23rd-24th July 2009 – Lowestoft was the Swift Team’s first time on the Suffolk Coast. The Team’s staging post for the show was the former USAAF base at Seething airfield.

Lowestoft’s Air Festival was started in 1997 and was made infamous by the Harrier GR7 crash in 2002. It is also the most easterly point of the United Kingdom.

The dominant feature on the seafront is ‘Gulliver’, a 413ft 3 bladed wind turbine built in 2004 and named by the locals. It is capable of producing enough electricity for 1500 homes, and with each blade over 7 times the length of a Swift wing and weighing a whopping 10 tonnes, maybe “Thor” or “Goliath” would have been a better name.

The weather forecast made for interesting reading, with heavy thunderstorms predicted for both days. Fortunately East Anglia escaped the worst on Thursday and more than 200,000 spectators flocked to the seafront.

Back at Seething, the Waveney Flying Group were the perfect hosts and helped hanger the Swift and Twister in their new hangars, complete with computer controlled turntables, able to deliver each aircraft to the front of the building at the touch of a button – and revolutionary idea!

Most seafront displays are run by the local councils, but Lowestoft’s display is organised by a charity. As such, fund-raising is part of the show’s survival and the Display Pilots were asked to attend a fund raising Gala Dinner on Thursday night – each table having a display team to entertain the guests with tails of airshow derring-do!

Team Pilot Paul Moslin took over towing on Friday as a massive thunderstorm swept over Suffolk and by the time we displayed towards the end of the day, the beach had all but emptied.