Maybe it comes from having a plane/flying mad father but I have always been obsessed with flying. To the point where for my 18th birthday I asked for a flying lesson. It was just a taster one ( real proper ones are stupidly expensive ) but I was hooked. So when I heard that the red arrows were opening the Blackpool air show, to say that I was very excited would be an understatement.
My son, Little B, hadn’t seen a huge amount of planes, and hadn’t been on any either due to my rule of not taking him on a plane until he is old enough to be excited by it, so I thought this would be a great introduction for him. So we trudge through the rain to the opening of the air show, which was taking place between the north and central pier, and found a lovely spot amidst thousands of other eager spectators and waited. We didn’t have to wait long until it started and it was better than I imagined. At first, as it was very cloudy, they just did their flat display of going into formations of different aeroplanes like Concorde, ( Little B was getting a bit bored ) but then they went mental and started to nearly crash into each other and created wonderful shapes and trail of colourful smoke in the sky ( Little B loved this bit). The display went on for about 20 minutes but it seemed like 2 and I have to admit that Little B was getting a little bit bored towards the end, but I put that down to the attention span of a 3 year old being shorter than a fish!
With the red arrows display over we decided to go to some amusement centres and put some 2p coins into some machines; that was until we saw the next attraction. 2 wing walkers practically dancing on top of bi planes whilst they did acrobatics ( This turned out to be Little B’s favourite thing, he kept on looking out for what the people on top were going to do next and how did they stay on there!)
After this awesome display was another man in a light aerobatic aircraft who decided that it would be a good idea to fly vertically upwards until his engines cut out and then let his plane fall down into the sea, but just before it did the engines would cut back in. Madness, but such entertaining madness we were transfixed. We only went inside when the tornado came on as Little B hated the noise, but if you are in the Blackpool area or visiting around the same time next year I highly recommend it. Did you go? Are you planning to go in the future? ( It’s free ) If so we will see you there. You can find more information on the Blackpool airshow here.
