Bournemouth Air Festival 2017, and the kite that stole the show

Kestrel

Great War Display Team (well, three of the seven)

The Tigers Display Team


Day 3, and the last one as far as I'm concerned. Thankfully, poor weather forecast for day four will keep me away from it all. Maybe I am being over critical of the events this past few days, and to be fair it is a free festival, but if there is to be a continuation of this annual event then the Council and organisers need to tighten things up somewhat.

Today, the main attraction of the Red Arrows started the day's flying at noon, but there was nothing  in the air after that for the next 100 minutes. Spectators that lined the cliff tops for several miles in each direction were left wondering if there was anything to follow, and many people drifted away after half an hour or so. A shame, really, as there are always top class performances on offer, but there is, to my mind at least, a need to keep a steady stream of flying to keep the interest.

In addition, I really do feel the variety of aircraft needs to be looked into as the four day schedule is beginning to look tired. This year there were no fast jets; the Eurofighter Typhoon was a notable omission, and the Avro Lancaster pulled out for whatever reason a day or so before proceedings started. Even the helicopters were thin on the ground... er, air, with only a Chinook twin-rotor taking to the skies. It is coming to something when, for me, a bird steals the show.


All images: 300mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor with TC-14EII converter



© 2017

Bournemouth Air Festival 2017, Day 2

A Royal Marine

 Mig 15

The Red Arrows, minus one

Tigers Parachute Display Team


Day 2 of the Air Festival, and despite yesterday's set-back I am able to continue shooting by using my spare super-telephoto; a 300mm f/4. Not my first choice lens for such work but the optics are superb and it takes a tele-converter well, so I am back in business.

I start the day's proceedings at the first event; a simulated beach assault by the Royal Marines, but in contrast to other years there are cutbacks; a theme that prevails over the entire weekend. The display used to feature landing craft; support from both ship and helicopter, as well as the storming of the beach to deal with the bad guys, but this time around there are no landing craft or ship dealing with the "pirates".

Whether or not this has anything to do with world events and men and equipment being deployed elsewhere, but it doesn't have the full drama of previous years. A shame.

On top of that the Red Arrows' second display is one aircraft down. The reasons given over the Tannoy is that one of the pilots has food poisoning, and since there is no spare pilot, today there will be only 8 aircraft instead of the usual 9. Professional as ever, but it just doesn't look right to my eye.


All images: 300mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor with TC-14EII converter.



© 2017

Short lived

Today is the start of the 10th Bournemouth Air Festival, a free event that has attracted some 8.5 million visitors over the past decade to the Dorset coast. However, the four days of flying has become less and less appealing to this particular photographer, due to the staid nature of its programme.

The one saving grace is the RAF Display Team, The Red Arrows; always worth watching; always worth a few shots in spite of the fact that I have thousands of images of them spread across several hard drives. In addition, their performance is scheduled for 6pm, so the light will be getting good by that time of evening.

Game on.

I arrive about 90 minutes beforehand, find a suitable viewpoint, and warm-up by taking casual snaps of other displaying aircraft as with one of the Twister Duo (pictured), and free-fall parachute jumpers that entertain the crowd before the main event.

But shortly before it starts I manage to put quite a severe dent in the focusing ring of my 300mm f/2.8 lens - I dropped it again the wooden rail of the cliff fence - and it won't focus.

Disaster! The focus ring won't turn by hand let alone autofocus, so I'm stuffed. I know straight away I will not get any more images, and somewhat disappointed, I leave before it starts.

It's going to be a costly repair.



300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR Nikkor with TC-14EII converter. 1/2000 second at f/5.6. Matrix metering. - 1 stop EV compensation. ISO 160



© 2017