LUCIA (2013): Sunderland International Airshow 2009

After getting bored at home for almost 2 weeks, blame the British rain gods, I was very eager to go to the 'Sunderland Airshow'. I had booked tickets in 'Abbeyways Hanson' for 25th of July. From Halifax, Abbeyways is the cheapest and best travel agency who can take you to places of interest nearby(upto 2.5hrs drive!).
Me, Ajay(armed with his new Nikon D40) and Vinod(eager to get some good snaps for marriage proposal ;) ) were ready at 8.45AM waiting for bus. Bus got on time at 9AM and took us to airshow venue at 12.15PM. We sorely missed the 'Red Arrows' performance and were able to get only few glimpses of them doing awesome manuevours while travelling to the venue. Felt lucky to get few snaps of them.

The venue was at the sea front at Roker and Seaburn and attracted around 3 lakh people(according to a british news paper). The highlight of the day was the Vulcan bomber plus Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (Spitfire, Hurricane, Dakota), RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team, Typhoon, Hawk, Blue Eagles with the Apache and the Lynx, Belgium Air Component F16, Royal Netherlands Air Force F16, The Black Cats, The Blades, Swift Glider team, Merlin, Sea King and Chinook helicopters. On the ground there was performance by 4th Field Regiment Light Gun Display, the Royal Marines Combat Display Team and The Band of HM Royal Marines Scotland.

This was my second international show event visit, the first being held at Yelahanka,Bangalore in 2007. I somehow liked the Bangalore one, mostly because of the Sukhoi MK30, F18, MiG-35, C-17, Sweden's Grippen and our own Suryakiran with their trademark Heart and cupid arrow display. Apart from Red Arrows and Surya Kiran, the only other 9 member air arcrobatic team in the world is Canada's Snowbirds. The good thing about Sunderland airshow was it was held at seafront, in between you can enjoy the seashore and a bit safe :).

Few photos from the Sunderland airshow below... I tried my best with my 2003 make Fuji S5000 to take snaps, it was more of a cat and mouse game ;). Time to buy a DSLR.

Sunderland airshow...