Livin on a prayer

Fun day today at Bournemouth Air show.

This is a fairly new incarnation, devised by Bournemouth Tourist Board and others to generate income for the Town, during the "credit crunch". It is free and uses one of the Town's best features, i.e. the seafront to host a series of aircraft and helicopters to entertain the watching crowds.

I went with my friend Vicki, her friend Tina and six boys (including my sons). As the traffic was likely to be somewhere between "bad" to "stopped sufficiently to play football in the road" we decided to go by train and therefore the nine of us turned up at Chandlers Ford station at 10 am this morning. First surprise was the deal we were able to agree as a party of nine. Not too sure the rest of the queue were quite so impressed, but we all got tickets before the train departed, so no harm done.

All trains were on time and so an hour later we disembarked at Bournemouth station and after a stop at Asda to purchase lunch (and hoodies – it wasn't as hot as first expected) we walked the 20 minutes or so down to the main park to eat lunch.

Suitably refreshed we then wandered over to the seafront, just in time to see the start of the show, namely the Red Arrows. Now I've seen them before, but they are still amazing and the skill they use to avoid each other is incredible. Their display lasted 20 minutes and was riveting.

There then followed various other displays, including a Lancaster bomber, Spitfire and Hurricane, a helicopter display team, two bi-planes (with wing walkers) and finally a Typhoon Euro fighter.

The helicopters, while sedentary compared to the Red Arrows, was just as skill full and the pilots showed why, as a military weapon, they are so vital. After all, as the announcer was quick to point out, the Red Arrows can't fly backwards!

The Euro fighter was the final plane and was by far the loudest. It came sweeping across from the eastern end of the beach and then as it reached the pier turned out to sea, its engines burning orange as it shot out to sea and the noise was incredible. A further 5 minute show ensued, built mainly on how loud and fast it is, but impressive none the less!

The seafront and surrounding areas were packed and along the front were a good mile and a half of displays and attractions. In terms of bringing much needed cash to the area, it must have been a success.

We got the train home, I guess some people in their cars are still somewhere on the A31.