Highlights from The Victory Show at Cosby

On Sunday 7 September 2014 the weather approved compared to the previous day so I to make my annual visit to The Victory Show at Cosby.

The show is a mixture of military vehicles, dioramas and set battle pieces with a small airshow thrown in in the afternoon. Unfortunately the flying display on the previous day was marred by low cloud, whereas the Sunday was a glorious summer's day. As frequent visitors to the air display know the crowd line is close to the runway and photography opportunities are usually plentiful. This year was a bit disappointing as it was a limited for getting a clear shot across the temporary runway. The first reason was that the wind was coming from a northerly direction and aircraft were taking off and landing from the south. Standing at the northern end of the runway one was behind a line up of aircraft and my usual spot half way down the runway was inaccessible for most of the day as the Skytrain was parked there. So this year more ground-to-air and less ground-to-ground shots. but the compensating factor was the brilliant sunshine at least when the aircraft were flying towards it. 

The following pictures are more or less in the sequence the aircraft appeared in and as usual I will let them speak for themselves through their captions.

Douglas C-47 ~Skytrain basking in the early morning sun

French built Messerschmitt ME-108 Taifun

Breighton-based Bücker Jungmeister

In previous years some of the aircraft, notably the ME-1087 Taifun would fly over the "battlefield" during the morning tank battle. This year the display by the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historic Flight's North American TB-25N Mitchell, followed the very same pattern with only a single pass from north to south, hence photo opportunities for this aircraft, which was based at nearby Bruntingthorpe, were somewhat limited, especially as it displayed in the morning with the sun directly into the camera lens. But the display itself was brilliantly executed showing the aircraft's capability to the full. 

Gilze-Rijen-based North American TB-25N Mitchell

Piper L4 Cub

Bücker Bestmann

One of the attractions of the air display at The Victory Show is the contingent of smaller "warbirds", e.g. the Cub, Taifun, Bestmann etc. Even smaller aircraft are displayed, the large scale models, which have their own display slots with some great tail chases by WWI and WWII models. Some of these aircraft are very realistic especially as seen from a small distance. 

Cessna OV-1 Bird Dog

The Grace Spitfire making a low pass

A unique formation display by  Hurricane UP-W and Spitfire OU-V

Hurricane UP-W on short finals

Leah Hammond in T-6D Texan EP-H plotting her route home prior to departure

Maurice Hammond in P-51D Mustang "Janie"

Peter Teichman in P-51D Mustang "Jumping Jacques"

This year there were a few gas in the flying display, which were filled by the large scale models and unfortunately the C-47 Skytrain, having made a single pass, had to retire to Bruntingthorpe, where it made an emergency landing with problems on one of its engines.

The air show was concluded by "Jumping Jacques" flown by Peter Teichman with a what felt like a long flying display making it a fitting end to The Victory Show 2014.

26 September 2014
Theo Claassen