Leuchars Airshow

[Dave Fleming]

Leuchars is poor for photography, a south facing flightline in mid September in Scotland means shooting into low sun (or rain & cloud). A few so far:

Saab J-29 - my personal highlight!

Hot end of a Typhoon - who says jet pipes have to be weathered?

The sharp end

Flying Can Openers are back!!

One for our Norwegian friends

It was Luke's first airshow - he had a whale of a time, and I have worked out what barriers are for!

I'll post some more later - I have a few of the HC3 Chinook and the Islander as well.

[JohnT]

Hi Dave

thanks for posting those pics.

I was at Leuchars too and and missed most of the day due to the car parking fiasco. Sadly we missed the most of the flying display arriving on the enforced park and ride bus just as the red arrows finished up. So no Arrows (which my wife and son wanted to see really), Vulcan or Saab etc. really just saw the later part which had its interesting moments certainly.

Still had to pay the full £22 admission fee per skull even though it was after 2 pm and had been stationary in the car South of Cupar a dozen miles out for over three hours.

I gather the problem was the red car park had turned into a quagmire from rain earlier in the week and was u/s and that there was no alternative contingency plan. Can't blame them for that. Who would have expected the well known Scottish Summer drought to end with an early monsoon after all. Rain? In Scotland, in September? Never. Or that it might have been apparent earlier. I can't quite repeat here what I cop said to the chap behind me about the lack of planning for contingencies though in fairness the exit planning was the best I have seen anywhere.

All the same the sunny weather (rather contrary to forecasts for poor viz and heavy rain) made the rest of the day fun. I enjoyed the Spitfire display as had a good vantage point to watch it bank and turn right over the parked Vulcan. What with the sun and sky background it was quite memorable.

Anyway not sure I will hurry back. Its pricey now, access is poor due to the Cupar bottleneck from the South and frankly the static dislay seems to get smaller every year with fewer esoteric a/c to see. Even the trade stands seemed fewer than the last time.

I think I'd rather forgo the chances of a soggy wet September day and spend my cash in an English show down South in the middle of summer - or what passes for it

Sorry - didn't mean this to ramble on or look like a thread hijack so I'll post a copy else where with a new thread in case anyone wants to comment !

regards

John