Elvington '94 Press Day
Around a week before the Elvington '94 show, I was invited down to the press day for the show to fly the P-47. Initially, Andrew and I flew some formation passes, and while they got close enough for us, they weren't close enough for the camera men from the Northern Echo and Yorkshire Post.
There was a large selection of plastic explosives ready, and the aircraft needed to be close together and close to the ground. In the end, it was decided to use just the P-47, and the next 45 minutes was spent flying up the edge of the runway, at around 6 feet altitude, in a turbulent 90 degree cross wind, while the pyro man kept blowing stuff up and the camera men shot reels of film.
The widefield shot to the left shows the pyro man in red, taking his life in my hands! The P-47 is 6 feet altitude, bouncing around towards him in the turbulent conditions. I'm standing a little further to the left, out of shot, looking down the edge of the runway so I can keep the P-47 flying straight up the edge. The photographers were near me, lying on the ground to look up at the P-47.
PAGE 3