I Planned To...

attend the Airshow again or a big bike event in Durham at Police HQ today but it has rained all night and into the morning. When I say rained I really mean rain. The first really good one in weeks...if that had hit yesterday we'd have all been drenched and the day would have been disrupted. I thought the bike event would be in trouble but its going ahead, Sunday bus service means its too late to go. If I'm honest I am enjoying doing absolutely nothing.

ETA...the sun has of course come out now so both events may be surviving and having another good day but it has taken until 1pm to improve.

If the Airshow takes place today again there will be a live feed and then it will remain on line at You Tube...

Here is all that happened yesterday when I was there but I advise skipping some of it or watching it in stages.

It may lack the atmosphere but when some of the displays were far away and the planes were tiny to the eye and also on video they are easier to see on a video like this and unless you have an expensive camera, tripod etc...even I gave up.

You need a point of reference to train the camera on, often finding only sky, and any video ends up shaky. Also the battery soon ran out. Another problem with many digital cameras is that the LCD screens are not always easy to see in some lighting conditions and its still handy to have a viewfinder. Mine doen't have one.

The Red Arrows were amazing as always, its over thirty years since I saw them perform over Bournemouth beach(they're there next week)but I have to say many of the displays were as clever, dangerous and exciting.

I liked the "Twisters" but it turns out the pilots were ex Red Arrows anyhow, the Matadors were wonderful, what could be done with helicopters was amazing and the RAF parachutist team were great. To be honest all of it was and I hate singling out any particular person. They are all experts at what they do. They may thrill us with their antics but the thrill they must get is unimaginable.

Do check the video out, I was there and I have...

Here are a few of the images I did manage to take...

 

All the usual food outlets and fair ground rides were on site for families to enjoy/spend their money on.

 

A big passenger ferry from a local port took a detour and gave those on board a prime view of the first couple of hours but did continue their journey to wherever they were destined and did not stay all day.

 

 

BBC Radio Newcastle was wandering around the event interviewing people and I missed getting a better picture...I was quite intrigued by the equipment being used to relay the interview back to base that was carried around on the back of the engineer(?)I had not seen one before but it reminded me of the kind used by soldiers on the battle ground.

 

 

I was positioned in probably the best location which considering I had never been before was quite clever and I was near to where the commentator was and most of the camera work for the video posted on You Tube being sold via a DVD.

 

 

To be honest my photos/video's aren't good enough to post here which is a pity but there you go...now I'm starting  to think if I should invest in a proper SLR digital camera whilst I am able or is that unnecessary expensense and how often would it be used especially there is only me to look at most of the photo's I take.  

 

You may be tired of all this areoplane chit chat but if you search there are some great videos and photo's online via YouTube and Twitter and now I wish I was there again today. But I am watching some of the live feed via the net and its interesting some of the extra features of today's event and some extra's from yesterday such as the footage from the parachuters point of view. It may be even better than yesterday.

 

I watched the Breitling Wing Walkers which I did not see when I was there and so far I can find nothing of their display so click on the link and see a display from another airshow from last year. Its so dangerous I came across another wing walker who lost her life when performing in the States in June. Horrific!

 

Here's some more of the show from Sunday Link for now...

 



 Don't ask why but some of my problems posting images/video's to my blog seem to have been resolved themselves, I could not view video' posted on Yahoo so perhaps the fault was somewhere else other than my own computer.