Blue Eagles Team News for 2005

And we’re off!

7 and 8 May at the VE-Day celebration air display at Duxford.

The celebrations surrounding the 60th Anniversary of VE-Day meant that the 2005 season has a particualrly early start, three weeks early in fact prior to the the traditional season start of the May Bank Holiday weekend. The Team were invited to display at the famous Battle of Britain airfield at Duxford in Cambridgeshire. This airfield is nowadays doubly famous for being the home of the vast Imperial War Museum collection of aircraft and armoured vehicles and the home of many of the privately owned vintage warbirds that fly in the UK. The Lynx and Gazelle were parked on the flightline among such famous types as a quartet of Spitfires, a P-40 Warhawk, P-47 Thunderbolt and the looming presence of the PBY Catalina.

Because of the unusual airspace restirctions around the airfield, a full Team display could not be flown, but the Team elected instead to fly the solo Lynx and solo Gazelle. Lynx pilot for 2005, Capt Neil Bishop, was joined by last years Lynx pilot, WO2 Ed Smith, who together flew a powerful and exciting display. The backflips, rolls and loops flowed into dramatic performance that startled the Duxford crowd. Neil and Ed were followed by 2005 Team Leader WO2 Al Scott who showed that in the right hands, the lightweight Gazelle can be almost as aerobatic as the mighty Lynx. Al’s 90 up / 90 down bunts were particularly impressive, as indeed was his whole sequence, showing as it did the agility of the Gazelle. This success came in the face of some difficult weather, the changeable nature of which brought hail, rain, thunder, bright sunshine and high gusty winds within a few minutes of each other!

The early show also gave the new ground crew under Sgt Phill Costello a chance to get the stand set up and iron out any bugs in their transport system for the new vehicle. All went well, and the bright new graphics and stylish stand attracted a steady crowd over the weekend.

The images below were captured on the Sunday show, and the Blue Eagles would like to thank everyone at Duxford for their hospitality and warm welcome.

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Sunday 8 May

The new display stand was a great success! The ground crew were busy all weekend.	The front doors become fold out panels full of Army Air Corps information. Here John and Ed explain the finer points of the display.
New ground crew member for 2005, Paula Thompson, explains the benefits of an Army career to a visitor.	The joy of Duxford is you can find yourself parked among things like this… A Spitfire Mk XIV….
….a Consolidated PBY Catalina….	….a Hawker Hurricane….
….and Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.	The only problem being, there’s rather a lot there! Al Scott’s Gazelle is in the middle of this photograph!
The passing thunderstorms lent a dramatic light as Neil and Ed stall turned….	….looped….
….and backflipped….	….through their superb display.
Al Scott then ran in as the weather started to improve.	Al’s display included this 270 rolling turn….
….and a full 90 degrees up and down in the bunts!	As Al flew back to land, of course the weather cleared fully!