Magnificent Men?

Abingdon Air & Country Show 2011

A last-minute whim saw us making the short trip to Abingdon. The weather forecast had been for showers, but the sky had brightened up considerably. It turned out to be an almost perfect day for an airshow (at least for the spectators): mostly sun, beautiful layered clouds for excellent viewing conditions, and not a drop of rain.

The actual show consisted mostly of vintage or relatively small 'planes, although the climax was a flypast of the magnificent Vulcan. We were treated to several displays of quality aerobatics, despite rather windy and gusty conditions.

My shot here shows a 1951 Jungmann's (Construcciones Aeronauticas Sa CASA 1-131E Series 1000) taxying on the grass just in front of us.

Others took far, far better photographs than I did. Many people were out with very long lenses and wondrous bodies (camera bodies, I mean). Photograph 7 here shows an example: my 'plane photographed by "profile_M". I'm afraid my fairly low-end compact digital camera can't compete, and I didn't have my trusty F3 with me.

Photographs 6 and 8 in the same series show an even earlier aircraft, a 1940 Bucker Bu 133C Jungmeister, which put on a fine aerobatic display. Here you may see one of my 'photos of the Jungmeister as it taxied on the grass, and then in this shot as it passed us by.

For those who are interested in such things (and would like to see some super airshow photographs), I suggest you follow the links to Abingdon from this page.