A WINGWALKER who returned to Bournemouth Air Festival 12 months after being involved in aeroplane crash said it was “really special” to be the opening act of this year’s event.
Kirsten Pobjoy and the team that make up the AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers kicked things off on a packed day of flying on Thursday.
The team are displaying on all four days of the air festival and Kirstensaid Bournemouth is one of her favourite events in the calendar.
She told the Daily Echo: “It’s great fun. I’m very excited and I think that is very important that I am excited about being back.
“This has always been one of my favourite shows because it is so unique with the perspective of the cliff.
"We are flying on top of the aeroplane and we can see everyone down on the beach waving but it is a different perspective having people right there.”
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Asked what it is like to be the opening display team, Kirsten said: “It was amazing. It feels really special that we opened the show yesterday to say we have come back with our presence and we had a new aeroplane this year.
“It was the debut performance of the aeroplane, which I have been helping restore for the past 14 months.
“We started it as a project a while ago and we were finally able to use it.”
Pilot David Barrell and Kirsten sustained minor injuries following a ‘successful ditching’ in Poole Harbour on the third day of last year’s event.
This year the team, which are based at Cirencester, has delivered 30 displays and is seeing a bounce back after Covid dealt a huge blow on the display industry.
“It has been a really good year,” she said. “Covid has impacted us massively. We have done a lot of emphasis on our public experiences, which has been great. We are at our airfield pretty much every day, giving them a taste of what we do.
“Covid really hit our shows but they are on the up again, which is really nice to see because it is what we really love doing – coming out and seeing everyone.”
Kirsten is in her fifth season and said she has become more accustomed to being on the wing and performing acrobatics on the top of an aircraft.
“It is such a unique perspective,” she said.
“When you go flying you have the cockpit and everything around you but here you have nothing, it is like a panoramic view, especially being over the sea and the colour of the sea here is beautiful – it is an amazing turquoise and you have all the white cliffs as well. It is absolutely stunning, you have the best fun and I am so lucky to have such a great team to do with it.”
Kirsten added: “It is my job. I am focusing on what I am doing. The wind and stuff doesn’t really affect me as much now, which is something you get used to over time. That is my office.”
Asked what it was like to receive so much support since the incident at last year’s event, Kirsten said: “Overwhelming in the best way. We are always inundated with messages of support and it really does make a difference, even just seeing people waving on the beach, it is a huge boost for the team.
“Especially shows like here at Bournemouth afterwards we get to walk around the crowd and meet all the kids and everything, which is what I really love about the job.
“It is so lovely, particularly being a woman, doing what I do and meeting all the little girls and showing them that even if you have the most crazy ideas of what you want to be in the world, it is possible, which is a really awesome feeling.”
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