Sunderland success as Vulcan Appeal ends

Well, it's been another successful weekend for the Vulcan team, with yet another weekend delighting tens of thousands of people, this time up at Sunderland.

It was the first time that the Vulcan had appeared at the Sunderland Airshow, and judging by the comments and feedback, XH558's appearance has been well received, and with a bit of luck will get a repeat there next year.

Roaring away at Sunderland

The team performed their over the sea displays during late afternoon on both Saturday & Sunday, and following the return to Doncaster on the Sunday, I guess that it's now a case of pausing for a few weeks before the final run in starts on August 20th at Shoreham - stilll maybe time though to add a couple more appearances in elsewhere if airshow organisers can find the funds to bring her to their show.

It's certainly been another fine effort up to now as far as the Vulcan's attendance is concerned, with only the rain affected RAF Cosford show being the only display that the team could not complete - as with many others that day - even the Red Arrows had to curtail their display that day such was the awful weather.

The crew can put their feet up for a few weeks now, and knowing that their displays are thrilling everyone wherever they go, they must be bursting with pride each time they see the reviews and feedback from the crowds, they are certainly treated as the stars of the show, and in my opinion, deservedly so.

Take me back to Chester....please!

It would be my dream to see the Vulcan return to the skies of Chester, not sure we'll get to see it again following the last time at Airbus Broughton in 2009, as Chester just isn't made for flying displays, but you never know, and I'll keep my dream alive - I certainly have great memories of displays going back many years at Hawarden, and back in the golden age of airshows seemingly everywhere round the country, I remember sitting in my mum's car as a kid with many other people sat in the cars in a country lane opposite the airfield, seeing the Vulcan descending over us and down to the airfield - that was some sight (and sound), in those days, even an airshow of that nature seemed to attract the likes of the Tornado, Red Arrows, Nimrod, Javelin, Vampire, and the Shackleton - some classics there, but seeing the Vulcan on the programme would always get the excitement levels to fever pitch!

I'll have to dig out some pics that I would have taken as a kid, as I'm sure there are some in the tins upstairs (you know the tins, that everyone has stored somewhere with photos from the past kept in them!).

So, back to the Vulcan, and of course the Summer Appeal ended on Sunday, and hopefully the Appeal got somewhere towards the £350k needed, I think at last count they were £14k off so my guess would maybe be that they finished around the £343k mark, but hopefully I'll be proved wrong and finished higher, but whatever the case I really think the public - in this tough climate - have proved that they want to see the Vulcan kept in the skies rather than on the ground, and everyone can take a bow for 'doing their bit' in seeing her up there. I know I felt pride in knowing that the people of Southport, Fairford, Waddington, and so on were seeing the Vulcan with the help of my standing order donation, in fact they should get a sponsorship from Tesco's as 'every little helps!'.

Remember though, it doesn't end here, if we want to see the Vulcan ripping the skies apart then we'll no doubt still have to dig deep to see that, and I'd expect to see some kind of Appeal launched soon as the Winter Service will need to be done, anyone know how much that costs? I don't, it was a general question!

Enjoying the Summer Sun!

But whatever it costs, and whatever the appeal, I know that many will 'do their bit' again, just to increase the chances of seeing this Cold War veteran in the skies for what could turn out to be her second 'farewell' in 2012 - but let's hope not.

Finally, here's a video from the Sunderland Airshow, and when will commentators & organisers learn that people are more interested in hearing the noise of the Vulcan, rather than their own voices or the music that's been blasted out over the speakers, as in this clip...even when the Vulcan is at its noisiest towards the end of the clip he's still waffling on, and you just want to shout..."Shut Uuuuuuup!"





Long Live The Vulcan!

XH558 all set for Sunderland show

It's the last weekend of the month, and also the last action for the Vulcan team for the next few weeks, as they travel up to the Sunderland airshow for performances on Saturday and Sunday.

Last weekend it was of course the North West that got to see the Delta Lady, now its the turn of the North East, as the two dayer at Sunderland gets going.

The Vulcan is scheduled to appear in the late afternoon slot on both days, with 4.20pm the provisional time booked in.

It's also the final weekend of the Vulcan Appeal, with only £23,000 left to find before the target of £350k is hit, it will be a tough ask to reach that target by Sunday, based on previous weekend totals, but hopefully they can get near as dammit to it - remember you can donate today either visiting here, or by texting VULCAN to 70558 - do it today and help reach that target!

It's been a week of reflection for many up here in the North West following the displays at Southport and Lake Windermere, and whilst appreciating the fact that we saw an attendance at two shows in this neck of the woods, it also shows just how great the lack of shows are up here. The only other ones to note are Blackpool & Rhyl, both of which are in their infnacy, and without any kind of substantial budget to play around with.

The olden days - some call it the Golden Age - used to see the Woodford Airshow, and that of course has a special meaning for the Vulcan, given that's where she was first built, and had it not been for the Vulcan at Woodford being a feeder to XH558 as far as parts are concerned, then we may not have seen the last couple of years displays from the team.

Woodford used to be a classic show, even though it was extremely expensive at the time, they always did manage to get something different there - unfortunately the only regular visitor to the show was the rain, which pretty much saw the cancellation of the shows there. Two years there for me stand out in particular, the first being the one that saw the Sukhoi SU-27's and the other being the rained off one where the B1 was there, now they were the days, just a shame that you couldn't really see the B1 due to the horrible weather that day!

As I'm talking about Woodford Airshow, thought I'd pick out a video off youtube for it, no Vulcan in this, but some real classics, that used to be major attractions at the show. Enjoy...