Jessie The Jeep Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) Pleasantly surprised by the Sunderland Seafront airshow this year. In the past, the flying started too soon with not enough acts. As a result, there were frequently long breaks between displays which resulted in a very boring show. This year had a shorter more compact program, with less acts, & thankfully no 15 to 20 minute gaps between displays. With the RAF no longer having enough aeroplanes to fight and display on the airshow circuit, it was great so see the vintage jets flying rather than the modern fuel to noise machines. 8 acts all pre-1960's, the other 7 more modern. Modern jets do nothing for me, all noise and wizz and they're gone. The vintage jets that displayed ( Hunters and Vampire ) had a fantastic sound that you just don't hear any more, taking me back to the airshows of the early 1970's. My zoom lens is a Nikor 70-300mm, but between around 200-300mm zoom, it tends to loose the ability to focus properly, so yesterday I tried to limit my zoom to 200mm. The flight line at Sunderland is quite a long way out to sea, which doesn't help with photography, but despite these limitations, there were a number of photos I was happy with. I took several zoomed out with more land/seascape in the composition, though not many of those are included here. While there was blue sky for much of the day, there was also a low level haze which made good pictures more difficult resulting in a large number of 'washed out' pictures where the aircraft was further away. Anyway; in no particular order. Team Viper, flying four Hawker Hunters Catalina ( Canso ) Pete Teichmann's Hawker Hurricane The Matadors, Paul Bonhomme ( Twice World Champion ) & Steve Jones, both Red Bull air race pilots Hunter 'Miss Demeanour' Vampire T11 Pete Teichmann's Spitfire XI Vulcan B2 Spit Team Viper's Hunters Catalina Hurricane Vulcan Edited August 1, 2011 by Jessie The Jeep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike65 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Looks like a good day out and some good pics. The Cat always looks good over water. Saw it a few years back at Bournemouth. Photography there is a real challenge as you are shooting into the sun. Know what you mean about lenses, some really hunt and the quality can drop off at the long end aswell. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzkpfw-e Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Good set of photos there. The distance from the crowd affects many airshows. Shuttleworth must be the one where you get the closest. Taken with an Olympus E400, with a 40-150mm zoom. Bit of cropping with Windows Picture Gallery's built-in tool. Love the scheme on Miss Demeanor, simply the best paint job on any display aircraft, IMHO. Many do gripe about it (Likewise Red Bull's paintjob on the Sea Vixen, which I also found to be striking) but there's enough planes flying in "proper" schemes, to let the artworks through too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon8910 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Nice pics Steve, definitely a flashback to the 70’s shows I remember from my youth. Now I know where the Cat was coming from as it flew over my house on Sunday afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie The Jeep Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 Breighton Airfield near Selby is good for being close to the action and has the sun behind you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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