The Abingdon Air and Country Show opened at 10am this May Day morning.
Being the first of the month I also wanted to take part in the City Daily Photo Theme day – The May 1st Theme is Smell.
‘Huskies In Need’ are a specialised charity that try to re-home rescued Huskies. They had a dozen dogs, at the show, that were smelling the ground, smelling people’s hands, and smelling each other. There were an awful lot of smells around. For them it would have been an easy theme. But taking a picture of smell was difficult.
To me, with my underdeveloped sense of smell, the most obvious smell was the mix of steam and oil from the small traction engines. I hope this gives you a whiff of it.
There were stalls by groups interested in recent military history. This lady is a clerical auxiliary to an Oxfordshire Home Guard unit. The typewriter is an original made by the Imperial Typewriter Co. Ltd. Leicester, England. Those were the days when Leicester were more known for their office equipment than their football team.
Owners of Vintage Cars don’t get in for free (correction after George’s comment). They sat around catching up with each other’s news, while exhibiting their brightly polished cars.
In the central arena there were a variety of Country Show entertainments, including a visit from the mounted police. Their horses demonstrated that they could play football with a very large ball, jump fences in unison, and not get panicked by people waving a flag, banging a drum and shouting, ‘Make Peace not War!’
By the time the three hour air display began, at 1:30pm, clouds had blocked out most of the blue sky. A Hurricane and Spitfire from the Battle of Britain memorial flight were on at 3pm, having flown over from Lincolnshire.
Next year’s show could be quite different if the UK does choose to Exit the EU. Many of the laws governing air shows probably come from Brussels. So who knows what a BREXIT Abingdon Air and Country Show will be like.
More pictures on the Abingdon Blog Facebook Page.
Very good coverage of the show – one small point, the classic/vintage car owners did not get in for free but were very happy to make their contribution.
What a good post for the theme! The huskies are great!
Simply the best show yet, and I have been going for many a year.
The air display was a credit to pilots and crews of enthusiasts that maintain these old aircraft.
Plenty of other attractions on during the day, but it was the Air Display that made it for me.
Well done the organisers for a good day out, whilst helping more than one good cause raise much needed funds.
A fantastic event! Been many times and always so well organised – they even sort the weather!
A brilliant day out, and all for a good cause to boot!
Out of interest…. I find it is, year after year, very well advertised….
your picture of the steam engine is brilliant ! 🙂
With regard to the comment on a Brexit air show, it might be a good idea to check before disseminating comments which, like others in this debate, could be misleading. The prime agency responsible for air show regulations in the UK is the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which imposed new constraints after the Shoreham crash last year. Mark Swann of the CAA sits on the board of the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) which regulates all aspects of avaition safety in the EU. There is also the British Air Display Association (BADA) whose primary aim is safety of the public and participants. So if the planes fly high, straight and level, it’s Britain’s CAA that makes them do it not the EU. This is probably why European aerobatic teams like the Italian Frecce Tricolori are much more exciting than our own dear, staid, Red Arrows.
I’d forgotten it was on until I got distracted driving down Ock Street by a Catalina overhead. You don’t see that every day. Good job I was going slowly.
Mike, Thanks for that. I got that one wrong. The planes this year never went over the area where spectators were. So that was a UK rule and not from the EU.
Correct – CAA regulation. EASA do things like requiring two pilots to be in the cockpit at all times following the Germanwings incident. I’m sure we would all agree with that measure!
Fantastic day out, so many interesting attractions. I really enjoyed the Thames Valley mounted police display – the horses were magnificent. Congratulations to the organisers for doing such a brilliant job!
It seemed that there were no jets in aerial display this year. The shape of things to come?
I don’t think that everyone realises that this wonderful event is run not by any official body, but by a very small team of about 6-7 volunteers! They have been doing it since 2000.
Fantastic to think not just how much money they have raised for good causes, but how much pleasure they have given to so many people. Well done, Neil, Colin and team.
Perhaps the volunteers could be advisors to the local council – they seem to be able to get a major event planned and delivered on time year on year!
Sounds like a flight-of-fancy, Elsie….
Dogs have such great senses of smell to begin with. I love the Hurricane and Spitfire!
Great theme day post
To all supporters – a massive thank you once again, we recently donated £8,000 to the Thames Valley Air Ambulance Trust, totalling just over £68,000 raised for them since 2007 & over £84,000 total for charities since 2001. Yes we are a small band of volunteers, who fight hard to put on the show, this year for me was the new regulations and now under Military Aviation Authority rules, so a lot more work for me to do. However, we are now planning for the 2017 show, on Sunday 14th May , slightly later than usual and our website, facebook and twitter can be seen for updates, the first one came out last week 🙂 – please do carry on supporting us we need sponsors and more support – All the best, Neil Porter, Event Organiser