Airshow!
During the day at Blenheim, a nearby ‘fly to the past’ airshow provided much entertainment, with aeroplanes from different eras chasing each other around the sky with deafening roars or the dull burr of propeller depending on propulsion. It would have made Churchill proud to see the WWII RAF planes zooming around, and pleased him more if they had shot down a foreign Fokker or two.
It was quite something that an airshow with acrobatics went ahead at all, given that just the day before a Red arrow had died during a display. It put the daredevilry into perspective (and there was much looping the loop, ground level hedge hopping and releasing of streams of coloured smoke). If a member of a seemingly immortal elite institution can die, then how vulnerable must those guys in the biplanes be?
Almost as vulnerable as the people standing along the roadside, leaning over fences and hedges watching the display at ‘Fly to the past’ without paying the entrance fee (entitling you, presumably, to stand in a field on the right side of the hedge, a few yards closer to aeroplanes flying hundreds of feet above you and giving you the prospect of a good dousing with aviation fuel, exhaust fumes, coloured smoke or stray bits of flaming fuselage depending on how things went).
Beside a road during an air display is not a good place to stand, as even the best driver is likely to be somewhat distracted by a couple of aeroplanes undertaking a mock dogfight (and being excited by the alternative, that we’re at war with Germany again!), looping the loop and releasing coloured smoke (red, blue or even white – thrilling. Dense clouds of black smoke coming from a flickering orange and red aeroplane - not so good) as they swoop and turn, and so is more likely to have their eyes on the sky than the road.
Or maybe the spectators know about this risk, and are rally enthusiasts getting in some practice at standing perilously close to speeding cars driven by distracted drivers, so that when they come to watch the night stage in some Welsh forest, their reaction times for dodging an out-of-control Mini coming round a corner sideways spewing dirt, a tumbling Toyota or the bouncing wheel from a stricken motor will be honed to perfection.
It was quite something that an airshow with acrobatics went ahead at all, given that just the day before a Red arrow had died during a display. It put the daredevilry into perspective (and there was much looping the loop, ground level hedge hopping and releasing of streams of coloured smoke). If a member of a seemingly immortal elite institution can die, then how vulnerable must those guys in the biplanes be?
Almost as vulnerable as the people standing along the roadside, leaning over fences and hedges watching the display at ‘Fly to the past’ without paying the entrance fee (entitling you, presumably, to stand in a field on the right side of the hedge, a few yards closer to aeroplanes flying hundreds of feet above you and giving you the prospect of a good dousing with aviation fuel, exhaust fumes, coloured smoke or stray bits of flaming fuselage depending on how things went).
Beside a road during an air display is not a good place to stand, as even the best driver is likely to be somewhat distracted by a couple of aeroplanes undertaking a mock dogfight (and being excited by the alternative, that we’re at war with Germany again!), looping the loop and releasing coloured smoke (red, blue or even white – thrilling. Dense clouds of black smoke coming from a flickering orange and red aeroplane - not so good) as they swoop and turn, and so is more likely to have their eyes on the sky than the road.
Or maybe the spectators know about this risk, and are rally enthusiasts getting in some practice at standing perilously close to speeding cars driven by distracted drivers, so that when they come to watch the night stage in some Welsh forest, their reaction times for dodging an out-of-control Mini coming round a corner sideways spewing dirt, a tumbling Toyota or the bouncing wheel from a stricken motor will be honed to perfection.
Labels: Aeroplane, Aeroplanes, Airshow, People, Rally driving, Red Arrows, Spectators
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