Portrush Airshow 2010 photos and comments

[greglloyd]

Decided not to bother heading up to the north coast as I suspected the weather would be awful combined with too many non displays / poor lineup, and instead took my son to Aldergrove to watch the Reds arrive there. There was a slot of total dryness which arrived just in time before the rain came on heavy again on the way home. Despite wind coming from 140 degrees 12 Knts, they approached in 3 seperate formations (3, 2, and 5 ship) and flew along runway 25 before banking hard right and making a landing on 25. Some came in very low indeed over Killead. I reckon the people who went to Killead got the best display by the Reds of the day.

I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but I'll say it again - the date of the airshow leads to terrible weather all too often. May / June offer the best weather in this country these days. Just look at the past 10 years. Our summer here really goes from about early May until end of June. July / August / September are becoming washouts.. and by end of August it just feels like Autumn. I know some will argue that you can get poor weather in May and June, but statistically you have a much greater chance of fair weather at that time of year. This can be proved by looking up weather statistics for Aldergrove for the past 20 years (for example, refer to the Weather Underground website).

The last really good airshow in this country in my opinion was back at Newtownards in May 2005. Very very sunny weather and great displays from the Blue Eagles, Harrier, full Reds display etc.

I so miss those shows..

[firefox]

Airshow today total rubbish. Crowd line is absolutely crazy. How people can see anything from the beach is beyond me. I was using my bro's 70-200mm lens and I got tiny specs (planes) in my photos.

The weather played a part but generally it was pathetic. Disappointed not to see the Hawker Hunter.

Traffic management was atrocious. We sat for an hour trying to get out of ramore car park. There are big signs saying 'no camping' - the place sitting full of camper vans. Shouldn't be allowed. Abandoned car and headed for food. Massive roar and then we see the Typhoon. Apparently it was the closest thing to Ramore all day - everything else miles away.

I have no idea who sets up the display centre lines but it really is a joke. Another joke is having the same a/c display twice in the one day. I don't think I'd waste a trip again to be honest. The reds would have been worth it if weather good but in the gloom they can only do so much.

All in all, shocking rubbishy day and next time I wanna see some decent stuff I'll book RIAT or similar.

Rant over.

[Paultojo]

Few departures from Aldergrove yesterday
















Paul

[Rallyman]

I have to agree with Greglloyd about the reds arriving at Aldergrove , a few years ago when the airshow was on but the weather was bad as usual , we all headed in the opposite direction and on our way home the reds were on the scanner to Aldergrove so in we went to Killead and sure enough everyone there was treated to a small display before they landed on 25 , smoke the works , and i think from memory the same day just after they had landed the Typhoon took off on 35 and the vertical lift was just awesome , so if you can`t make the show sometimes you see as much at Aldergrove .

Anyway just home from the show today , and it stayed dry al day too , started off down on the front then moved up to Ramore to finsh off .

[iCardboardRobot]

Couple photos of the show
still trying to get the hang of photoshopping the finished article, and its pretty tough to get the settings on the camera right,  since these are my first attempts 

[String]

A few pic's from today comments plz but i know i could have done better but i'm still not used to the settings for the conditions.


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[String]

A few more.

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Last ones. I have to do better for sure.

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[firefox]

Decided not to bother heading up to the north coast as I suspected the weather would be awful combined with too many non displays / poor lineup, and instead took my son to Aldergrove to watch the Reds arrive there. There was a slot of total dryness which arrived just in time before the rain came on heavy again on the way home. Despite wind coming from 140 degrees 12 Knts, they approached in 3 seperate formations (3, 2, and 5 ship) and flew along runway 25 before banking hard right and making a landing on 25. Some came in very low indeed over Killead. I reckon the people who went to Killead got the best display by the Reds of the day.

I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but I'll say it again - the date of the airshow leads to terrible weather all too often. May / June offer the best weather in this country these days. Just look at the past 10 years. Our summer here really goes from about early May until end of June. July / August / September are becoming washouts.. and by end of August it just feels like Autumn. I know some will argue that you can get poor weather in May and June, but statistically you have a much greater chance of fair weather at that time of year. This can be proved by looking up weather statistics for Aldergrove for the past 20 years (for example, refer to the Weather Underground website).

The last really good airshow in this country in my opinion was back at Newtownards in May 2005. Very very sunny weather and great displays from the Blue Eagles, Harrier, full Reds display etc.

I so miss those shows..

[ww2ni]

Just got back on Amsterdam flight it around 1750 and say 2 grey aircraft sitting at Military side.
One was a Eurofighter. - Were there 2 on display or was it something else parkedthere also I wonder?

[Causeway74]

So I'm guessing the Hawk and Typhoon stayed miles from the coastline then today?

[redpaul]

The hawk gave a few good passes to Ramore Head but the Typhoon was way out. Don't think it done a full display either because of the low cloud.

Paul

[Rallyman]

Just got back on Amsterdam flight it around 1750 and say 2 grey aircraft sitting at Military side.
One was a Eurofighter. - Were there 2 on display or was it something else parkedthere also I wonder?

There was indeed 2 there , the one that was in the display Typhoon 43 , and also a spare and as far as i know the callsign of this was Typhoon 119.
Regards
Chris

[Causeway74]

Are they both still there or did they leave yet?

[Rallyman]

Don`t know if they are still there or not , both were logged yesterday on their arrival.

[Angry Turnip]

After defending the Portrush show yesterday,I am afraid I have to change my mind after todays shambles of an airshow.
Weather wasn`t too bad was dryish but very windy,better than yesterday,with a mostly fairly decent cloudbase.
 
As mentioned the display line was ridiculously far out,and the Typhoon display was miles out even from Ramore.
I am using a 500mm lens combined with a 1.6 crop factor gives you 800mm;yet the Typhoon was barely filling  20% of the viewfinder
 
The display line seems particular severe for RAF aircraft,which seems crazy to me as the RAF pilots are some of the best trained in the world,and display pilots are instructors with huge experience.
 
I don`t blame the pilots as they are just doing what they are told.
The CAA need to catch themselves on,and bring the display line back to where it was a few years back.
Are we seriously expected to go airshows with high power binocular`s or a telescope ?
 
Yet again far to many no-shows;no Hunter did it display on Saturday?
 
The traffic management was a disaster-Police were just standing about doing nothing,while G-PSNO buzzed above the town-why? what a waste of a resource.
Took us over an hour to get out of Ramore carpark,and as mentioned by others why are those campervans allowed to hog the carpark taking up 2 or 3 spaces?
 
The replica Spitfire was pathetic,a very poor representation of an iconic aircraft-The Organisers should have made their priority for the Battle Of Britain 70th Anniversary Show to book a REAL Spitfire or Hurricane-NO EXCUSE for that.
 
Most of the displays flown were pretty good considering the tricky conditions,with the exception of the Harvard and Nanchang and the Gyrocopter which were very poor.
The Gyrocopter did it`s entire display over the beach and ignored everyone else.
 
I am sick of the sight of the Piper Arrow! Why does it get a display slot,when you can see similar aircraft at most flying clubs?
Can it not just do it`s Tesco passes and then clear off?
 
I am afraid my patience has run out with the Portrush Airshow,and I will not be attending again;I have been to every show they have staged,including the one when the Red Arrows had to abort their display due to extremely low cloud base after one pass.That was not the teams fault;they cannot display if they can`t see each other.
 
For Joe Public the show might be exciting, and something new,but it offers very little for the true enthusiasts,other than disappointment and frustration.
 
Believe me I am sorry to have to be critical in this manner,but I truly think the Portrush Show is a bit of a lame duck.

[monahank]

I think everyone's a little frustrated.... especially as the show fell on two rotten days of weather after a glorious week of sunshine. While the line-up wasn't as good as other years, it was still okay for a local, free airshow.

Let's not forget that we're lucky to have any airshow at all, given that Coleraine Borough Council seemed pretty determined to scrap it all those months ago. I guess I'll go against the crowd and say 'well done' to the organisers for getting any sort of airshow together, given the timeframe, financial constraints and the lack of availability of some aircraft.

Yes, there were some dissapointments - A real spitfire would have been nice, a few helo's could have helped (although from all accounts, this was uncontrollable due to MOD requirements) and the Eurofighter turning up after everyone had gone on Saturday didn't help - however, I'm just glad I got to see any sort of action this year and genuinely hope that this show was not the last!

The display line seems to be pushed further out every year and I do agree that it is getting a bit ridiculous. I assume this is a CAA issue and not the airshow's fault however. Perhaps some people with a bit of clout (*cough MPs) need to get off their backsides and have a word in these pen pusher's ears.

Wouldn't mind seeing the Airshow organisers trying to make more of a go next year, given additional time, resources and availability of aircraft. Perhaps the organisers could look into making the show into more of a festival? Maybe I'm dreaming, but how about approaching Red Bull for a round of the Air Race? They already had one down south around a few fields in the middle of nowhere (Cashel) in 2005.

Perhaps the show, if no longer viable on it's own, could piggy-back onto the NW200 week?

[stcolin]

Arrived at 12.30 on the Saturday, just in time for the heavy rain. Started to walk towards a good spot on Ramore Head, then decided enough was enough. Haven't seen horizontal rain in a while!

Sat in the car for about 45 minutes then just decided to head for home. Shame, I was really looking forward to it, even without the heli's etc.

Nice shots Paul, I didn't realise there was a Hawk display this year.

Cheers

Col

[alcol]

I thought last year's show was amazing (from Ramore head anyway).
To be honest though, this year the weather completely put us off going on the Saturday, and as my son was Easyjetting to Krakow on Sunday morning, we'd planned to drive up the coast after seeing him off and arrive Portrush in time for most of the show.
Weather and visibility were pretty dire on the drive from Aldergrove, so after stopping for fish&chips in a grey, damp, and very windy Ballycastle, and with a mental image of an even greyer, wetter, windier Portrush, we chickened out and scuttled off home via Coleraine.
Would love to see the airshow held in early/mid summer - if that's possible - maybe it isn't?
IMO last year was a tribute to all the hard work put in by those involved in staging the show - this year it didn't work out so well, hopefully next year it will!

[String]

Unforunately the hunter had gone tech on friday they did fix it but it went again on saturday this time it was terminal and it couldn't make the show. It seems that there is still alot of things not quite right with the display line as it was the C.A.A that demanded that the display line had to be in that spot. I think that the C.A.A have to look out for safety reasons but i do agree the eurofighter was very far out and very hard to photograph. I hope that if the show is on next year they might get a reprive on the display line.

[S61N]

I'm just home (i stay at Portrush for the weekend now,having endured a five hour trip home one year).Repeating what others have said but here goes...

I really don't know what to say about the Hawk / Typhoon displays other than that they may as well have performed their routines at Aldergrove.I was surprised at the amount of people leaving before the Typhoon display started on Sunday,but when it was over i wished i had joined them.A 300mm lens and i might as well have used the missus compact camera 

This was in stark contrast to the demo on Saturday evening after everyone had left!If the weather is bad i would rather see some slow passes as close to the crowdline as possible - not high speed passes three or four miles out to sea.

It may have been a successful show as far as money spent at the stalls and in the town (the crowd seemed pretty big to me),and at the end of the day that is what it is all about £££ - but from an enthusiast / photographer point of view the rules,regs and display guidelines are spoiling it.I enjoy watching all the aircraft - just not through binoculars.

[redpaul]

A few of mine from Sunday.
All taken from Ramore Head.

1

Portrush Airshow 2010-5 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr

2

Portrush Airshow 2010-10 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr


3

Portrush Airshow 2010-12 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr


4

Portrush Airshow 2010-14 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr


5

Portrush Airshow 2010-20 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr

6

Portrush Airshow 2010-23 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr


7

Portrush Airshow 2010-25 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr


8

Portrush Airshow 2010-39 by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr


Thanks for looking
Paul

[firefox]

brilliant photos mate

[dave4524]

Just to let you all know that the Ramada Portrush Hotel  are offering one lucky winner a voucher for one night's accommodation Bed & Full Breakfast for 2 persons for the best photo taken at this weekends Air Show in Portrush. Entries should be posted to our facebook by Friday 10th September 2010

http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Ramada-Portrush-Hotel/109309325785343

[RNASMU]

Excellent photos Paul