The RV8tors
Named for the RV-8 planes they fly, the RV8tors – Alister Kay and Andy Hill – fly a fast and frantic display (you can tell I have the event programme, can’t you?).
Along with the Rolls-Royce Spitfire (which I failed to photograph all that well), the RV8tors were flying in aid of the Fly2Help charity, so they first arrived flanking the Spitfire.
Unlike most of the planes we’ve seen so far, these guys – as well as performing some incredible aerobatics – also trailed smoke, meaning I could take pictures like this:
The problem with photographing such aerial displays is sometimes the photos come out looking like they’re upside down – the photos I mean, not the planes, they’re obviously upside down.
This was made worse by our proximity to the flying; sometimes I’d be pointing my camera so far upwards its inbuilt accelerometer would get confused, so a few images weren’t correctly orientated.
One often-used trick flown by most of the propeller planes is ‘sliding’ – flying the plane at an angle through the air. It shows up best in photos when trailing smoke.
The RV8tors weren’t the only duo in the air during the festival. There were also the SWIP Team Twister Duo, who we saw earlier during the Night Air display but who also did some daylight flying, and there was also the following guys.
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The Matadors
By day two British Airways 747 pilots, the Matadors let off some steam by sliding light aircraft at high speeds. Sooner or later they’ll end up loop-the-looping those jumbos, but I digress.
I love the propeller of the blurred plane in this image. It’s picked up its rotation and the forward motion and turned it into a corkscrew.
This next image – the the Matadors completing a full loop – will probably look relatively normal at first glance.
If you didn’t see it, take a closer look. One of them is upside down.
There’ll be another smoke trailing high-flying prop-powered duo later, but they’ll have a slight twist. For now, however, we’re going to kick things up a notch and feature some near-supersonic jets.
Creative Splurges 
The Breitling Wingwalkers flew over Knaphill today (29th August) around 3.15, probably on the way from Dunsfold to Cardiff, but I didn’t have my camera at the ready 😦
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I now have this image of the planes flying over with the girls still on top, reading newspapers…
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Nice photos, thanks for sharing!
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