This was the first air show at the former RAF Church
Fenton, now renamed Leeds East Airport. The Yorkshire MVT were to display a
number of vehicles as part of the ground attractions, and I tagged along too,
although I possibly travelled the furthest, with a three hour, 100 mile drive
each way. I got there about 10am, and it was still quite dull and overcast,
but there were however over 70 military vehicles on display.
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As the morning moved on towards lunch, the sky got
brighter and it got warmer when flying started. The show had a very retro feel
with so many classic jets, and the most modern aircraft were probably the
Raven display team. The jet displays included the Gnat Team, Meteor and Sea
Venom, Provost, MiG15 and the Avro Vulcan.
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There were plenty of warbirds too, with a C-47, three
Spitfires, P-40, P-51 and Hurricane.
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The C-47 put on a great low level display.
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Because of the Shoreham Hunter crash, there were
restrictions on how the classic jets could be displayed. Despite these
restrictions, the pilots showed the aircraft off very well, giving the crowd
views of all sides of the aircraft.
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Slowing the displays down a bit were two helicopters,
a Bell UH-1 Iroquois
and a Hughes OH-6 Loach.
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The MiG 15 put on a great flat display, and the silver
finish looked great in the sun light. It is painted in the markings of Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
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The clipped wing Spitfire and P-40 were from the
Fighter Collection. The program said Spit and Sea Fury, but this must have had
a technical problem, being replaced by the P-40. The P-51 was from the Old
Flying Machine Company.
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The Historic Aircraft Collection provided the
third Spitfire and the Hurricane, which both looked great tailchasing against
the blue sky and white clouds of a Battle of Britain Summer sky.
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After the Gnat display, they formed up with the Vulcan
for several passes. Following this, they rearranged the formation to fly the
missing man formation, in memory of their team member Kevin Whyman, who was
sadly killed when his Gnat crashed at Carfest at the beginning of August.
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The Vulcan then closed the show, flying a full display
in fantastic sun light, ending the show with a near vertical climb and flying
off into the Sun set and into history.
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It was a long, tiring drive home, and I didn't make it
home until well after dark.
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