GREAT GRAND PIER AIR DAY

The Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare will be holding its very own Air Day on Wednesday 17th August.

First to perform on the day will be the Royal Artillery Parachute Team, the Black Knights, which is the official parachute display team for the Royal Artillery. They will begin their display at 11.30am. The five parachutists, who are all serving soldiers, each with between 300 and 600 jumps experience, will arrive in a Cessna 206 aircraft and will jump into an arena, which will be specially constructed on the beach.

The Black Knights will be followed at 1.30pm by the World’s only aerobatic formation wingwalking team, the Breitling Wingwalkers. They will perform a breathtaking sequence of acrobatic manoeuvres and handstands whilst strapped to the top wings of the team’s beautiful Boeing Stearman biplanes.

The team pilots will fly the aircraft through a well-rehearsed energetic routine of dazzling aerobatics and close formation flypasts as the wingwalkers wave at the crowd.

These manoeuvres include loops, rolls, stall turns and inverted flight. During this the wingwalkers will experience speeds of up to 150 mph and ‘G’ forces of up to 4 G.

At 3pm the Blades air display team will fly into the town. The Blades are among the World’s best aerobatic pilots, flying the ultimate in high-performance piston aircraft.

The Blades pilots are all former Red Arrows and they set up the UK’s only full-time civil formation team in 2005. One of the Blades first air displays was at the Beckham’s Full Length and Fabulous Ball. Their displays have been watched by 18 million people at over 150 venues.

Display highlights have included Her Majesty the Queen’s 80th birthday at Balmoral and the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Grand Pier owner Kerry Michael said: “I want to establish the Great Grand Pier Air Day as an annual event that people all over the country will look forward to and get the date firmly in their diaries early on in the year.

“I am delighted we have been able to secure such a varied and top quality display for our air day and I intend to build on it in future years”.