We were flattered to be invited back to Rendcomb this year for Vic Norman’s private H4H charity airshow. His Breitling Stearmans were away in the Netherlands for the weekend, so Pilot Steve Hicks towed the Swift glider behind N54922, the only one of Aerosuperbatics’ Stearmans fitted with a tow hook.

The practice flights last week gave Mike and Guy an insight into the tug pilots view from the biplane, as we took turns to sit in the front seat for a couple of quick flips around Rendcomb (regrettably without a wingwalker). Having got used to the Pawnee, the trail of smoke behind the Stearman was astonishing!

The show was a slightly smaller event from the H4H extravaganza of 2008, but the quality of the acts was maintained – with the very best of each of piston aeroplane invited.

The event was blessed with the best day of the year so far, 28C and not a cloud to be seen all day.

        

Display of the day was undoubtedly Steve Jones, who flew his latest toy, an S-2S Pitts. He really looked like he was enjoying the day.

       

After the glider display, Guy and Pete went on to fly the Twister Duo display. The blue skies and calm winds made the smoke almost too good! – You will not hear that again for a while!

Thanks must go to Vic and Anne for organising a very special airshow, and to Paul, Richard, Mike and Sally who came along to help out.

A weather front slipped down the country as The Swift Team made its first long transit of the year. The early rains gave way to a bright and breezy afternoon with cloud-bases over East Anglia upto 3,000ft – The start of Summer!

Henham Park was one of the highlghts of our season last year, so we were honoured to be invited back to Suffolk by John Hill. The venue is set in the landscaped parkland of the former Henham Hall that plays host to pop concerts, festivals, a steam fair and the Halesworth Lions’ Wings and Wheels.

Team members Guy Westgate, Peter Wells, Paul Moslin and Paul Johnson took the trip, together with 50 other aircraft who made the fly-in, the early bad weather causing many to cancel.

With a gate prices of only £5, this must represent one of the best value days out in East Anglia, with hundreds of classic cars, motor cycles, tractors and engines and a 40 minute flying display with the newly branded “Breitling” Wingwalkers, Nigel Willson in his Yak52 our ‘Twister Aerobatic’ Team.

The May Bank Holiday was quite a weekend of firsts. It was the team’s opening display of the season at Abingdon and both Mike’s first roll-on-tow display and Guy’s debut with a microphone at Old Warden

For a weather forecast of constant rain, we were lucky the front cleared by mid morning leaving only occasional showers, but a very strong wind with moderate turbulence.

Ian Gallacher lead the team from Bicester to Abingdon with Guy in the Swift and Pete in the twister. Abingdon had been denied use of the runways by Defence Estates, so we flew what has become know as our ‘seaside profile’ – a display that showcases our unique roll-on-tow display, but the glider does not release the tow rope. The glider’s partial smoke failure at Abingdon was traced to a wiring fault that was rectified before Mike Newman’s display at Old Warden.

Mike’s flying has come on leaps and bounds over the last few months, and his training paid off as he coped with the gusty conditions to put on a very polished performance for the Shuttleworth collection.

Crowd numbers were very poor at both venues, lets hope its not an omen for the rest of the season.