22nd-23rd August 2009 – Our weekend of coastal transits started in light drizzle as team pilots Guy Westgate, Paul Moslin and Peter Wells met at Bournemouth Airport, but by early afternoon the sky was clear and we opened the 2nd Bournemouth seaside Air Festival in smooth air and wall to wall sunshine – a delight after the turbulence of Eastbourne the week before. The commentary team were our old friends ‘Flash and Smokey’ and they wound up huge crowds to expect a new world record for rolls on tow.

Next stop was an hour up the coast at Shoreham for the 20th Anniversary RAFA show . Shoreham put on its best show yet, with quality acts including our favourites; The Matadors, Typhoon, Warbirds and the Vulcan.

The recently re-branded ‘Aircraft Illustrated’ magazine, now just ‘Aircraft’ ran a competition to fly in a glider with the team, and we flew Nigel Rolings in an ASK21 from East Sussex Gliding Club. We gave Nigel the full Airshow experience, with the Twister barrel rolling around the aerotow and aerobatics over Shoreham.

Sunday was a reverse schedule, starting at Shoreham and finishing in a 2 hour long transit from Shoreham back to Bournemouth. The weather was again perfect, and we toured the west side of Isle of White and the Needles waiting for our slot. Bournemouth had their busiest day ever – a monster crowd reported as 340,000 – making the 4 day show total an estimated 1.3 Million!