Broadstairs Water Gala 2013

A packed Viking Bay played host to Broadstairs' annual Water Gala last week, featuring jet skis and flyboarding, and a visit from the Ramsgate lifeboat. A three-part air display was also scheduled, and perfect conditions meant that all three planes could take to the skies as planned.

First up was the Catalina seaplane G-PBYA, visiting Broadstairs on day one of its Circuit of Britain challenge:

This 70-year-old plane is the only airworthy Catalina in the UK, and it made several passes of the bay before continuing on its tour, making sure everyone got to see it from all sides.

The Catalina was followed by the Yak 50 G-CBPM, one of the Aerostars display team that performed here last year:

Finally, Manston's very own trusty old Boeing Stearman biplane, a plane I've seen several times over the years, but never had the opportunity to photograph against blue skies until now:

The festivities were rounded off by a fireworks display in the evening. I left my camera at home for that, figuring I'd already taken quite enough photos for one day.

See also:
More of my photos of the Water Gala
Broadstairs Water Gala (official page)
Project Hawker 2013

Looping the Loop and Defying the Ground

Photographing fast-moving targets is about the most difficult thing you can do with a manual-focus scope; by the time you've dialled in the right ISO and exposure compensation - and got the thing in focus - the object of interest is often already receding into the distance. So when I heard there was going to be an air display at the Broadstairs Water Gala last week, I saw it as an excellent opportunity to get some practice in.

The first plane to grace the skies over Viking Bay was an RAF T1 Tucano emblazoned in a special red, white and blue colour scheme for the Queen's Royal Flight. This photo was taken right at the end of the display as Flight Lieutenant Jon Bond performed a low pass right across the bay:

And how do I know who was flying the plane? Well, his name was printed underneath the cockpit:

Next up was the Aerostars display team. This being the Age of Austerity, the council could only afford to hire three out of the six planes, but they still put on a terrific display, and the reduced number actually worked in my favour as there was less opportunity for me to flail around as I tried to figure out which plane I was going to point my camera at.

If you're wondering why one of the planes is blurred in the next photo, it's because they were passing at a relative speed of 400 mph. That I got any kind of shot at all is something of a minor miracle.

The third part of the display, featuring a biplane, was cancelled due to strong crosswinds at Manston, but what we did get to see was great entertainment, and I ended up taking a lot more photos than I had intended to, the best of which you can see on my Flickr page. Of course, now I've got no excuse for not getting a picture of the next rare bird of prey that comes zooming out of nowhere...


See also:
http://www.broadstairswatergala.co.uk/
http://www.raf.mod.uk/tucanodisplayteam/
http://www.aerostars.co.uk/