Old Buckenham air show, 30th July, 2023
Karl and I attended this relaxed show for the second year running. Situated on a former B-24 base, just a 20 minute drive from the "Tin Tent", in Norfolk, this year's show promised to have some interesting "acts", but unfortunately the weather had other ideas.
Although the forecast rain stayed away until late in the day, the wind was gusting strongly across the runway at times, and bad weather on the various routes to and from the field led to the cancellation of a number of "acts", including the show opener, the RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team, who would have probably ended up in Denmark had they jumped !
The Tiger Moths of the "Tiger Nine" formation team had to depart early, in gusting wind, in order to return to their various home fields safely, and other cancellations included the BBMF's Lancaster, the Lysander, Mustang and Buchon "dogfight", and a few more. One aircraft Karl and I particularly wanted to see was the Royal Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron Vampire T.11, now in RAF markings, but this was stuck at Duxford with a fuel leak.
However, the show went ahead more or less on time, and those "acts" that were able to perform put on a great show, often in very challenging conditions.
Although the rapidly changing light conditions, and some rather dull cloud backdrops made photography tricky at times, I managed to get some reasonable shots of most of the action, even when some bloke in front, who had an unobstructed view, insisted on standing up right in front of me, using a lens that could have captured a moon landing, it was so ****ing big !
The first batch of shots below show Peter Kuypers, Captain of the B-17 "Sally B", departing for Duxford in his Beech Staggerwing, to collect the B-17 to open the show, a couple of the Tiger Moths departing for home, the blue one being the aircraft that flew from London to Sydney in 1979, and the first few of the show opener, B-17G "Sally B".
I'll post more of the show over the next few days.
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