Civilian Aviation

October sunshine welcomed me, my wife, son and daughter in law and grandson to Old Warden yesterday for the final ever display by the Vulcan - my grandson had wanted to see it for ages (he's only just coming up to 5 years old but aircraft mad (great news for me!) so it was a complete no-brainer. The skies stayed clear most of the time but light was awkward for first half of the display as I positioned my self towards the southern end to get take off pics unobstructed by parked aircraft.
The Vulcan was an emotional highlight of the show, loads left straight afterwards but those that stayed were treated to 4 of the Edwardians flying as the evening closed in. The other big highlight for me was finally seeing the Comet fly for the first time since the late 1980s. all in all a great day out and one I will really remember for a long time for one particular reason - a delta shaped one,.
Here are some of my pics, I actually took over 2500 (yes really!) plus a bit of video and have spent all day going through them editing and deleting the rubbish ones. I think that is a record for me and beats Talldan's total for yesterday by about 1000

a couple of statics to start with, regular forumites know I like Spartans so getting this close was a real treat
0626 spartan by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and with a new Bond film about to be released, here's a star from a very old one, 'little nellie' G-ARZB of 'you only live twice' vintage
0628 Wallis autogyro,G-ARZB (little Nellie) by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

not quite aircraft, the Red Devils parachute team (part of)
6485 red devils parachutist by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Gladiator & Demon
6746 Gladiator & Demon by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

2 of the DH88 Comet, beautiful aeroplane
6873 DH88 Comet G-ACSS by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

7135 DH88 Comet G-ACSS by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

percival Mew Gull
7258 Percival mew gull G-AEXF by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Hawker Cygnets
7362 hawker cygnets G-EBJI and G-CAMM (6) by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

provost
7447 Provost XF603 aka G-KAPW by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Mark Jeffries of Little Gransden fame in a familiar posture
7578 Extra 330 G-IIHI by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Fauvel glider
7697 fauvel glider by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Yak 52
8470 Yak 52 G-CBMD by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

a nice pair of Bristols!
7783 a nice pair of Bristols, Scout and F,2b by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Bristol Scout
7747 Bristol Scout 1264 aka G-FDHB by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

SE.5a
8165 SE.5a F904 aka G-EBIA by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

the Edwardians, first the Avro Triplane
8514 avro triplane by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Bristol boxkite
8541bristol boxkite replica by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Deperdussin
8725 deperdussin cropped by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and the blackburn Monoplane, the world's oldest flying aircraft
8828 blackburn monoplane by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

8632 bristol boxkite & avro triplane by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

a couple of the more interesting visitors:
8353 Chilton DW1a G-JUJU by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

8241 Christen A-1 Husky G-WATR by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr



and that's about it, except......


the joint entrance with the Anson
7898 vulcan & anson by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

7962 vulcan by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

8023 vulcan by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

8073 vulcan by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and what might be my last ever photo of a flying Vulcan, that memorable wing over..
8103 vulcan - the last photo by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

after that I watched her disappear into the distance and have to admit I shed a tear or two, as did several others around me. My wife came and put an arm round me and I said something rather naughty : ' now tell me it's just a****ing aeroplane'! she told me ' no it isn't I know it's far more than that' - I think she had a tear in her eye as well. Thanks for all those memories and displays over the last 8 years!

Oh and sometimes they talk about the Vulcan effect, the Bristol M1C was displaying (circled in this photo) but almost nobody was watching it, guess what had been spotted circling in the distance (okay the anson was with it but don't think that was the focus of attention)
0634 vulcan effect circled by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and as soon as the Vulcan finished it's display people were leaving in their hundreds while there was still almost 2 hours of flying left!


there are loads more in my FlickR album including more of the visiting aircraft: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545 ... 9106461218

hope you like looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them, C&C welcome

Andrew

Love the Comet shots Andy.

Lovely shots there Andy. It was an epic show. Definitely the best one I've been to at Shuttleworth. Still editing my photos.

Great pictures Andy-thanks for sharing.

Bob

thanks everybody, this is one of my favourite venues.

I've just realised that I photographed every visitor to prepare a list of them but haven't done so yet. Now I have a job for this evening!

Andy

edit - visitors list now posted: http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum ... 62&t=23665

Only just spotted this post.. Fantastic stuff. Emotional though the Vulcan may be,, you've captured some aircraft there that I've never seen flying and are really great to see. Image quality is superb as well.
Thank you for sharing them.

Mike

Super set Andy

Paul

Superb set, Andy. Thanks for posting.

Its amazing how these old birds really can fly.
Really a nice set of pics.

Fantastic shots..truly classic aircraft.

thanks for the kind comments everybody, here's one more - this one was published in the latest edition of 'Propswing' the Shuttleworth magazine

8723 deperdussin cropped by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Andy