Leuchars Airshow 2010

[N16SHP]

Well went to Leuchars again for the first time since 2006. Have to say I thought it was now over priced and the display seemed a bit thin in places. It's never really been the same IMO since the USAF stopped displaying aircraft, but I totally understand the logistics of fighting a war in another country. Anyway, took a few pics. The flying ones came out ok-ish considering I only had my kit lens with me but need a bit of work, so a'l get them up at some point. I also took some static shots which I have below. As always, comments good or bad welcome, and any advice also greatly received!

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[AndyP & Lenore]

:thumbs up::thumbs up::thumbs up:

Cracking pics Neil.:yes nod::yes nod:

A.:D

[N16SHP]

:thumbs up::thumbs up::thumbs up:

Cracking pics Neil.:yes nod::yes nod:

A.:D

Thanks Andy. I think the first one, the Vulcan and the Eurofighter in BW are my favourite! My dad has nicked the Tornado one and stuck it as his desktop wallpaper already lol!

[Crombers]

We saw the Vulcan yersterday at Bo'ness doing two fly pasts at the Hill Climb Revival :yes nod:. Did she take off & land at the show this year again?

[Mini Ecosse]

:thumbs up::thumbs up::thumbs up:

Cracking pics Neil.:yes nod::yes nod:

A.:D

Ditto

[Stewart]

I let myself down by thinking about going to it and doing only that…..Love how close you can get. Can you actually walk under the Vulcan like the people in the pictures or were they flight crew?


Was there an WWII stuff?
Great pictures.

[Burple]

We saw the Vulcan yersterday at Bo'ness doing two fly pasts at the Hill Climb Revival :yes nod:. Did she take off & land at the show this year again?


Nope.. she arrived from somewhere else and landed on the base.. Flippin awesome as always! There were a few nice old machines up this year, Couple of old Saabs, F86, Vampire and a quad display team of Hunters.. Loved the Dutch f-16 popping flares going vertical too!
Have to see if i can get some of the shots I took up soon too.. Far too many Aussie ones to do first tho!

[Burple]

I let myself down by thinking about going to it and doing only that…..Love how close you can get. Can you actually walk under the Vulcan like the people in the pictures or were they flight crew?


Was there an WWII stuff?
Great pictures.

That was just the flight crew unfortunately.. Commentator was sayingt hat the money they have in the fund to keep the old bird flying is about to run out :sad: Sad news!

Couple of Spitfires and the hurricane and Lanc as usual for WW2 stuff :thumbs up::thumbs up:

Gotta love the German Phantom too. Apparently it only has about 70 hours flying time left on the airframe :sad::sad:

[N16SHP]

Gotta love the German Phantom too. Apparently it only has about 70 hours flying time left on the airframe :sad::sad:

Yeah the Phantom is an absolute monster. Its awsome to see it flying as the engines are really smokey and leaves a very distinctive look and sound when its flying! Shame i've not seen one flying since about 2004 :(

I dunno what you think, but I couldn't help but think they were milking the fact the Typhoon is the new kid, and pretty much over shadowed the Tornado and pushed it to the back? I remember years past when they had about 6 Tornado's in the sky at once!

[GCA3N]

Great pics :thumbs:

[N16SHP]

Great pics :thumbs:

Ta mate!

[N16SHP]

Ditto

Thanks very much!

[ELFMAN]

Nice pics! Didn't get to the Airshow, but was down to see pal Bill and his wife at Blyth Bridge yesterday, and the Lancaster from the BBMF had flown over near his house at about 500ft at 11.40am - he got a great view, but still couldn't believe his eyes!

When I got there in the afternoon, every time we heard an engine, we dived out the back door, as we were sure the BBMF Spitfire and the Hurricane would be following the same route home. Rewarded later on when the two British Icons flew past - further away and higher up, but by God, Merlins sound good from any distance! Silhouetted against the clouds with the sun glinting off them - very evocative sight and sound. 70 years since the Battle of Britain, but NEVER forgotten.

Battle of Britain Day on 15th Sept. - spare a moment of thought for 'the Few' and 'the Many' who kept them in the air. If it wasn't for them, we'd be saluting pictures of a twisted wee turd in a crappy moustache!

[Stewart]

Battle of Britain Day on 15th Sept. - spare a moment of thought for 'the Few' and 'the Many' who kept them in the air. If it wasn't for them, we'd be saluting pictures of a twisted wee turd in a crappy moustache!

Yeah we would have been all driving German cars as well- oh wait a mo we are………..
In saying that they do say without the Second world war we would be in the 1970’s there is no way I could live with flairs.

Joking aside I’ve watched too many documentaries not to hold the Crews and support staff in the highest regard.

[cooperchris]

Good pics :thumbs up:

Got a good few pics from last year, Didnt come up this year cause the weather didnt look to good. Looks like it turned out alright though.

They had the Vulcan there last year aswell, It is an awsome lookin thing. What a size when you see it in the air :yes nod:

[N16SHP]

Nice pics! Didn't get to the Airshow, but was down to see pal Bill and his wife at Blyth Bridge yesterday, and the Lancaster from the BBMF had flown over near his house at about 500ft at 11.40am - he got a great view, but still couldn't believe his eyes!

When I got there in the afternoon, every time we heard an engine, we dived out the back door, as we were sure the BBMF Spitfire and the Hurricane would be following the same route home. Rewarded later on when the two British Icons flew past - further away and higher up, but by God, Merlins sound good from any distance! Silhouetted against the clouds with the sun glinting off them - very evocative sight and sound. 70 years since the Battle of Britain, but NEVER forgotten.

Battle of Britain Day on 15th Sept. - spare a moment of thought for 'the Few' and 'the Many' who kept them in the air. If it wasn't for them, we'd be saluting pictures of a twisted wee turd in a crappy moustache!

Yep, my dad and I were saying that although the noise and the vibration of the jet engines are awsome, the Merlin's sound gorgeous, and nice deep throaty note!

[Hogman]

Thought about going until I saw the participants list and thought it was rather poor! Apart from th F-4F and the B-52 nothing really there that was exciting enough to warrant the drive or the cost. Shame as Leuchars in the past used to be one of the best airshows going. The USAF still got the B-52 and KC-135 there so atleast they did send something!

Bring back the Hogs and Varks and things will start to look up again!

[ELFMAN]

Sav112 Yeah we would have been all driving German cars as well- oh wait a mo we are

The irony wasn't lost on me.... but 'Lest We Forget' we've covered/argued about the 'origins' of New MINI many times before, and although it certainly wouldn't have happened without BMW's (who built engines in WW2 for the Luftwaffe planes which were bombing us!) huge investment in cash, plant, skills etc, initially there was a fair amount of British engineering input and obviously an American designer - so the 'German Cars' title isn't strictly true.

Not that I have any problems with Germany or Germans, lovely country and lovely people in my experience.

By the way Hogman - Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster? Surely you would exempt them from your 'Rather Poor' category? If there's a more emotive sight and sound, I've yet to see and hear it.

[Big Gordy]

If there's a more emotive sight and sound, I've yet to see and hear it.

Well said wee man :thumbs up:
Although any old Triumph twin running on open pipes runs them pretty close:p or for sheer noise how about the 350cc Honda 6 riden by Mike Hailwood in the nid 60's....puts them new fangled V10 F1 car to shame:smilewinkgrin:

[Big Gordy]

Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster

All 3 did a flypast at last years Bo'Ness hill climb :yes nod: What a sight and sound:clap:

[Stewart]

It built in oxford so that’s good enough for me :thumbs up:

[ELFMAN]

It built in oxford so that’s good enough for me :thumbs up:


Obviously - that was one of my main points... which I forgot to point out! One of the pitfalls of 'sneaky posts' when I'm supposed to be working... I've given myself a Formal Warning, and will fire myself if it happens again.

[Crombers]

All 3 did a flypast at last years Bo'Ness hill climb :yes nod: What a sight and sound:clap:

I have been fortunate to have watched the BBMF on a few occassions & very few things stir the soul the way these majestic warbirds do. Spine tingling stuff :thumbs up:

In fact THE best I ever witnessed (although it was'nt quite the BBMF) was at the Imperial War Museum back in 94. I had decided to visit for the very first time as my sister had just started teaching in Baldock some 20 or so miles away from Duxford. It also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the DDay landings & a lot was happening in the UK & France at the time. During WW2 Duxford was handed over to the Americans as a base & on the day of my visit there was a lot of ex US Air Force personnel visiting. As I roamed around the vast spaces of the base it became apparent that for some of these guys it was there first visit for some time or maybe even since the war. When you see a 70 year old guy getting emotional it sure puts a lump in your throat. Anyhow during my visit a tannoy announcement came over stating that a resident Spitfire & ME109 would shortly be returning to the base. All eyes were now outside waiting for their return & we then witnessed something special. I can only assume they were in practice for the events of that summer but we were lucky to then witness a mock dog fight in the skies above the Cambridgeshire base. The sight & sound was awesome as these two put on at least a ten minute show, sometimes flying at very low level.

I was just lucky (& humbled) that I was there that day :yes nod:

[ELFMAN]

Right with you Crombers.

Been to Duxford Autumn Airshow a couple of times. Unforgettable experience was watching a 'Tail-Chase' back and forth across the flight line with NINE Spitfires! Both Merlin and Griffon-engined variants. The Merlin is such a beautiful sounding engine - so smooooooooooth, but with just a hint of menace, whereas the Griffon is a much 'gruffer' beast of an engine, with a sort of chattering note - maybe caused by the much bigger props as well as the power-hike, I'm not sure - but still sounding fantastic. Love all the Spits, but there's a purity about the earlier versions that was lost a bit on the big-engined later ones. Funny how the first ones are always the prettiest eh? One for all you R50 and R53 owners there!

One of the best bits was actually a while before the show started. Lovely sunny Autumn day and we were just getting stuck into our packed lunch when we heard a very distinctive engine note somewhere in the distance..... "Merlin!" (you can tell). Everybody stopped what they were doing and scanned the sky for the late arrival. Sure enough, a lone Spitfire (a Mk V I think) came in and circled the airfield before drifting down to land on the grass with a few wee bounces. You could FEEL the emotion in the air, sounds daft, but it was awesome. Spitfire at Duxford. Enough said.

[Delboy]

Neil - just catching up with recent posts and finally got a chance to look at your photos on the PC rather than my phone - they are excellent :yes nod: . You've captured some great perspectives and angles and I enjoyed looking at them :thumbs up:.

[Big Gordy]

Did any of you watch that programme on BBC2 last night about the spitfire pilot:confused: excellent scenes with spits and me109 in it :thumbs up:Worth watching it just for that alone but the whole programme was very well done:yes nod: Poor bu**er that the programme was about survived 18 months in front line of the battle of Britain only to have a mental breakdown at the age of 20 when it was all over....heavy bummer man:frown:

[ELFMAN]

Meant to watch it, but I missed it as Dad and I were watching the footy! One of my pals saw it and thought it was excellent. Will hopefully catch it on BBC iPlayer.

[N16SHP]

Neil - just catching up with recent posts and finally got a chance to look at your photos on the PC rather than my phone - they are excellent :yes nod: . You've captured some great perspectives and angles and I enjoyed looking at them :thumbs up:.

Thanks Del!!:thumbs up::thumbs up: