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Super
Sywell
Damien Burke visits a venue reborn on 26 September
Sywell is not a venue that we've seen much mention of here at Air-Scene UK, for the simple reason that they haven't had an airshow since 1999. This, therefore, was a welcome return to past glories because glorious is about the best description I can think of that sums up the show in a single word.
Held
in aid of the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire
National Air Ambulance, the flying programme was advertised as running
from 14:30 'til 16:30 - so from the sounds of it, a rather short and small
scale event. Well, as it turned out - not a bit of it. Flying did not
finish until past 17:30, and the flying programme was incredibly tightly
put together with almost no gaps at all, so the end result was that we
actually got more flying than the average Duxford show - and all for a
tenner per person. No traffic hassle, a good friendly atmosphere and get
this - a free flightline walk (though donations to the Air Ambulance
funds were always welcomed). Top it off with an excellent selection of
stalls, including that rarest of airshow miracles - decent grub. A mixed
grill that was both delicious and reasonably priced puts this show on
the culinary map along with the long-lost Mildenhall shows!
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Enough of
the peripherals, what about the action? Well that was sufficiently varied
to keep all but the most hardened afterburner addict happy. We had military
classics - HAC's Hurricane, Maurice Hammond's Mustang (a last minute replacement
for Anthony Hodgkin's twin-seat Spitfire), the 'Rasta Cat', Twin Pioneer,
Harvard duo, Stearman duo, Jungmeister... a classic jet in the shape of
Air Atlantique's Vampire T.55... classic civilian types - Mew Gull, Dragon
Rapide, Dakota (a rare display appearance from the fascinatingly horrible-looking
radar-equipped Air Atlantique example), Wilga... barnstorming from a collection
of types - the Utterly Butterly Stearmans with their wingwalking, the
ever-excellent Dennis Neville's flying circus (Tiger Moths & Thruxton
Jackaroo) carrying out limbos, flour bombing (with real explosions!),
balloon bursting and ribbon cutting, plus 
ribbon
pickup from a Chipmunk... (pause for breath)...
... Unlimited aerobatics from the UK's current champion Tom Cassell in his CAP232 plus also Will Curtis in his Su-26, Steve Carver in his Extra 260 and Gary Ferriman in his Pitts Super Stinker... more modern civil types in the shape of four microlights - a weight-shift trike, a more conventional three-axis Skyranger and two others, of which more shortly... and to complete the line-up, a helicopter display... phew!
Well, I say 'a' helicopter display but that's being rather unfair, because it was one of the highlights of an already excellent display line-up - part of Martin Lovell's routine in a Hughes 500 being picking up a traffic cone with the tip of one of the skids, flying across the aerodrome, dropping the cone... and then righting it using the skid once more. Precision flying that you don't often get to see! In total contrast, let's get back to those two microlights I mentioned a moment ago - first off, they're not really microlights. They're hang-gliders. Now you may recall me being fairly unimpressed by a hang-glider display at a Duxford show not so long ago. Well, this pair had a vital extra ingredient. Jet engines. Yes, some crazy bloke decided that hanging a tiny gas turbine underneath a hang-glider would be a good idea! This turns an otherwise mundane aerial contraption into a 'Jetbug' - and something that you cannot take your eyes off, which is probably down to 90% sheer disbelief, and a 10% mixture of emotions that range from horror to amusement. The little wheels that pop into existence when the (clearly mad, or incredibly brave) pilots have had enough are the icing on the cake. Utterly bonkers.
The
Air Ambulance itself was based at Sywell for the day, and proved its worth
in a very public manner by being called out during the show to attend
a serious hit and run incident in a nearby village - arriving within minutes
of the initial 999 call. Other attractions on the ground included a few
of the airfield owner's sports car collection, the late Paul Morgan's
P-51 'Susy' plus a selection of other based aircraft out on static display
- including a lovely Miles Messenger and a brand spanking new AT-3, with
which the resident Brooklands Flying School hopes to re-equip next year.
I really have to reach deep to find anything to criticise here - but as it happens the bouncy castle that took up a chunk of the limited crowdline will do. Stick it somewhere else next time, please! But otherwise - just do that all again - it was perfect. 2004 has really been the year of the 'small show' - who says airshows are dying? They're just going back to their roots, and are all the better for it.
Pictures
from the show are available to buy here.
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