By James Ellaby and Ben Turner
As thousands of people descend on Southport for a sun-kissed Southport Air Show this weekend, we meet Dave Walton who is on “Cloud Nine” after being tasked to run the event for the 17th time.
But it is hardly a surprise that the 45-year-old has carved such a successful career in aviation, his dad was an RAF pilot, and he was taken to his first air show at the tender age of six-months-old!
Huge numbers are expected to flock to Southport Beach this Saturday and Sunday for the air show and make the most of a packed-programme ranging from the famous RAF Red Arrows performing a spectacular display, plus appearances from other aircraft including a Eurofighter Typhoon, Chinook helicopter and Team Raven display team and the Spitfire XIX
The air show – organised by Sefton Council – has been running since 1991 and Dave an Aviation Consultant and Flying Display Director has been the man tasked with running the event and ensuring it runs safely and smoothly since 2007.
Ahead of a promisingly warm and sunny show this weekend, Dave, managing director of TSA Consulting, said the weather can always play a factor and he was glad the sun will have its hat on this weekend.
Dave and TSA fully manage the flying displays, including the logistical challenges of ensuring that the teams and their planes are able to get to the shows. They have managed air shows around the world, including in Australia, Dubai and Kuwait.
These challenges are nothing new for Dave (picture attached – credit TSA Consulting), who has been around airshows and aviation since he attended his first show at the age of six months old.
“My father was in the RAF, so I grew up around airfields.
“He was also involved with running airshows as a volunteer, so I’ve always been around it. He worked the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford in the 70s and 80s and that was where I started out in the early 2000s.”
Dave Walton
Dave, from Cirencester, was initially hired for the Fairfield event on a one-year temporary contract but ended up staying with them for five events.
He said: “My role there was arranging all the aircraft and planning the operations at the airshow. 500 aircraft used to come in for that one, so there were a lot of logistics involved and that was a full-time job for me.”
As part of his role there, Dave was also involved with some seaside air shows and soon realised that was where his heart lay, so in 2007 he set up TSA Consulting and continues to organise shows around the country year after year.
“What I enjoy best is getting to travel week after week around the country with a travelling circus of teams. All of the venues might be by the coast, but each its own idiosyncrasies, making it really interesting and fun way to spend a summer.”
Seaside shows do come with their own challenges though, particularly when it comes to logistics, even when the weather looks like it will be good.
Dave explained: “The challenge is that we don’t often have airfields nearby. Southport is almost unique in having RAF Woodvale that is really close, but even here we’ve got aircraft also coming from Manchester, Blackpool and Prestwick in Scotland.
“For other shows like Eastbourne we’ve got up to seven mounting bases, so we end up with aircraft based all over the country and while the weather might be good in Southport this weekend, for example, it isn’t necessarily the same in Prestwick, so we can be juggling stuff based on the weather in various parts of the country.”
Having been involved in the industry for more than two decades, Dave said his career has brought many highlights.
“I worked on the Red Bull Air Race in the middle of cities like London, which brings a real sense of achievement when you see planes flying down the river in Greenwich,” he said.
“It’s also very nice when we can arrange mixed formation flypasts, with different teams flying together.
“One that stands out is at the 2015 Southport Air Show, when we did the Vulcan XH558 flying with the Red Arrows in its final ever season. There’s a lot of planning that goes into events like that in terms of rules and regulations and making sure it’s done safely, but it’s such a sense of achievement when it happens.”
For now, Dave can look forward to another successful Southport show: “This weekend should be an amazing one for weather, with no impact on flying.
“We’ve got a very varied programme on, from replica World War I planes with designs that are more than 100 years old to Spitfires and Hurricanes from World War II, a Vampire that dates back to the 1950s and all the way up to the Typhoon, one of the most modern fighter aircraft in the world.
“So, we’re covering 100 years of aviation, going from 100mph to 600mph, which I hope will be really exciting and interesting for people to see.”
And Dave can see a bright future for Southport Air Show: “It’s a perfect venue with lots of unlimited space, no obstructions and a lovely flat beach so it’s a brilliant spectacle and we look forward to this weekend and returning for many years to come.”
For more information and to buy tickets for this year’s Southport Air Show, visit https://www.visitsouthport.com/whats-on/top-events/southport-air-show/
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