The highly successful 2007 “Fly to the Past” event at Blenhiem Palace was finally repeated, just over the road at Kidlington, Oxford Airport.

A capacity crowd of 10,000, many in period costume, enjoyed a wide range of display acts, many making the transit between Bournemouth and Shoreham and Oxford. The show’s idea was to compare aircraft across the ages, the flying complimented by historical films on giant screens and a live film feed of the displays to demonstrate of the best of the flying action.

The weather started overcast with light winds, but as the skies cleared during the afternoon, the winds picked up and  by the time we flew at the end of the day, a gusty off crowd wind made for a challenging display.

Thanks must go to Flying display Director John Davies and Event Organiser Frances Rockliff, who was reported as saying that the show would grow into a 3-day event next year.

With 22 years of displays, Shoreham has carved a niche in the British air display calendar as one of the largest volunteer airshows with a winning combination of modern military, classic jets, vintage warbirds, aerobatics and display teams. Shoreham always delivers variety and this year was typical, with acts as diverse as the Catalina, fast jets, the mass Spitfire scramble and Christian Moullec’s geese.

Shoreham is also very special to the GliderFX team, as Guy Westgate’s first ever display was at Shoreham in 1998 and by a lucky coincidence the display 14 years ago was in the very same glider that the team fly today, MDM-1 Fox s/n 223.

Ian Gallacher opened the 2011 show with a “WELCOME TO SHOREHAM AIRSHOW 2011” banner over the carparks and display line and then towed Guy in the Fox Glider for our trademark roll-on-tow display in beautiful weather.

At the end of the 6 hour flying display on Saturday, we had agreed to fly a competition winner from ‘Radio User Magazine’, but the flight was forfeited for the benefit of the retiring Shoreham RNLI Lifeboat Coxswain Peter Huxtable MBE.

We also flew esteemed aviation photographer Geoff Lee of Planefocus ltd. Geoff has over 500 hours in military jets, but despite his experience, he described his aerobatic flight in the Fox as being one of his top 3 aviation experiences, third only to his flights in the Harrier and Typhoon. High praise indeed!

Sunday provided a repeat forecast and after an early start, Gally and Paul Holdnall flew to Oxford Kidlington for the last show of the weekend.

The Bournemouth Air Festival is held along the coast, between the 2 Bournemouth piers.

The first Festival in 2008 attracted 750,000 visitors and an estimated 1,344,000 people in 2009. The weather marred the show last year but did see the introduction of a twilight show.

Despite the first day of 2011 being cancelled with dreadful weather and flash flooding along the south coast, Friday’s airshow, the Night Air performance and the weekend show promised record crowds.

We teamed up with Simon Moores of Airads again, and Ian Gallacher towed a banner on Friday to advertise the twilight show. Simon towed a banner for Airfix to compliment our “NIGHT AIR TH FRI & SAT 6-10PM” banner, operating from Newton Peveril on the edge of the Bournemouth airpace zone.

The Night Air show has grown as pyro technology has become more widely accepted, and this year featured three acts sporting similar pyrotechnics – Brendan O’Brian in a crazy flying act, the SWIP Team’s Twisters and our GliderFX display.

It was GliderFX pilot Paul Holdnall’s first ever display and he mastered the challenge of operating the Pawnee from a large commercial airfield and flying in near dark conditions. The team’s MDM-1 Fox glider was flown by Ian Gallacher.

Although the evening show was a triumph, the event will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. On Saturday one of the Red Arrows crash in a field whilst recovering back to the airport. We wish to convey our condolences to Flt Lt Jon Egging family and colleagues.

Thanks must go to Paul Kingsbury and the team at De Havilland for use of the Hangar and Barry Seargent for his tireless support at Bournemouth Airport. Also to Mike and Peggy Trenchard at Newton Peveril for use of their grass strip.

The 11th August saw GliderFX participate in the Press Launch for the upcoming Royal Air Forces Association Airshow at Shoreham Airport.

Team members Guy Westgate and Simon Moores flew in for the morning, but sadly the weather prevented any display or press flying with low cloud encroaching from the south west that also affected the nearby Eastbourne Airbourne which was hosting the first day of it’s event.

Along with Shoreham based display pilot Justyn Gorman, the team quickly arranged a static display of some of the aircraft that will be participating at this years event including the team MDM-1 Fox, PA25 Pawnee and Justyn’s Extra 300L for a photo oppotunity infront of the famous Terminal Building for the awaiting media.

Guy was interviewed by a number of organisations attending the event including Chichester based Spirit Fm and Steve Lewis from WMSL-UK who conducted his interview from the cockpit of the Fox. The team will be participating at the show over the weekend 20th-21st August. See the Shoreham Airshow website for more information.