Shoreham Airshow 2004 - 28th-29th August 2004

Shoreham is without doubt one of the most popular shows on the circuit amongst visitors and pilots alike. Set in perhaps one of the most picturesque settings, Shoreham makes for a great day out, one of the few shows that WILL have something for everyone - Arena events, Evening concerts, a massive ground show on top of a highly entertaining flying display. Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. All Photograph copyright of author.

2004 saw the biggest Shoreham Airshow yet with a large interesting static display on top of a high quality flying display. Much of it is seen elsewhere, but like many shows now re-enactors added a little some extra to the display with military encampments around the First and Second World War aircraft. On the ground everything from helicopters, light civilian aircraft, warbirds and military aircraft were on show in front of the listed Terminal building.

The weather for the flying displays was mostly reasonable, but on Sunday a brisk wind meant many items had to cancel or re-jog their displays. An added complication to this years flying displays are the scheduled flights in and out of what is now a commuter airport. Most notable of these is Rockhopper Airlines with it's fleet of Britten Norman Trislanders. Well done to the pilots of these airlines for keeping to schedule and not affecting the flying display that was built around them, even despite Sundays winds!

Opening and closing the display on Saturday was Christian Moullec with his Geese. Sunday's wind was simply too much for his Flexiwing Microlight. So popular was his visit last year, that Shoreham instantly asked him back for this years show to provide a link with man's inspiration to fly. Also grounded on Sunday due to the weather was the Great War Combat Team who brought examples of SE5a Replicas, Neuiport 17, Sopwith Triplane and the pair of Junkers CL1 monoplanes for another dogfight.

Special Mention must go to Glider ace Guy Westgate in the Fox Glider for another pair of brilliant displays, particular during Sunday's winds. Guy's display simply defies belief in the way a glider can be flicked around the skies without an engine with such precision. Shoreham actually promotes flying as much as possible during the display with a number of civilian acts that aren't seen in too many places. Particular Martin West in his Piper Arrow. This is an unusual display aircraft often referred to by some enthusiasts as a spam can as it's a pretty common General Aviation aircraft. But the way Martin displays is anything but normal. Tight turns and low passes make for an eyecatching display. Dennis Kenyon wowed the crowds again with another display of man and machine in perfect harmony using his Schweizer 300. The Sussex Police MD900 Explorer was another helicopter being thrown round the skies, after having caught the bad guys with a pair of Police dogs. The crew also demonstrated just why Sussex had bought the MD900, it's amazingly quiet in the hover meaning there are few noise complaints when it's overhead houses and it doesn't give it's position away to whoever it's chasing. The peak of Helicopter flying at the show was represented by the Blue Eagles making a welcome reappearance after a short absence.

2004 has seen the reappearance of the Chinook HC2 on the UK display circuit after a long absence due to operational constraints. Flt Lt Dave Morgan and his crew have starred wherever they have performed, and Shoreham was no exception.

However, moving to the other end of the civilian aviation spectrum is Denny Dobson in his Extra EA300XS. Aswell as Barnstormer the little plane around the sky, Denny repeated his amazing Limbo and ribbon cutting routine over the runway with great skill.

There were two big civilian teams at the show, firstly the Utterly Butterly Barnstomers giving one of their special four ship displays in the cloud laden skies. Nick Barnard's Yakovlevs quartet of Super Yak 52 and Yak-50s also made themselves heard with the rasping sound of their radial engines in a well thought out routine keeping action in front of the crowd thoughout the display.

Nostagia takes a major part of the Shoreham airshows, after all this is a Battle of Britain Airshow. As you would expect Spitfires form a major part of the show. The Aircraft Restoration Company brought the most Spits for a display sponsored appropriately enough by Shepard Neame's Spitfire Ale! Flown by Rod Dean, John Romain and Alan Walker the Spitfire XVI, XIV and XVIII powered their way through the skies. The two 41sqn coloured machines looked particularly impressive against the dark clouds and hills.

However, special mention must go to the OFMC Spitfire LFIXb and P-51D Mustang team flown by Lee Proudfoot and Alistair Kay. This was formation flying par excellence and very reminiscent of a Breitling Fighters display! On Saturday they formed up with B-17G Flying Fortress Sally-B prior to the latter's display as a salute to the allied airmen of the 1939-45 air campaign. Rob Davies also gave another polished display in his austrailian built P-51S Big Beautiful Doll.

There were three historic types making their Shoreham debuts in 2004. First of these were Air Atlantique's stunning Avro Anson T21/ Air Atlantique were out in force at Shoreham over the weekend with their Dragon Rapide giving pleasure flights during the days after the event. Plane Sailing's Catalina also operated from Shoreham , surely one of the largest historic types to do so and was skillfully shown off by pilot Keith Sissons. A much less likely debutante was the little SOKO Krajug flown by Andrew Dixon. Sounded very much like a Spitfire with two massive exhausts the little Counter Insurgency and weapons training aircraft certain caught the eye for all it's rarity.

Classic jets at this year's show were solely represented by De Havilland types with displays from the Vampire Preservation Society's Vampire T11 and the Red Bull Sea Vixen D3 in the capable hands of Brian Grant who kept the nightly jet well with the confines of the limited Shoreham airspace to great effect.

Modern military aviation was as always well represented at Shoreham thanks to the strong link between the current RAF and the Royal Air Forces Association which overseas Shoreham through it's Shoreham-by-Sea branch. One of the most welcome displays was that by the Grob Tutor T1 which hadn't been seen for a while following a propellor failure on a Southampton UAS example. Flt Lt Chris Parkinson threw  around the primary trainer to great effect, especially considering Sunday's winds and low clouds.

Sunday's wind wiped out any chances of a parachute drop from the RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team from their C-130K transport. They did, however, make a full drop on Saturday spiraling down from around 8000ft before gracefully landing in front of the VIP enclosure to take the salute. The team had a busy weekend operating out of Bournemouth Airport in order to reach a number of display sights around the UK.

Moving further up the training spectrum was the Shorts Tucano T1 from RAF Linton-On-Ouse. Flt Martin Day again put on one of the best Tucano displays for many years over Shoreham including the legendary stall turn into land! It was interesting to compare this display with Shoreham's international military participant, the Pilatus PC-7 from the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Having arrived on Friday in abysmal weather Major Ruud Huisman put on an excellent show on both days flying. Luckily for Ruud, he had been based at Shoreham throughout the nearby and had grabbed some much needed practice in better weather!

The RAF training system was completed by Flt Lt Jon Killerby in 208sqn's solo Hawk T1 display. As we mentioned in the Redhill review, Killers is a local and was a regular at Shoreham. He completed his flying scholarship at nearby Goodwood airfield. Though Shoreham is a bigger show than Redhill, the display box is just as tight and Killers' display looks excellent when it's kept this tight.

There was only two frontline types from the RAF at this years show, the Harrier GR7 and Chinook HC2 (mentioned earlier). The Harrier is a Shoreham favourite and is the only big jet fighter capable of operating from Shoreham's narrow runway. Flt Lt Chris Margiotta was able to show the full capability of the Harrier off to Shoreham's enthusiastic crowd on both days to great effect.

Once again, the Shoreham-by-Sea branch of RAFA pulled off another great airshow. Shoreham always delivers an entertaining show and it must be difficult trying to locate something different to add to the line up each year. The flying display is further enhanced by the excellent commentary from Peter Eager. Unlike most commentators, Peter isn't in a glass clad caravan or on the equivalent of Mount Olympus in scaffolding, he's out on the flightline and walking through the crowd conveying much more of the atmosphere of the show as well as being able to catch pilots taxying in or walking between the pilots tent and their aircraft. Shoreham is definatly one of the airshows you should make time to visit one year, you will never be disappointed.

 copyright Light UK 2004