Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm off. Mrs Me is off. My brother is off. Are you off?

They're showing some air, apparently.

No, I've been kept refrigerated.

I quite fancy an air show. I've not been to one since I was a mini-Mi. We saw the red arrows fly over the grandparents garden the other day and it was really exciting, so I'd like to go to one where they were displaying as well.

We're going to Bournemouth Air Show then.

The Cosford one is great, not been for ages, but I can see the dispalys from my house.

I used to see the Red Arrows fly over my house every morning when training so they're not that special for me. Can't put myself in a place where I can create any sense of wonder at them.

Russ: ruiner of all things good.

What about on Bournemouth beach with an ice cream?

Driving along the Cote D'Azur in a drop top California, snorting coke from the dashboard whilst a 21 year old millionaire heiress fellates you from the passenger seat, the red arrows soar overhead jsut at the right time.

The rest of that's alright. Adding the red arrows doesn't add any more magic.

sounds amazing + a billionty. Russell is all wrong

What about seeing the look of wonderment on your girlfriend's face and feeling immensely smug knowing you're the first boyfriend to take her to an airshow?

Also what if one of the pilots flies off to die, like last year?

http://www.bournemouthair.co.uk/

Hang on. Am I being coerced into a trip to Bournemouth?

Oh aye, yeah.

Yay!

the beach and the Red Arrows and ice cream

Stand directly behind them before they take off.

Yo! Z-dog! What happened to Photo Challenge Thursday, you colossal dick?

I'm on my holidays.

But for some reason I've been busy working during them.

Here's a photo challenge for you: shoot your brown box with a box brownie.

Don't need to go to Bournemouth.

http://www.visitsouthport.com/whats-on/ ... d-displays

Bournemouth or Southport, tough choice...

When we heard about this on the radio this morning, we assumed it meant this air show at Waddington!

Got on site after an hour trying to get there from the house two miles away, in pissing rain under jet black skies. Got parked up right in front of the average takeoff point of the runway and the skies cleared for most of the day. Awesome.

Went to look round the static displays with my brother who is a massive plane geek and can give you a good run-down on most aspects of aviation, and we're looking at the Hawks. Got a Red Arrow, an anniversary skull and crossbones one... And the newest trainer variant. Brother is explaining the fancy new systems on board and my mate shows up, smugly declares he developed the systems and joined us for the day, giving a whole extra level of info on everything. We talked about Bournemouth briefly, though he couldn't say much as he's very much involved in the follow up. I was with him when the incident occurred. In any case, a lot of shit has been spoken in the press speculation wise. the arrows flew with seven planes, and made their usual steady show of it. Poignant.

The Koreans beat them though, with planes disassembled, transported over and reassembled, with their first show in Europe. Creative and technically pin-sharp, they were backed with a really dodgy Asian hard rock soundtrack, which only made them more awesome.

Display teams are hard to get excited about these days, once the 'they didn't crash' thing wears off. The Italians were as crap as ever. I could fly tighter than them. Do watch the Koreans though if you gt to a show.

My wife loved it, especially the Tornados and F-16. She also got to wander around an E-3 Sentry (where I chatted to a cute blonde aircrew I'd be happy to be stuck in a metal tube with for 14 hours) and got to sit in the cockpit of one of the Shackletons my Dad used to fly. Poignant again. She'd never seen much other than civil aviation and the sentries over Lincolnshire before... and for the likes of her, the Arrows are magical.

Highlights which may be on youtubenwere the Tornado role demo, Belgian f-16 display and the F-18C which is now very near e top of my list of favourite planes. They've gone to town on it, it's an absolute motherfucker, behaving like a plane half it's age.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/governmentyard/7482444082/in/set-72157630377243164/lightbox/