Grandstand seats

Harry at Lechlade with his-and-hers thrones on the sun-deck

We slipped through the final lock on the Thames this morning and arrived at Lechlade where the river gently sways through half a mile of meadows, perfect for mooring and perfect, too, for watching the skies above the Fairford Airshow just down the road.
And what a show it was too. The day began with a low level fly-over by an RAF tanker and two Eurofighter jets just as we were mooring up. Then came the awesome delta shape of the legendary Vulcan V-bomber, the last flying example but still capable of putting on a great show. Despite the morning cloud we could still get a decent view of the first Red Arrows display, followed by a whole line-up of aircraft from tankers to fighters.
The cloud cleared after lunch and the temperature climbed towards 30 deg as we watched the Swiss team in their propellor driven Pilatus trainer aircraft do some precision aerobatics - "the flying penknives" as Vicky called them.

Red Arrows and A400 fly-past

Then came an awesome performance by a Typhoon Eurofighter; its powers of climb and turn just breathtaking and all accompanied by the thunderous roar of its engine rumbling and reverberating around the countryside. You couldn't help buy grin broadly at the sheer thrill of the noise.
Another superb Red Arrows display was followed later by a flypast of the team flanking the RAF's new Airbus A400 transport.
All great stuff and I'm seriously tempted to take a trip to the show as a paying punter next year.