sunny but somewhat breezy conditions for all 4 days attracting estimated record crowds of 600,000.

Swift Team pilots Peter Wells, Guy Westgate and Paul Moslin staged out of Southdown Gliding club for the weekend, and made the 30 minute transit along the coast each day, skimming Seaford Head and the 7 sisters cliff formations. The published holding pattern before display was infront of Beachy Head, and the stunning setting provided the perfect backdrop for photographs for many internet bloggers and the team alike!

The wind made for rough conditions in the lea of the cliffs, and the flights on Friday and Saturday were difficult. Sunday was smoother, and commentary double act Brendan O’Brian and George Bacon aka ‘Flash’ and ‘Smokey’, counted out our 14 rolls on tow to equal the record we set at Al Ain in January.

After Sunday’s sunny Seaside display, we headed north across the Thames into East Anglia for our second appearance of the year at Rougham. Director Peter Eager has transformed the provincial Rougham airshow into a very large event with some of the best display acts around, but crucially it keeps its local feel and wonderful warm atmosphere.

There were appearances from Sally B, the Gnat pair and F86 Sabre, and the highlight for many was Peter Teichman’s freshly restored Hurricane Bomber. The team were most taken with spitfire MH434 flown by Brian Smith in formation with Al Kay, Brian flew in a style the late & great Ray Hanna would have been proud.

Thanks must go to Paul Johnson for covering both venues over the weekend. A review of Airbourne 2009 can be found here.

Dunsfold Wings and Wheels Press Day
11th August 2009

Rutland Group, who manage Dunsfold Park invited us to showcase our team display at their press launch of the 2009 Wings and Wheels show, and also to look round a Topgear filming session.

Team members Jon Gowdy, Peter Wells and Guy Westgate flew a compact 6 minute slot together with Team Guinot and a Hawk from RAF Valley for an exclusive presentation to the press.

Mike Newman assisted Senior Gliding Instructor Julian Hitchcock in flying some guests at Dunsfold in a DG1000 two seater, including show Sponsors from Shephard Neame and reporters Saffron da Silva from 96.4 Eagle radio and Surrey Ad's Rebecca Younger.

The show at the end of the month is not only aircraft, but cars too and Brooklands museum had many of their beautiful collection on show for the press..

Reports of the day can be found here:

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2055862_driving_and_gliding_our_way_to_wings__wheels

and

http://www.964eagle.co.uk/

Flygfesten, Dala Jarna, Sweden
8th-9th August 2009

The idea to display at Dala Jarna came from our Scandinavian Airshow friends in January. Regrettably their monster wingwalk Agcat biplane had a broken engine and could not tow us, but the Västerdalarnas Flygklubb at Dala Järna loaned us both a 235HP Pawnee and tow pilot Jonas Larsson.

The Journey to Sweden was a gruelling 25.5 hour, 1285 mile drive for Paul Johnson and Guy Westgate, and a 10 hour flight for Peter Wells in G-RIOT, who stopped off to meet the Strieker brothers at Paderborn-Haxterberg at the Twister factory in Germany.

The central lake-land area of Sweden is a prime gliding area, and with the almost continuous lakes and forests, every outdoor pursuit is catered for.

The ‘Air Festival’ was started in the 1946, and resurrected in more recent times in 1986, with a show held once every thee to four years since. It has become as famous for its live band and party atmosphere as for the flying, and has hosted both the Red Arrows and Harrier in the past.

We were surprised by the number of UK acts this year, including the PBY5A Catalina, RF4 and fabulous Aerostars. There was local talent too, most spectacular being Mikael Carlson who displayed his recently restored Fokker DR1 Triplane and Piper L4 Cub, that was looped off the deck and pushed through low level cuban eights and barrel rolls.

Saab’s unique vintage war machines were at the show including B17 dive bomber, J32B Lansen and J29 Flying Barrel together with the latest JAS 39 Gripen.

The highlights of the show however were Ralf Aarts in his third year flying the Dutch F16 and aerobatic legend Jurgis Kairys in his Su26, who pulled off a 22 turn spin in the middle of his display.

The ‘after show’ organisation was no less impressive with entertainment was ‘P-Floyd’, a tribute band to 80’s sensation Pink Floyd and we all fell in love with the blonde backing singers.

30,000 Spectators enjoyed sunshine over the weekend, but big clouds built up on Sunday and gave Pete a good soaking on his fight back.

Thanks must go to Airshow manager Kjell Dalsheim for the invitation to the perfect airshow.

The only hazards of the long weekend were the billion mosquitoes that hatched fresh for our Swedish adventure and the 29 hour drive home.

A full review of Flygfesten can be found here.

East Kirkby RAFBF 90th Anniversary Airshow and 'On Your Marks' - Bruntingthorpe
1st-2nd August 2009

The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, home to WW2 Lancaster bomber ‘Just Jane’ hosted their first RAF Benevolent Fund Air Show on Saturday.

An active cold front threatened to disrupt flying by Lunchtime, but expecting the worst, Display Director Mike Wood brought the show forwards. We watched a seemingly impenetrable wall of rain and cloud advance towards us, but incredibly it held a few miles from East Kirkby and only a few spots of rain fell on the airfield.

The event brought in over 3,000 spectators, the biggest ever turn out to the Aviation Centre and they enjoyed 20 aircraft displaying during the afternoon. The only act to cancel on the day was the Rolls Royce Spitfire, grounded on the wrong side of the weather system.

Guy Westgate and Peter Wells ferried both of Peter’s Twisters to Lincolnshire, and were escorted by Adrian Hatton and his fixed gear Twister G-TWSS. Despite the struts and wheels, the cruise performance matches the retractable versions due to weight savings and effective fairings. 

Paul Moslin was tug pilot for the weekend in an RAFGSA Chipmunk, and carried Paul Johnson for some valuable air-2-air photos. Last but not least Mike Newman ferried the Swift from its RAF Halton base.

The team were unanimous in declaring ‘Display of the day’ to Russ Norman in the Chinook, for his last public display in the enormous helicopter and to Gerald Cooper who flew an astounding display in his CAP232 from take off to landing - his display showing all the skill that won him Bronze medal in the recent World Air Games in Turin.

Thanks must go to Andrew Panton and the RAFBF staff for the invite and help with accommodation.

We departed for Bruntingthorpe in much better weather on Sunday, and had a perfect day in the company of four of the best display pilots in World - namely the Paul Bonhomme and Steve Jones of the Red Bull Matadors and Nigel Lamb and Al Kay flying the Spitfire and Mustang of the Duxford Duo. 

Thanks must go to John Forde for the invite to this exclusive event for ASDA staff.

Dover 2009 - Bleriot: The Celebration
25th-26th July2009

This year marks the centenary of the first crossing of the English Channel by air. On 25th July 1909, the French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot piloted his frail monoplane powered by a 3-cylinder Anzani engine from France, landing at Northfall Meadow, Dover. The journey took 37 minutes.

The 2009 Centenary celebrations were organised by Cresting Ltd on behalf of Dover District Council at two display sites, the Harbour and the main display site in the grounds of the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, just north of Dover’s Castle

Regrettably, the planned arrival of Michael Carson’s original 1909 Bleriot XI from Calais was cancelled due to strong winds and some politics at the take-off site at Sangatte.

Earlier in the day, Frenchman Edmond Salis did sneak across the water in a replica Bleriot. The event was further celebrated with a squadron of some 50 microlites who re-enacted Bleriot’s first crossing and an airshow at Dover including team Pilot Mike Newman in the MDM Fox.

‘Display of the Day’ went to the Red Arrows' flypast with the Patrouille de France and the day's celebrations were rounded off with fireworks in Dover Harbour.

The original Carson Bleriot made the short sea crossing in the early hours of Sunday and Mike flew in the second day of displays in increasingly windy conditions.

Thanks must go to all at Dover Gliding Club at Waldershare Park, Dave and Gem for crewing and especially Tudur Williams for aerotowing the Fox at short notice.

A review of Dover 2009 can be found here.

Sunderland International Airshow, East Fortune Festival of the Air and Windermere Airshow
25th-26th July2009

The Teams biggest weekend started by aerotowing the Swift from Suffolk through decaying storm cells to Sunderland with a refuelling stop at Cranwell North in Lincolnshire.

Between the Showers, the visibility was as good as it ever gets with the power stations along the Humber River clearly visibly from the Wash. 

We stopped at Fishburn, a privately owned airfield with an undulating grass runway that was officially opened in 1995 by the then local MP Tony Blair! 

Our weekend of technical hitches started on Saturday morning with a Pawnee engine problem. Peter Wells departed Fishburn for a solo display along the Whitburn sands for Sunderland’s 21st Airshow, but Paul Moslin solved the problem (magneto earth) and the Pawnee and Swift raced after the solo Twister to complete a couple of passes at the end of the allotted display slot in bright sunshine.

The North got its first sight of Vulcan XH558 at Sunderland, the vintage Avro bomber going on to display at both East Fortune and Windermere. The other crowd pleasers were the Red Arrows and the Dutch F16 and Sunderland Council predicted one of the best days in the show’s history with over 300,000 spectators.

From Sunderland we aerotowed the glider along the coast towards Scotland for a magical flight in perfect summer weather. We gave a flypast for the Airday at RAF Boulmer, UK’s air surveillance defence hub and further North, the low tide had exposed Lindisfarne’s tidal causeway and miles of golden sand complete with pods of grey seals basking in the sun. 

Last stop on the coast was the lighthouse and ancient fog horn of St Abb’s Head before we climbed to pass East Fortune and drop into Archerfield for tea and cake with Angus, the 15th Duke of Hamilton.

Over 10,500 visitors flocked to the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune for their annual show, the numbers again boosted by the top billing Vulcan and the fine weather.

East Fortune was the only full glider display of the weekend, the Swift landing on a stub of the disused runway. Unlike last year when we de-rigged the glider, we chose to retrieve the Swift back to Sunderland by aerotow.

The weather forecast was wet for the next day and we chose to overnight at Newcastle Airport to have access to the best weather forecasts and facilities. Sunday’s rain started early and we took a miserable 90 minutes with the Airport firecrew to move the glider 300m from our remote parking position for departure. The rain did stop as we reached the Seafront just in time for our display, but to a reduced crowd of around 150,000.

From Sunderland we headed inland, following the Tyne River valley to Carlisle. A quick refuel later and we were heading for the highest mountains in England in a 30kt southerly gale. Past Penrith and Keswick the Cloudbase rose above the peaks and we crossed Thirlmere to enter Lake Windermere from the North. 

The air was predictably choppy low down over the lake, but record crowds had gathered on the Glebe in Bowness for the second day of the 9th Windermere Airshow. 

The next weather system was pushing up from the southwest and the haze soon gave way to lower cloud and eventually more rain as we flew home via fuel stops at Blackpool, RAF Cosford and Bicester.

Thanks must go to the RAFGSA at Cranwell, Beryl Morgan at Fishburn and both the Firecrews and Samson Aviation Services at Newcastle Airport. Last but not least thanks to Flt Lt Charlotte Fenn of the Red Arrows for lending Pete the tools and the Blackpool Airport staff who helped jump start the Pawnee.

Lowestoft Air Festival
23rd-24th July2009

Lowestoft was our first time on the Suffolk Coast, and Jon Gowdy piloted the Pawnee to our staging post, the former USAAF base at Seething airfield and flew the first display with Guy Westgate and Peter Wells in his new UL260i powered SA110 Twister .

Lowestoft’s Air Festival was started in 1997 and was made infamous by the Harrier GR7 crash in 2002. It is also the most easterly point of the United Kingdom.

The dominant feature on the seafront is ‘Gulliver’, a 413ft 3 bladed wind turbine built in 2004 and named by the locals. It is capable of producing enough electricity for 1500 homes, and with each blade over 7 times the length of a Swift wing and weighing a whopping 10 tonnes, maybe “Thor” or “Goliath” would have been a better name.

The weather forecast made for interesting reading, with heavy thunderstorms predicted for both days. Fortunately East Anglia escaped the worst on Thursday and more than 200,000 spectators flocked to the seafront. 

Back at Seething, the Waveney Flying Group were the perfect hosts and helped hanger the Swift and Twister in their new hangars, complete with computer controlled turntables, able to deliver each aircraft to the front of the building at the touch of a button - and revolutionary idea!

Most seafront displays are run by the local councils, but Lowestoft’s display is organised by a charity. As such, fund-raising is part of the show’s survival and the Display Pilots were asked to attend a fund raising Gala Dinner on Thursday night - each table having a display team to entertain the guests with tails of airshow derring-do! 

Team Pilot Paul Moslin took over towing on Friday as a massive thunderstorm swept over Suffolk and by the time we displayed towards the end of the day, the beach had all but emptied.

Despite the weather, Air Festival MD Paul Bayfield reported provisional attendance figures of around 400,000 for the two day event.

Thanks must go to everybody at Seething, Tony Hoskins for ferrying Jon in the Plane Heritage Chipmunk and Flying Display Director Brian Lewis for the invitation.

RAF Odiham Families Day
22nd July2009

RAF Odiham’s Families Day was a first for the team for several reasons. Paul Barker flew the Pawnee, his first display for the team in three years. RAF Odiham was our first invitation to a Families day and Peter Wells made his first public appearance in G-RIOT, the first aircraft to fly with the new UL260i aerobatic engine.

RAF Odiham in Hampshire operates three squadrons of RAF Chinook HC2 and Army Air Corps Lynx helicopters and these were out in force.

Despite many last minute cancelations, the display line-up was a ‘who’s-who’ from the great and good of the display world. Commentator was the legendary Brendan O’Brien and the display aircraft included the Red Arrows, Vulcan, Chinook, F86 Sabre, the Orange Lion Dutch F16 and Blades.

“Display of the day” must go to the Vulcan that put on a very close, intimate display and to Nick Richards in the 1940’s camouflaged Italian Fiat G46. A spirited performance showing Nick’s calibre as one of UK’s top BAeA Advanced level pilots.

The wind was a big feature of the day, and peaked at 26kts across the main runway, stronger at flying heights. We chose to operate from the disused runway and performed separate Swift and Twister solos as Paul is awaiting his formation DA upgrade.

13th FAI World Glider Aerobatic Championships, Czech Republic
10-19th July2009

Team Pilot Mike Newman represented the UK in the 2009 World Glider Aerobatic Championships (WGAC), hosted by the Aeroklub Ceské Budejovice at Hosin in Czech Republic after a last minute change from the original venue of Chambley in France - The French team held a well received 'vin et fromage' party to apologise!

The leadup to the competition had its fair share of wet weather with 2 weeks of storms delaying much of the preparation and practice, but 34 Competitors from 11 countries entered for the week long competition.

After the opening ceremony at the airfield with our national judges and team support, the competition started with a 'Known' program, the same used in our own UK National Championships held in June. This was followed by the 3 unknown programs and a “free”, showcasing not only the pilots flying skill but also their creativity and imagination.

This years Worlds were missing some of the pilots who have dominated the sport, notably reigning European Champion Ferenc Tóth and legendary 8 time World Champion Jerzy Makula. Both pilots were at the competition however, Ferenc flying a blistering warm up flight for Unknown 1 and Makula with his new role leading the FAI jury.

With no American pilots the only non European competitor was popular Japanese pilot Tomonari Kaji who finished 24th Overall. The weather held out for 5 programmes until strong winds blew in a cold front that eventually stopped the competition prematurely.

French star Erik Piriou held his early lead until the last program, when an uncharacteristic error in a tail slide handed Russian veteran Georgiy Kaminsky his 3rd World Championship title.

Mike flew clear rounds on all the unknown programs, to finish 5th, 14th and 11th and place 7th overall in the Unknown category but a zeroed figure in the Known program lead to a final placing of 19th. Mike was supported at Hosin by Team Manager Lionel Sole.

• 1 - RUS Georgiy Kaminsky              Swift S-1                3308K                  76.76 %
• 2 - FRA Erik Piriou                         Swift S-1                F-CHBA                 76.69%
• 3 - CZE Jan Rozlivka                      Swift S-1                OK-2100               76.19%
• 4 - AUT Dietmar Poll                     Swift S-1                G-EIER                  74.27 %
• 5 - GER Eugen Schaal                   MDM-1 Fox              D-1187                 74.11%

• 19-GBR Mike Newman                  Swift S-1                 G-EIER                  69.42%

London City Airport Funday
4th July2009

On the day the United States commemorates the Declaration of Independence and Serena Williams deprived her older sister Venus of a hat-trick in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon, 14 miles down the Thames, London City Airport hosted their 13th annual Fun Day.

The free Funday is the airports attempt to give something back to the local communities who put up with the airports noise year round. Car parking is strictly limited, so the easy ways to the airport are by train or by air, and 26,000 spectators and 20 light aircraft joined the fly-in for the only UK airshow inside Controlled Airspace (Class D).

Team members Ian Gallacher , Peter Wells and Guy Westgate flew to the show along with Commentator Brendan O'Brien and GAR photographer and reporter Karl Drage who joined the team for a day.

Our towplane was a Chipmunk from RAF Cosford and Karl took some great air-to-air photographs over Canning Town and the O² (the Dome) before our landing.

The unusual airshow attracts the best of the best. Dennis Kenyon flew his legendary helicopter routine, Pete Kinsey brought his diminutive Cosmic Wind racer and Anna Walker displayed the Hawker Hurricane, the first female to pilot the fighter since World War 2.

Thanks must go to Karl and his family for joining us for the day and Paul Johnson for ferrying fuel. Review from the day can be found on Flightline UK and GAR.

Biggin Hill International Air Fair, VGC Soaring Centenary at Parham, Rougham and Old Buckenham
27th-28th June 2009

Wimbledon week was both the hottest and busiest for the team so far, but with humid air from the Continent and temperatures reaching close to 30C, afternoon storms were inevitable. Saturday started very murky across the Southern counties and fog in the lea of the Chilterns delayed our departure for Biggin Hill.

Saturday’s Biggin Hill International Air Fair was uneventful and by the time team members Ian Gallacher, Guy Westgate and Peter Wells had displayed and departed in the early afternoon, the mist had risen to fair weather cumulous clouds over Sussex, the building storm clouds all to the North.

Next stop was Parham Airfield, home of Southdown Gliding Club and the anniversary of soaring flight. 100 years ago to the day, a young man, Erik Gordon-England flew a basic glider designed by Jose Weiss from Amberly Mount on the South Downs. He gained a height of around 40ft and flew for 59 seconds. This flight proved that gliders could sustain flight through the actions of natural air currents.  Southdown Gliding Club's celebrations centred around a scale model of the Weiss glider, that was launched at the end of the day. The Vintage Gliding Club also combined their annual rally with the anniversary and more than 200 people watched our Limbo display in the late afternoon, including British Gliding Association (BGA) Chief Executive Pete Stratten and Chairman, Patrick Naegeli who offered to sponsor the Swift Team. Highlight of the event was Rob Davies and his P-51 Mustang, who skilfully landed on Parham’s 600m grass strip.

Sunday started hot, with the clouds building from the moment we left Parham, Paul Moslin replacing Gally as Pawnee tow pilot for the day’s aerotow marathon. The Biggin Hill Air Fair is the largest privately organised air show in Europe and was celebrating its 47th year with crowds of over  110,000. Air Fair founder Jock Maitland attended the briefing and Besam’s Managing Director, Ulf Jonasson met us to discuss Besam Assa Abloy logo colours and enjoy the show.  Although we missed it, the highlight of the day was the Virgin 747-400 flypast, in formation with the Red Arrows.

Next stop for us was the Wings, Wheels & Steam event at Rougham, with a flypast at Mountnessing School near Brentford for their Aviation Day on the way there. Rougham had lots of tractors and traction engines and a busy fly-in with 50 aircraft and crowds of 5,000 to watch the displays. Highlights were the Sywell DR1 Fokker triplane flown by Matt Boddington and Justyn Gorman in the Extra 300L

Last show of the day was the 10th Old Buckenham airshow as the building clouds could hold on no longer and the rain started falling. We lucked in with a small clear gap to close the show, but the heavens opened as the 6,000 strong crowd dispersed and we got very wet on the flight back to RAF Halton.

Thanks as ever to Mike Newman for crewing, Paul Layzell, Peter Eager and Colin Hitchins for the bookings and both Paul Johnson and Peter Steerhower for covering the action at Biggin Hill. A full report can be found here.

Kemble Air Show 2009 & Weston Park Model Show
20th-21st June 2009

The weekend started with a rain shower over Bicester as team members Ian Gallacher and Guy Westgate started the aerotow marathon to Kemble and then were treated to the Red Arrows in the distance whilst holding on the edge of the RAT  (Restricted Airspace) at Cirencester with Peter Wells and his Twister.

After our first Kemble bash it was up the Seven Valley through the showers to Staffordshire for the Weston Park Model Show. The stunning showground is in the middle of 1,000 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown parkland with a history dating back to the Doomsday Book.

The model show was a surprise to us all, a tightly run display with some incredible flying models and more than 7500 spectators over the weekend. The highlight of the show was Ali Mashinchy, who had several large models flying, including a very nimble SuperCub and vectored thrust Typhoon.

 For entertainment, the ‘Demolition Derby’ of a dozen warbirds models screaming around the park’s mighty oaks was unbelievable; almost a dual to the last one standing as in the 10 minute slot half the fighters were lost to the trees, the ground or mid-air collisions.

Sunday’s weather brought more showers but the low cloud cleared in time for our midday display. After another hours aerotow south, we were back at Kemble. Highlights of the Cotswold show were the massive Sea Vixen, Super Sabre, a pair of Venoms and the Meteor. The Vulcan also made its second appearance of the season, and helped attract record crowds of 21,000.

Massive thanks have to go to Steve Bishop at Weston Park and Glen Moreman for the invite at Kemble, and Pat Greer and Mike Newman for assisting on the ground. A full report of the Kemble Air Show can be found here.

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