What goes up …must come down!

It’s one of those general maxims in life, but it is not very often that you have the opportunity to watch it happening quite like this.

Last week I visited the Old Buckenham Air Show. To be honest it was a treat. I can remember visiting air shows as a boy and watching tiny dots in the distance looping the loop and daring things like that. Yeh, I know, you don’t think looping the loop is all that daring! You should have seen the sort of planes they did it in. Balsa wood and string was just about all that held them together. At Old Buckenham, the action was almost directly above us and as long as I remembered to bring my 400mm lens, all was well.

The initial treat was a display by the RAF Falcons (parachutists not military raptors) exiting from their Dornier aircraft immediately above the airfield. Their descent was impressive and if I had a little more time today I could invent all sorts of abstract patterns from the smoke they allowed to drift behind them.

All the parachutists managed what their commentator called a soft landing – more than I did when I once jumped out. But winding up in exactly the right place was something they achieved with great skill.

A little later in the afternoon red and white streaks heralded the arrival of the Red Arrows. Terrific manoeuvres at high speed.

Many in the large crowd at the air show were waiting for the star item – an RAF Typhoon.

When it arrived you didn’t so much see it as feel it! The noise was quite loud but as it accelerated upwards, away from the crowd, the ground shook – enough to trigger several vehicle alarms in the car park.

A magnificent display – gave you a real feeling of power. Perhaps in a week or so I will put up several pictures of other aircraft. We were treated to a display by two electric powered aeroplanes.

Quite captivating – and by contrast relatively quiet. A bit like my drone though – they can’t stay up in the air very long.