If ever there was an aircraft that divided opinion with the aviation community, it was XH558. I am lucky enough to remember the Vulcan Display Flight from the good old days, much more dynamic and noisier displays, I was at RAF Finningley in 1992 for one of 558’s final public displays. That still didn’t mean I wasn’t excited to see a Vulcan fly again, I was lucky to have been at Bruntingthorpe for that first flight back in October 2007, that was a great day, seeing a project some fifteen years in the making, finally take to the skies, seeing the emotion from the long suffering friends and family, it meant a lot to many people, even back in 2007.
Fast forward to 2016, the delta lady will be missing from our skies, as will, I fear, many classic jets, the tragic events at Shoreham, have had a profound effect on the UK airshow scene, classic jet wise, things will probably never be quite the same.
XH558 created quite a following, in the eight years of her second coming, yes, things in the background were not always great, but I witnessed the Vulcan effect, many times in those eight years, I am glad I put a few miles in to shoot her in different locations, none more so than that display at Windermere in 2009. It was always going to be a big gamble, as she had never displayed there before, would she be low enough, would the weather hold, would it be close enough, could we get high enough for land locked shots and so on…
We set out early that day, having done our research, found where we needed to be, got parked up, climbed the hill and were in position pretty early, by around 8am. The long wait began. It was a glorious day, eventually several display items came and went, the BBMF Dakota being a particular highlight, as the day progressed, the light just kept getting better, more and more of the usual faces, photographer wise turned up, mainly locals or Northerners, who had been shooting LL in the Lakes for years.
By 5pm, when she ran in for her first pass, it was obvious that were in the right location, the right height and the light, really could not have been any better. The lines flown were pretty much spot on for those of us on the hillside above Windermere, were treated to several beautiful, mainly topside passes, hands down the most photogenic Vulcan display I ever photographed, one of those very rewarding days that this hobby occasionally throws your way. There were many happy, smiling faces up there that day, one of my friends, Shaun Connor, later commented that was the closest he had come to a religious experience, I know exactly what he meant, I shot 558 many times in those eight years, but nothing ever came close to that Windermere display in 2009, planets aligned that day, it was all rather epic.
