Trip to Eastbourne Airshow
I’ve always been fascinated by the mind-boggling RAF aircraft shows and admired the sheer bravery of the pilots! So, I decided to organise a trip with Fresh Light and the Hillsong Day-trippers group, which I’m a part of, to Eastbourne for the third day of the airshow!
The show can be viewed from the beach, which is perfect, with clear skylines. We all met up at Millies Cookies in Victoria Station and headed off before 10am, arriving at Eastbourne just before noon. As we were heading for the beach, the heavens opened up showering us with rain, so we made a detour into a local fish and chip shop to grab some lunch for the 25 of us. Thankfully, the shop was not too full and although orders took a while, we had a good meal and began making our way to the beach when it stopped raining.
We found a good position for viewing the show on the seafront and we were able to share our pictures and communicate with each other on our group WhatsApp, as more people joined our group! The flight pass started a bit later than planned, but when it did, it was both exciting and exhilarating, starting with The Tiggers parachute display.
Watching dangerous sport, I guess is one of my guilty pleasures. The beach was full of adults and children just having a great Saturday afternoon. Thank God the heatwave we’d experienced over the summer had stopped two weeks before, otherwise, it would have been unbearable staying on the open beach for any length of time over 30 degrees celsius. The weather was perfect and as the rain stopped it remained warm enough to sit on the beach and share the moments with others for the day.
The show included; stunt pilots, WW2 planes and fighter jets. The RAF Typhoon was amazing to see as it just appeared out of nowhere and you didn’t see it coming until it was upon you before disappearing! The plane flipped before it entered the clouds with its taillights blinking at us from afar. The skilled pilots were flying in and out of the clouds presenting an excellent display.
Another highlight for me was the Flying Circus, where two small planes with someone standing on top of the wing. How they were able to defy the laws of gravity doing that with the plane doing all sorts of acrobats, is beyond my comprehension.
My favourite of the day was the Red Arrows. I absolutely loved the show they gave and the array of colours that tailed behind them. The effort that went into the show was much appreciated especially as it was free! The Red Arrows finished with a grand finale for the whole show. The skill by which they made a heart shape with arrows shooting from it into the sky was simply spectacular.
The show ended around 4:30pm where some of the group went onto a local pub and others headed back to the train station to head back to London. It was a memory that thrilled for days afterwards!
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