Cosford airshow...

The Cosford airshow is a yearly event. People travel countrywide to spectate. The resulting chaos locks up the roads for miles around. I long since gave up queueing, and instead, have found a convoluted route through the maze of country lanes to get to within 5 mins walking distance. This way I miss all the traffic, park for free, and no, I'm not saying how you get there! Once there, we don't go inside, but instead head to a grassy mound known to die hards and locals alike. The air force give us the wink and allow us to watch for free....

Where we watch is at the far end of the airfield. The view is partly obscured by an embankment and the occasional tree, but it means that often on their approach aircraft fly right over your heads (it is outlawed to fly over the crowd in Europe, too many people got mashed!). Also this is where the Chinook sits to warm up.....grab everything, it's taking off!

Military aircraft were pretty thin on the ground, (not sure that expression works with aircraft) probably due to all the war and stuff. Still, ladies glued to bi-planes will have to do.

Could they get any closer?!

The glue comes unstuck and she clings on for dear life!

The Red Arrows are always popular. Fly with precision and crash with style.

One year, down south, they managed to clip a 20ft mast on one of the yachts in the harbour! He lost his no claims bonus and everything.

The Red Arrows display was cut short because some one in a microlight chugged their way into the military airspace! Did he not notice it was busier than normal? He was lucky he didn't get knocked out the air by jet wash. Ushered away with a specially adapted large rolled newspaper, the show continued.

Flying in tight formation was their forte, but when I went to press my shutter button...Whoosh! A spectacular split, peeling off in every direction. It's a conspiracy. That can be the only explanation. They know when I've just switched the camera off, and they know when I'm just about to press the button!

The gorgeous looking Spitfire. During the second World War these were manufactured at a site about 4 miles from where I live. The test pilots were apparently quite reckless and often flew through the hangers!

The 'Eurofighter', or it's preferred name, the 'Typhoon' shot past with an exhaust note that jibbled your innards about.

What were they thinking calling it a 'eurofighter'? It sounds like something you would put down to kill cockroaches! 'Typhoon', now, that's a proper name, you could do some damage with one of those....

Upside down, at low level, with the afterburners on, now that's fun. "I'll just see if I can get it through that hanger!"

This plane spent most of the time being blurred or getting small quickly. It was very fast and agile. A lot of the time I didn't know even where it was until it had past!