Vulcan's Goodbye to Bournemouth

This is definitely the last year that the Vulcan will fly as the technical companies on which it depends will not support it beyond this year. At the heart of their decision are two factors. First, although XH558 is currently as safe as any aircraft flying today, her structure and systems are already more than ten percent beyond the flying hours of any other Vulcan, so knowing where to look for any possible failure will become more difficult. Second, maintaining her superb safety record requires expertise that is increasingly difficult to find. So this was the final appearance at Bournemouth Air Show  - seen here arriving over the Isle of Wight and finally disappearing up into the clouds.

Bournemouth Beach

Our internet (and phone line) have been down for 8 days so I have a couple of posts left over from the Bournemouth Airshow. These show the packed beaches on the Saturday, which was a definite taste of summer.

Night Air at Bournemouth Airshow

Some images from last night's evening flying display. We were lucky with a clear night and a low moon to include in the shots. The colour of the sky and exposure varied greatly across the 180 degree view with the post-sunset sky behind the pier giving a good backdrop.

Firework Practice at Bournemouth

There were firework displays at Bournemouth during the Air Show, very spectacular over the water and echoing off the cliffs. I took the opportunity to refresh my technique for capturing displays. These images were taken at ISO500, f22 and between 2.5 and 20 seconds, which gave a good exposure though it does depend very much on the intensity of the lights and the different colours.

Bournemouth Air No-Show

Thursday should have been the first day of the Bournemouth Air Show commencing with the Red Arrows but it was fairly obvious from early on that it was not going to happen with low cloud and fairly frequent and persistent showers. The Memorial is to the Red Arrow's pilot who lost his life in August 2011. Though some looked somewhat fed up, generally folk were making the best of the situation, I was disappointed that Boscombe Pier is closed during the show so could only photograph through the gates. Anyway hoping for better weather today.

Christchurch Priory, Hampshire

Yesterday was a very wet day (we must be on holiday!) so spent quite a time in the Priory in Christchurch taking double (first six) and single exposure shots of the wonderful architecture. The penultimate shot looks like a composite but is a single shot.