PHOTOS-Wales Air Show 2011

July 10, 2011 by DIff Graff 1 Comment

On the weekend of 9th and 10th July it was time for the annual Wales Air Show to be held in Swansea Bay.
The weather forecast didn’t look amazing for the Saturday (a bit better for the Sunday)but this didn’t deter the thousands of spectators who turned up and lined the rim of Swansea Bay to watch a variety of air craft and displays over the skies of South Wales.
First up I managed to catch a display by the Sea King Search and Rescue helicopters re-enacting a real-life rescue situation for everyone to witness.

(I’m not entirely sure what the Nando’s chicken was upto either!?)
Next up were Team Osprey – who are the only air-formation team to be based in Wales. They are based at Swansea Airport and fly Russian Yak 52’s. The three craft gave an amazing display.

Next up were two Royal Navy Black Cat helicopters. The Lynx craft performed some amazing stunts and manoeuvres.

A large space was cleared ready for the RAF Falcons parachute display team. Once the first beacon was lit the instruction was clear that on the next pass the circling aircraft above would offset it’s many parachutists! Within seconds of each other they tumbled out of the craft and formed a vertical stack before gracefully gliding down and hitting the crosses marked on the area infront.

The Blades took to the skies next featuring an array of the ultimate in close-formation aerobatics. The Blades consist of four Extra EA-300 LP stunt planes flown in an array of intricate manoeuvres. (I was queueing for toilets at this stage so didnt get the best view!)

The grand finale was a 25 minute display from the world-famous Red Arrows! I dont think the photos do the display justice at all so will put some video up at a later stage! Security took ages to clear the beach so people were not located directly under the Red Arrows display. You can imagine what a huge task this was for the few security men and how long the beach was! Once the Red Arrows display began you could smell the fuel from the beach and was quite pungent!