Bruntingthorpe's Big Thunder Airshow

what you have mentioned was suggested and agreed in principle however it would need buy in from aircraft owners, provisionally we nearly got Neil in his JP (until his engine change) and possibly one of the weald gnats. The weald gnat was on up until the day when a severe cloudbase saw oli the pilot unable to get out of North Weald, neadless to say we will endevour to bring up the question at the open days next planning meeting later this year

So if there are contacts people have out there and they are willing to put themsleves forward in advance i can get them added to the agenda for the commitee meeting, we probably just ran out of time to sort it out properly last year, In principle the organisers are happy to have any fly ins provided they can agree to the arrival / departure timings and the arrangements can be circulated

Thanks for clearing this up

I agree the airshow with fast jets would need plenty of space, not to mention the insurance, health and safety etc.
But still feel the fly-in idea could work, Duxford don’t have access to jet A1 so the jets arrive with minimum fuel and on departure head for Cambridge or Southend to ‘top up’.
For the first fly-in keep it down to a max of 5 aircraft. (mabey the chaps at Coventry might be up for it Canberra, Meatbox and twin pin ?)
or some JP’s and Gnats for example, for the first time don’t even have to be Jets Warbirds, Dak’s etc

If the show opened at 10am that would give us plenty of time (8am – 10am) to get 5 aircraft landed and positioned in the ‘Flight Line’ with all the Brunty regulars. Just like Duxford the ‘flight line’ would be open from 10am – 2pm so everyone can come and see the aircraft, and the flightline is closed till the end of the show, and the crowd are moved to a safe distance. The brunty Jets do their Fast Taxi’s throughout the afternoon and the final runs are the visitors departing.

Hopefully it will be minimal fuss, an added twist to the Brunty Displays ?? and I suspect once the message gets out you would find lots of interest from both the visitors and the crews (Fighter Meet 2012 ??)
I would love to get a Photo of a Luftwaffe Phantom, next to the Starfighter and the three Bucc’s (for example) as would many more Enthusiasts.

there are two point that have been brought up in the past for brunty

if you were to have flying aircraft that required use of the runway then the crowd safety line would have to be returned to it’s big thunder position on the other side of the taxiway, one of the selling point of the CWJ open days is the closeness to the aircraft which would be precluded if the above were true

There is no fuel available on site (a sweetner for display aircraft) and if aircraft were merely to come for a static display then would only be allowed to arrive/depart in a tight window either side of a fast taxi day

It’s a complicated thing hence the reason its stayed as it is for now !!!

Always a problem

I remember going to IAT 1983 at Greenham Common (god I feel Old) and paying for 3 persons but the chap only gave me 2 tickets (It was £5 each at the time) he was most put out when I asked for my missing ticket, and when you saw the queue of cars behind it made me think if he carried on the same scam how much money did he make that day and the following day ? he would need a shopping bag to take the loot home !.
The only way to effectivly control is to have your own staff in the Ticket point, fair enough use a 3rd party for car / crowd control or the local scouts but never use a 3rd party to handle the money.

There is still time I wonder for this year mabey we could have a fly-in, the one at Coventry went down a storm and if we put out an open invitation who knows?? Sea Vixen, Vulcan, Luftwaffe Phantoms, Typhoon, or NATO F16’s if Bruntingthorpe could get control of the tickets mabey the airshow could go back on the calendar.

regards
Mike

The big thunder airshow made a loss over the 2 years they were run, however there are rumours that some of the personnel employed by the private events team were not handing in all the gate receipts.

There has been thoughts, maybe not on that scale, But the main thing is the cost when being a private airshow, things go out of control like having to pay for pilots perks etc it all adds up and leaves a very small window of profit. So for now and long may it continue is the Open days.

Has there been any thought to having a full airshow again or would it simply be too costly?

No she’s not had a paint job(not yet anyway), its just a good old clean up and a large amount of WD. Thats me underneath her just about to connect the air starter to her Stbd engine.
Many thanks for the compliment. Matt

900

Has XX900 had a paint job as she’s looking stunning on that photo?

Next Brunters open day penciled in for MAY 29TH 2011
If serviceability allows you will see three fully live and fuctioning Buccs.
Aswell as all the other aircraft that are based here.

900 being prept for another fast run!

Nice one, when is the next Bruntingthorpe open day?