Dawlish Air Show

Yesterday was the Dawlish Air Show. It was great fun and a real family day out. We took a picnic and enjoyed munching our tasty Cornish pasties. The weather was kind to us, a bit windy as we were up on a hill beside the coast but we had brought our warm coats so it didn't bother us. We were well armed with technology, this was our first air show and we didn't want to miss a thing! We took our portable but powerful binoculars, the video camera and both my Husband and I took a camera each. We weren't disappointed and came away with fantastic coverage of our day out.

These are a few of the things that we saw:

• Hawk T.1 - 19(R) Sqn/4 FTS
• The Breitling Wingwalkers - Aerosuperbatics
• Jet Provost
• Dash 8-300
• The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
• Lancaster and Spitfire
• Sea King HU.5 SAR helicopter
• The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team - The Red Arrows
• Tornado GR.4 Role Demo - XV(R) Sqn

We enjoyed watching all the planes strutting their stuff. The Wingwalker ladies were so daring doing their acrobatic moves on the planes in the sky (sorry, but you won't catch me doing that). The Lancaster bomber plane from World War Two is the last one 'flying' in the world which is amazing, we were so honoured to see it. The helicopter did a rescue from a motor boat then re-deposited the person back into the boat again from the air on a rope, as part of the routine.

However, the most memorable and fantastic display we saw at the air show was of course The Red Arrows. They were just amazingly fabulous and showed off continously for about a quarter of an hour non-stop! The sky was full of planes dashing about everywhere but all coming together at the right time in perfect sequence. You can't doubt the pilots skill and precision when you have watched them in action. The sky was full of beautiful colours of red, white and blue for the british flag. (Don't tell my four year old Daughter that it was red though as she thinks it was pink, her favourite colour! Lol).

It was also a frugal day out as when we got to the park which was in a field we had the choice of paying £10 a vehicle to park and ride the bus to town for shopping or 50p a vehicle to park in the next field and watch from the field, use the onsite loos and facilities and attend the car boot sale after the show ended. Obviously, we chose the latter! So apart from the diesel to get there, about an hour's drive and a picnic it cost us just 50p, amazing!

At the car boot I was very good and didn't buy anything but my Husband wanted to treat the children to some heavy duty golf clubs that he found, we got three for two pounds. Also he bought a bag of candy floss which we all shared followed by freshly made hot doughnuts for early tea before we left for home. We ate again when we got home but we skipped afters as we had already eaten the doughnuts. We couldn't believe how much sugar they put in the doughnut bag, my Husband saved it and put some in his hot drinks saving our sugar pot, I am impressed as that is very frugal of him!

On the way home there were traffic jams but as we were beside the coastal railway, famously designed by Isambard Brunel, that had trains passing every couple of minutes my Husband told the children that we were train spotting and they enjoyed watching for trains instead of being stressed out about all the waiting around. We also liked watching lots of geese and several pairs of swans swimming around at Cockwood and the boats at Starcross.