I was fortunate to have Gold Pass tickets for Flying Legends and todays Duxford show bought as a birthday present. Not cheap as you can appreciate.
So this morning we arrived at Duxford and wandered across to the Gold Pass enclosure to find a seat and to organise our visit. Surprisingly there were only a few folk sat at the front (early risers!) and for a change we decided to sit on the far left of the enclosure for an unimpeded view to the east across the Platinum enclosure. Nice and open with the tannoy system at waist level to help with the viewing.
The first few aircraft start up and from nowhere appears a gaggle of people who promptly took up position at the front and side of the enclosure blocking the view of all us considerate folk who remained seated.
The aircraft start their take off and someone shouts out for these ignorant and selfish tw@ts to move or sit down.
I realise they paid their entrance fee like we did, but they just stood there ignoring the fact that the view of many of us was ruined.
An approach to one of the IWM staff resulted in a rather ineffectual attempt to move them back.
One group of four stood there nattering away about what they did last weekend and not paying much attention to the flying display. They couldn’t of course have done this at the rear of the seating area could they?
An elderly couple next to us could only catch a glimpse of anything as it passed overhead. I heard mutterings from many other people about the ignorance of these few.
OK, I heard someone reply when asked to move, but there are not enough seats, so it may be partly the fault of IWM for selling more Gold Passes than they had chairs, but there was a definite no-standing rule enforced in both the Gold Pass and Flypast enclosures before. The staff actually made people move out of the line of sight of those sitting.
The only time it improved was during the monsoon that decided to do a slow flypast. But as soon as that departed the area they were back.
It spoilt what should have been a pleasant day out. I felt close to a bout of ‘Enclosure Rage’, and in the end didn’t bother taking photos as all I could get were the backs of heads, without standing up and blocking the view of others. We left after the 747…………..
If any of you read this, then thanks for being responsible for spoiling my birthday present.
😡
By: Flood - 8th September 2003 at 23:33
Strange, it always used to be the air training corps that stood in groups in front of the crowd chatting about last nights TV or, on one memorable occasion (possibly at North Weald in the early 90s), the apparently quite noticeable attributes of one of their female colleagues – and were they embarrassed when a voice from the crowd asked which one was the well endowed young lady in question when a gaggle of female cadets turned up!
At Biggin Hill several years ago an elderly gentleman at the eastern end – a windbreak dweller but then his wife was in a wheelchair wrapped up in a blanket – asked the passing adult in uniform if it would be possible for the young people to patrol instead of just standing with their hands in their pockets. The officer’s reply was, I felt, extremely rude mixed with patronising sarcasm, and the end result was that the cadets seemed to deliberately stand closer to the old couple until they felt so intimidated that they moved. I made a complaint that day– and I believe others were also going to as well – the first I have ever felt necessary to make about someone in uniform at an air show, and without waiting to cool down first. Not that I felt it would do any good. Forget the year but it was cold and overcast but not (that I recall) wet – which doesn’t really help either.
Flood.
By: Seafuryfan - 8th September 2003 at 09:17
Take your complaint home with the offender. Those cameras have got microphones – just when they have the camera glued to their face as they are geting in everone’s way YET AGAIN, say as you stand quite close to them: “These people standing at the front with camcorders are selfish, they’re spoiling everyone else’s view and are inconsiderate”.
By: Ashley - 8th September 2003 at 08:08
Bob…very sorry to hear about your experience at the airshow…would you care to e-mail me a summary of what happened and I will pass it on to those concerned (or I can e-mail you the name/s to contact directly…)
And as for inconsiderate s****…some guy in the Flypast/F.O.D enclosure yesterday decided it wasn’t enough to stand up to video the show, he had to stand on his chair as well and block the view of those of us behind him…GRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Fortunately one of the F.O.D’s bods came and asked him to sit down before I inserted his video camera where the sun don’t shine…:mad: :p 😡
Ashley
By: CompassCall - 7th September 2003 at 03:19
I’m part of the vast right-wing conspiracy in America and nobody mentioned real bullets me. Oh I remember, we tipped one of the pilots to strafe the crowd.
By: dhfan - 7th September 2003 at 01:57
Originally posted by CompassCall
Too bad they don’t allow rubber bullets at air shows.
Why rubber?
Told you I was getting more right-wing as I get older.
By: CompassCall - 6th September 2003 at 22:15
Air shows are crowded here in the US too. I’ve given up on taking good pictures of stuff while it’s on the ground. At most airshows there is quite a large play area for kiddies. We need one for the adults I think. Huge screen TV with a soccer (football) match or a bikini contest. Did I say cheap beer? Police and ambulance standing by…
Seriously, if they are going going to charge you extra, they should make it worth it. Here in Cleveland, the air show has a “value package” for eight people: http://www.clevelandairshow.com/entertaining.htm
Is it worth $50/head? I don’t know.
By: Guzzineil - 6th September 2003 at 21:25
.and its not just confined to enclosures, I had the same problem at Legends in th epublic area… found a nice place sit far enough back from the crowd line that i could see stuff takign off and displaying whilst sitting down and not having to jostle for position, wehn alogn comes mr and mrs matching jumpers who stood right in front of me… however also being 6ft and a bit I just end-up standing in front of them… childish I know but sometimes thats the only way.. and it always seem to be the people least interested in the show that cause the most probs… I can’t understand someone paying 20-odd quid to go to see an airshow and sitting there nattering and seemingly taking very little interest..I know we need these people to help support our pleasure(!) but can’t we have a special ‘knobheads’ enclosure equipped with greasy burgers and fizzy larger (coz thats what they’re really interested in)…
and its not just airshows either, I went to Santa-Pod today to watch Drag Racing (nothing to do with men in womens clothing!) and had the same thing…
ooh I feel quite worn out after that!!!
By: CompassCall - 6th September 2003 at 19:21
Too bad they don’t allow rubber bullets at air shows.
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September 6, 2003 at 5:53 pm