Bournemouth Air Festival

Last Friday we headed for Bournemouth beach to enjoy the festivities there and watch the air show. The weather wasn't great and some displays had to be curtailed or cancelled because of the low cloud and windy conditions. But what we did see was great. It wasn't easy to get photos with my fairly standard lense, but when I cropped out lots of sky and added more light to some of them, I thought they were good enough to share.

Before the aircraft displays the navy treated us to a demonstration of landing forces on a beach and we saw marines shin down a rope from a helicopter and drop into a landing craft. You can see how choppy the sea was in this picture. (NB. The air festival was sharing the beach with children doing their usual beach activities.)



One of the most popular air displays was the barnstorming wingwalkers. Here you see two girls performing their amazing acrobatics in the air.



This was a display by the Blades aerobatics team. You can see they are all breaking in different directions and one is actually flying upside down.



This fast jet was from the Netherlands air force.



Here are the very famous red arrows, although minus one aircraft which was grounded for repairs.



Finally here is a pic of some of the audience, with Bournemouth pier in the background.



It wasn't easy to select what to show you and one pic I haven't included is of a Lancaster followed by a Spitfire, which were rolled out in honour of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, with an inspiring commentary about the bravery of the airmen that flew them at that time and saved us from defeat in World War II.

Bournemouth Beach

The beach that starts at Sandbanks, the entrance to Poole Harbour stretches east for several miles past Bournemouth to Hengistbury Head. When I was in Bournemouth recently, I took these pictures of the beach.

The pier and beach from above.



Looking east from the pier.



Looking west from the pier towards Sandbanks and the direction of home.