Monday 15 June 2009

Awesome Arrows Saved my Day

Yesterday was the annual RAF Cosford Airshow and we'd bought our tickets, cameras were charged and kids were armed with sun cream, however, this story has a very bleak tale of woe!

Cosford is 45 minutes drive away, so we set off about 8.30am, everything was on course until we were diverted off the motorway at junction 2 instead of junction 3 to take a trip around the back streets of Wolverhampton. Well, little did any of us realise heading to Cosford that morning that we would be caught in 4 hour tail backs that stretched 6.5 miles, the highlight of our journey was doing a whole mile in an hour.

At noon and still stuck in traffic we had our picnic in the car while watching the start of the show from afar, we were listening to the local radio station where it was announced that the car parks were now full to capacity and they were closing the gates to all cars regardless of having a pre-paid for ticket. By this time I'd turned a lovely shade of red, and promptly told Jay to abandon the car and we'd walk, which we did a whole mile and half :(
Everybody was fed up and cars were being parked anywhere anyone could physically squeeze them.

We finally reached the grounds at 1.30pm and desperate for the toilet we went our separate ways, now organising is obviously not what the RAF excel in, 2 cabins for the ladies and 4 for the men...yes that's right some idiot decided men needed extra toilets hence I stood in a queue for 30 minutes to spend a penny, I was still not amused nor was I entertained with a day promised full of family fun.

I know you're wondering if it gets worse, well yes it does! Anyone who knows me knows I'm a little fanatic at hygiene so imagine my horror having been to the toilet and attempted not to touch anything other than absolutely necessary that when I got to wash my hands with a temporary water pump system it had actually ran out of water...I was a livid and was ready to take on the whole of the RAF single handily.

Lucky for me Kyle had a bottle of Vittel water in his pocket and I quickly nabbed it and soaked all four of us with water as the mens toilet was all dried up too!!

Thankfully my anger wained once the Red Arrows shot over us to begin what can only be described as awesome. They don't disappoint and I was so pleased we got to see their display which was just breathtaking and so here are a few photos of the engineering greats of yesteryear and present day, enjoy...




This had thrust burners that made the ground vibrate under us, boys thought that was 'well cool'.

The Vulcan, she...yes she is a 'she' is absolutely mind blowing, not the fastest by any stretch of the imagination but size and grace leave you with your mouth wide open in awe.

She flew over us with the bomb doors open, she was last in action during the Falklands and has had to have £1,000.000 raised this year just to get her off the ground, and wow was it worth it.

And off she flies.

The Apache - quite a sight.

Get ready cos here they come.

My absolute favourite shot of the day.

7 comments:

Bagpuss said...

Some awesome shots there Claire but as you say pants organisation! Glad that you still managed to enjoy the time you had there.

Jill said...

Wow Claire what gorgeous pictures. So glad that the Vulcan is flying again, we had one fly over here many years ago and we were all agog then!

Rachael Elliott said...

Wow some amazing shots there Claire!!! Shame about the start to youru day but at least it ended on a high.

Mrsjobee said...

Fab photos although I have seen enough Seaking helicopters to last me a lifetime! Would love to see a Vulcan flying - my dad used to work on them when he did his national service.

Unknown said...

Thank goodness it turned out good in the end Claire. Fabulous photos! We have the same show at Bournemouth in August and it definately is a fabulous site. I know what you mean about the Vulcan - bloody marvellous isn't it.

Oh and the loos...that always happens to me too! lol

Jo
x

Unknown said...

Oops! Ment 'sight' not 'site'...he hee

Jx

Scrapdolly said...

Your photos are stunning - utterly stunning and I enjoyed (sorry) your write up of the events of the day too