Ardmore – 75 Years of Harvard’s

I woke up this morning to a beautiful day and a relatively pain free back, so decided to join the guys at the Ardmore 75 Years of Harvard's air show. I found an old fold up three leg stool, so thought at least I should be able to manage half the day at the show, and bail out early if my back decided to give me grief. A combination of pain killers and the stool saw me get though the whole day. (That little stool is now going to be in my standard kit, small and light enough not to be a pain)

By the time I drove over to Ardmore from the west coast, my clear skies at home turned into some low cloud, which looked like it was going to burn off quickly (which it did). I made for some nice light to photograph the planes in the morning. I shot quite a few photos so sorting thought them takes a bit of time, so I’ll post the main shots of the Harvard's, Strike Master and Spitfire etc, tomorrow.

The first few shots here are just a couple from walking around the grounds before the air show kicked off, the Mustang cars parked up nicely in front of the P51.

 

The M.A.S.H. helicopter was running all day doing small trips around the back half of Ardmore. I saw several very happy kids coming back from the their flights.

 

Now this looks like it would be fun, although only on a sunny day like today.

 

 

The ground attack re-enactment at the end of the day was was really good, with the Spitfire and the P40 in the air along with 9 Harvard's (that's what Will counted anyway). I converted them to black and whites again, except a couple which lose there impact when turned into black and whites.

I caught the muzzle flash in one shot, and yes it was one out of over 100 shots I rattled off trying to capture the flash. (I was surprised I actually got it)

    

As the troops advance and engaged each other, the aircraft bombardment starts with strafing runs from overhead, smoke and explosions going on all the time. I also got a few brass cases and shells flying around in some of the shots.

 

The folks doing the re-enactment really do put on a good show, along with the pilots and there planes of course. So hats off to them all for a great day.