Farnborough Airshow!

We had our first real British thunderstorm at 3am last night. It was legitimate cracking of lightning and roaring thunder with a heavy downpour of rain. I guess it really does rain heavily here sometimes :)

My youngest daughter learned to say a new word this morning. At her age she learns new words almost everyday, but this one was exciting because she said "sah ray" as opposed to "sar eee". She's got a British accent! 

I think I officially have a favorite pub. I couldn't tell you why I like it so much, but it just seems perfect. It's called Ye Old White Hart in Frimley. It's dark wood and quaint inside and outside it sits right on a main road for a fun scene. Great homemade food and nice service (of course in British fashion you order at the bar, tell them your table number, they bring it to you, then you leave it on the table when you leave).

Then the highlight of the day - and probably a highlight of the whole secondment - the Farnborough Airshow!

We had been told at work that we could watch from a balcony so I was on my way there for the "flying display". I ran into a colleague and she asked if I'd like to have her pass onto the airfield- um, yes!!

I was able to not only see, but also touch about a dozen fighter jets, small planes, helicopters and other flying machines. There are short lines to sit in cockpits, so of course I did that. I've been very fortunate to see these jets in the sky for work before, but this was still something very special. 

Let me see if I can describe it - there's a small airport in a town called Farnborough. Once a year they setup 3 rows of covered grandstands like the 18th hole of a huge golf tournament. There had to be room for about 5-10k people in those stands, it seemed huge. Then, down on the airfield, they have about 50-100 jets, planes and flying machines. You can walk right up to them and touch them. Each major companion the defence industry has an "area" marked with logos, planes, videos, etc. I was really proud to work for BAE Systems. I'll guess there were 1-2k people walking around the airfield. I bought a couple of official airshow coffee mugs to remember the day.

While your walking around there are constant airshows happenening above you. I'm talking 200 feet above you, if that. It's heart shaking loud and as exciting as can be. Lots of flips, dives, rolls and high speed. I'm uploading videos to the website and photos are already on Instagram.

When I play with RC airplanes or online flight simulators, one of my favorites is the Harrier. Of course there was a real one in the air, and I felt like a 5 year old boy with my mouth wide open and smiling while I watched that thing. Then it did the unthinkable, just like a video game, it hovered about 100 feet in the air, about 200 yards from me for about 60 seconds. It was phenomenal. I got the whole thing on video and I'll share the link here when I get a chance.

Cheers!