Newcastle Festival of Flight 2014

[gadwall58]

Tucanao T1 ZF295 c/s LOP48 showing to SE of IOM at FL060.  Presume i/b Newcastle.

[gadwall58]

Caravan G-OAFF now going through FL062

[Angry Turnip]

Reds into BFS,passed my house at 1440,and broke to the left landed 1445-clouding over here and a few spots of rain about.

[gadwall58]

I take it the Gnats have displayed as I picked them up on SBS a while ago. 

G-BVEZ Jet Provost picked up a short time ago.

[gadwall58]

LN-DHZ just picked up as well.

[gadwall58]

Canberra etc airborne.

[ctse]

G-BVEZ did a flypast of Ards and now touching down.

[gadwall58]

G-VLCN just about to coast out near Blackpool.

[bigJed]

Listening to Red Leader on 243.45 mhz right now (17.00).Jeez he gets a bit excited doesn't he??

[Angry Turnip]

Reds landed BFS at approx 1735ish,they were a bit late going out,but on return they came in Diamond 9 formation and did a half loop over BFS then a parasol break,which was rather lovely and not the normal run and break return.

I managed to get a few shots myself.

Hope you all had a great day at Newcastle.

[smudge]

Good show but display line seemed to be drifting out to sea, Mid Air pair barely visible

Nearly missed Belfast Boys flypast as it wasn't announced!

[Sneaky_Nikon]

Anyone know when the Reds leave?

[jasT1981]

Did anyone else notice a 'hic-cup' With the Reds display today? Or any reports of an incident? About half way through, something just seemed off. It seemed like there was a bit of confusion and we noticed one hanging out of formation a good bit. It just didn't seem to sit together right for a few minutes.

[greglloyd]

Yes I noticed the Red's display went a bit wrong in the middle.

They appeared to be allowed to fly a closer flight line to the crowd after their first few formations. I was surprised at this given the Typhoon pilot, etc firmly stayed out beyond the marker boat. I was at the Slieve Donard Hotel and they were amazingly close at times, but then almost worryingly so at one point with moves directly overhead and quite low at times.  Clearly they either broke rules or they are allowed to run a different flight line if they decide they can. It's not the first time they've done this at Newcastle.

During one of the synchro moves, the two Hawks flew around the back of the crowd very low of over the town and at this point the display seemed to go amiss a little. There was a gap between moves which was unnatural. Pilot noise could be heard. And the formation that then came in afterwards had one red trailing the rest. For the next few moves, it appeared that only three or four reds would be involved - sometimes a little out of shape, etc.

Having said all that, they were one of the highlights for me today with an unrestricted height display as well as getting very close and low at the Donard.

I was disappointed with the flight line today with many jet displays also being much quieter than I would have liked. The Mid Air squadron were very far out I thought. Also quiet. The hunter was nowhere near as loud and Miss Dameanor. Also only one Hunter?? Although the Canberra was amazingly close to the Vulcan! And we did get a nice Avon howl on the fast pass at the end of the Mid Air Squadron display.


Enjoyed the new Typhoon moves but again too far out at times which made it sound quieter than it should have been. The pilot certainly wasn't afraid to use the burner plenty which was a welcome change from recent years. Just a shame about the flight line.

Some of the things that surprised me as being the highlights (given I'm a jet and heli gan mostly) was the Lancaster - superb! And also the RAF Falcons. First time seeing them and really enjoyed that. The weather played ball!

We got a nice Vulcan howl - but other than that it was surprisingly (and disappointingly) quiet throughout I thought. Why couldn't they have given it a lot more whelly?! But she did look nice gliding around the bay :-) Would have been nice to get her in a bit closer!

All in all though, I really enjoyed the day. Nice weather throughout too which was the best we could hope for this weekend. Took the route to Banbridge and then A1 to Lisburn and was home in 40 minutes! Came home to a nice thunderstorm! Love storms!!

[greglloyd]

p.s. Did anyone watch the superb Red Arrows documentary on TV recently? Track the training for the 2014 season. Really good show.

They showed how the team can fly an improvised display (that looks a bit out of shape) when something goes wrong. After watching that show this is exactly what looks like happened today.

[greglloyd]

The tide going out this afternoon did not help with the display line for sure

[JoeyB]

great show & the weather held up too, watched from the harbour (so I could shoot with sun behind me for most part & easier route to depart after show, via mournes, hilltown/rathfriland/banbridge then A1 & A2 back to carrick in hour & half (including stopping for a sandwich & toilet break!)), must agree about some of the displays were very far out, especially the typhoon, for good close in pics, but the rules are there for a reason, great to see canberra & vulcan, so close!!, now to sort through photos to see if any good ones.

Overall super show, top marks to organisers!

[greglloyd]

Oh, and the Tucano display was the best I've seen in a long time! Good to see it in much closer to the crowd and the moves were more enjoyable to watch :-)

[October]

'mon lads, get those photos up! :-)

[Dr Draken]

Really enjoyed the day and the weather behaved too 

Only minor gripe was the retreating shoreline with the aircraft following it. But hey, it's a free show and a privilege and a joy to see the aircraft flying locally from any distance.

So hearty congratulations and three cheers, to the show organisers, it's participants, it's financial supporters and Down District Council. Long may the Festival of Flight continue!   

[niteowl2000]

Just a quick few

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulkolbe/sets/72157646300092481/

 

[Causeway74]

Great day - really good to see the organisers get so many interesting aircraft. Lancaster was great! I was surprised to see it turn up as any BOBMF stuff rarely turns up here other than the Dak. The Vulcan is awesome too but as someone said above a bit more welly would be nice. I know they want to preserve the life of her so maybe there are restrictions. Hunter I was really surprised at lack of noise. The one from last year must have had some aftermarket mods on her as it was deafening. Typhoon really far out to sea - I guess they don't want to annoy folks but at times it seemed closer to the IOM than it did Newcastle (slight exaggeration I know )

During Reds display I heard a radio call about "lost in the sun" and further mentions of "radio issues" so maybe this explained the guy who was hanging out of formation a little.

All in all a great day. Managed to avoid a lot of the traffic which helps.

[bigJed]

All I can add is that the Leader was getting very exasperated at one point.I wasn't able to get to Newcastle but was able to monitor everything on scanners here in Downpatrick.It was very hard to make out what he was saying but he was extremely agitated.Also heard comms between him and another Red.I've listened to them before and he's usually quite animated.Would have been around 17.15 - 17.20.

[Causeway74]

It was announced over the PA systems that there was a radio problem. They also announced before the show that Red 1 had no smoke.

Where we were the PA was quiet all day until it cranked into life about 4.30. Thankfully they shut up a bit during displays. Bit of a racket!

[ni_gaz]

I think for 99% of free show crowds they wouldnt have even noticed a "little glitch" in the routine ... one thing about the Slieve Donard hotel is you arent subjected to the waffle over the loudspeaker system [though you have to do a bit of guessing as to which direction aircraft are arriving from] ... though today I think the hotel grounds got a little too crowded for managements liking and they were stopping people walking in at one stage later on.The big surprise on the day for me was the weather after all the doom and gloom they had been predicting for showtime ! cloud broke just in time and blue sky for most of the afternoon ,  not long after the end Newcastle had one of the noisiest thunderstorms its had in ages.