A cynic's view of RIAT's cancellation.

Move it to Mildenhall!

One of the few shows I can still smell 🙂

Oh and they’re welcome to bring it to Biggin, as we only have one airshow per year round here…

the air cheif of fairford has said that the boggy ground could of been prevented if cars were allowed on hard surface but the americans rejected parking on the hard surfaces for security reasons. so he has said that if it means that to prevent the show to be cancelled like this again it would be the best thing to move riat from its home faiford to another base… but there is not a base that could hold the show exept raf cottesmore in rutland. but after the success of the 200/2001 show the parking is still in feilds so even though it did not rain here over the week and weekend of this years show it still is a risk of cancellation…. so he is having discussions with the usaf to see if there could be a solution than move the show

the next base after cottesmore if it was to move may be waddington which could mean the waddington show moving to cottesmore or faiford as a replacement.. so the future of riat at fairford is still not fully clear

this is not made up so please take this bullitin… i know it is hard to beleive

if you need proof buy a copy of “Aircraft” illistrated for 3 pounds 80 form WH smiths or other magazine stores and there is a full artical on this

thanks

what about 2001?
the raf cottemore which gave riat clear blue skies and the best display in years!!

I see your 2001 and raise you 2006 at Fairford. Clear blue for the whole week.

plus less traffic troubles and better parking

Would still be off base and I defy ANYWHERE to have 2 montsh worth of rain in the 3 days running up to the show and not be in serious danger of cancellation.

raf cottemore for riat (i say)

what about 2001?
the raf cottemore which gave riat clear blue skies and the best display in years!!

plus less traffic troubles and better parking

it is also proven to be less of a security risk for the americans

i know the wet weather can effect any show any where but if it was here this year they would of not has to cancel.. plus think of the extra people who will turn up because it is central to everywhere in the uk insted of being south og the country !!

even if they do alternat years a year at each base so it works sort of like farnbrough but its on every year but alternat bases

i say it was better at raf cottesmore because less rain over cottesmore’s area and its less traffic and parking trouble at raf cottemore than fairford plus not long ques

That would be the RAF Cottesmore that produced low cloud so we only had aircraft taxying down the runway in 2000?

Nope, leave it at Fairford thanks. Easier to get to, better road links more aircraft parking space, no need to deprive JFH of their PAR for a month, no need to move RIAT HQ. The list against moving is endless, the list in favour of moving revolves around wet weather than can happen anywhere.

I only went to RIAT at Fairford once, about 15 years ago.
I found it far too big, too far to travel within the airfield too much to see and a pain to get in and out of, though I was at least lucky enough to have been parked right on the crowdline.
I preffered it when they moved the show to Cottesmore for a year, it was more compact and more accesible.
I recall parking in a field though, whether the geology at Cottesmore is more suited to the weather, I wouldn’t like to say, aren’t both airfields situated on the ridge of stone that runs diagonally across the country, ie: Ancaster and Cotswold.
With all those redundant aircraft sitting on the airfield at Fairford this morning, a bit of a morning flyby at Legends would have been a nice gesture.

i say it was better at raf cottesmore because less rain over cottesmore’s area and its less traffic and parking trouble at raf cottemore than fairford plus not long ques

If you had gone to RIAT then you would have spent that money and wouldn’t have seen it again, but you are getting a refund so you haven’t lost anything have you.:rolleyes:

Yes agreed but I would have had something in return for it and in this case I have had absolutely nothing back for it. As for saying I haven’t lost anything the answer to that is that it is lost until it is back in your pocket. You might have had an easy sail through life with money but I haven’t. It’s hard come, easy go. You put me in mind of a salesman in our company who is always convinced he has a couple of huge orders every month but they never seem to materialise and he wonders what all the fuss is about when they don’t.

Remember this is a weekend show the rest of the year the parking area is just fields if those areas were re modelled for hard standing parking the already high ticket price would be out of our reach to most of us due to the cost of the reworking. Sure there are lessons but really everyone should be in school for this one!

Fully understand that, but the fact is there were Park and Ride facilities available – I had my ticket booked for that too. Then a bus from the P&R was going to take me direct to the disabled encloser (apparently Bus Stop 4 on the base itself).

I think next year it might be an idea to only allow P&R entrance. Farmers fields are not really designed to be car parks anyway – and keeping them fallow for just such use must be a real pain for the farmers too (not that I have a clue about farming – but the premise seems reasonable to me).

I’m sure other hard standing carparks in the general area could be given over for the weekend shows at least.

But that doesn’t really matter because the airfield itself would have been dangerous with people slipping and sliding all over the place. Lots of elderly folk go to these shows and who would want the responsibility of sorting out a broken hip/rib/shoulder injury claim?

Having said that, my late brother, Phil broke his ankle coming out of the hospital! He was dead less than 2 months later, his ankle having nearly recovered!

Man on the fence

The only reason I asked was because my wife and I with our 6 month old daughter got towed onto Kempsford Camping on thursday evening as it was my birthday on Friday, I had been looking forward to RIAT all year! What a disaster the whole weekend turned into and we had to abandon by Saturday as we couldn’t keep the little one any longer in those conditions! Didn’t miss much as it was later cancelled on Sunday so we went to flying legends instead.

To add insult to injury on the way home from duxford the engine management light illuminated on our new zafira!! The fan motor had burnt out as it couldn’t turn due to being totally clogged up with mud and has cooked the engine in the duxford traffic. There is no temperature gauge fitted to my car!!! Rediculous!!!! Unfortunately warranty doesn’t cover this! So hopefully I will have my car back for farnborough!

I was considering buying a FRIAT package next year putting the refund from this year towards it to make up for this year and to celebrate my 25th birthday there in the sunshine! Just wondered what the FRIAT press release was about so maybe I could have something to look forward to next year.

I fear that RIAT has built up into the best airshow in recent years and hope that the events of the weekend havent set the quality and quantity or foreign air arms participaton especially the USA back a few years!!!

Fully agree – whilst it is most unlikely to happen two years in a row, I am not cherishing waiting upto 8 weeks for my money back and also getting the money back for the campsite. Having paid for all my family members I am out to the tune of nearly £350 at the moment.

If you had gone to RIAT then you would have spent that money and wouldn’t have seen it again, but you are getting a refund so you haven’t lost anything have you.:rolleyes:

Tough Call

Obviously no happy with the decision. However there were clear issues.
The bottom line is when should they have cancelled the whole gig?

What did the 24 hours from fridays “no go” hope to achieve? When could it have taken place? i.e wednesday, thursday etc. If its off then its off.

Hindsight is the perfect science…

It only concerns you if you are a FRIAT member. If you arent then its nothing for you to worry about.

Nothing to do with the offer of free entry to Farnborough for card carrying FRIAT members as mentioned elsewhere hereabouts?

Just been looking on the RIAT website and there is a FRIAT press release only available to be read in the members area, does anyone know what its about?

It only concerns you if you are a FRIAT member. If you arent then its nothing for you to worry about.

if they closed the site prior to the weekend, ordered a trailer of straw at each entrance to the field car parks to be in place to be laid down Friday night and also got a tractor to pull a drainage spiked roller over the grass on the airfield viewing grass , they may have salvaged Saturdays show or even Sundays.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing thou.

But i feel the place was killed off by the weather and the use of the place while the rain was chucking it down. it had a slim chance if the steps above was carried out .

I’d like to know what difference a bit of straw and a spiked roller would have made to the situation in the picture above!

The only serious question is about whether they could have cancelled earlier, but I think it’s fair that you hold off as long as possible until you are sure that a miracle will not happen!

However, lets assume that I drive to Wimbeldon, the weather is perfect for Tennis, but I can’t get to see any play because I can’t park my car.

It is my understanding that THIS was the situation in Fairford. Let’s suggest you went to Wimbledon but they couldn’t play because the Center-Court was flooded.

An open-air event can always be jeopardised by poor weather. This one was. It is very interesting to read trhe comments by the self-proclaimed “experts” here (who have probably never dealt with organising an event in this scale before) who apparently know exactly what should have been done and what shouldn’t.

this will kill of any idea of anvanced tickets for next year i doubt many will buy into it next year. pay on the day and see the weather first.

Fully agree – whilst it is most unlikely to happen two years in a row, I am not cherishing waiting upto 8 weeks for my money back and also getting the money back for the campsite. Having paid for all my family members I am out to the tune of nearly £350 at the moment.

What would you have done to make it happen then?

only chance it had of going ahead was if on Tuesday they stopped all entering the site and kept the car parks and entrances closed . they had the weather forecast for the week. poor weather Weds till Friday evening , the weekend was not going to be that bad .

The facts are they did not and let the place get ripped to bits.

if they closed the site prior to the weekend, ordered a trailer of straw at each entrance to the field car parks to be in place to be laid down Friday night and also got a tractor to pull a drainage spiked roller over the grass on the airfield viewing grass , they may have salvaged Saturdays show or even Sundays.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing thou.

But i feel the place was killed off by the weather and the use of the place while the rain was chucking it down. it had a slim chance if the steps above was carried out .

next year if the forecast is for rain leading up the the show than they should keep everyone out and off the car parks.
the weather on the Saturday and Sunday was very good for an Airshow.

many places had poor weather all week. but Ive not seen any other outside event that weekend cancelled. why because there car parks and show arena’s etc where not used while the rain fell. but only used after some soak time and bit of dry weather.

A shame it was killed by the weather at the end of the day. but a little thought they may of got one of the weekend days out of the week.

this will kill of any idea of anvanced tickets for next year i doubt many will buy into it next year. pay on the day and see the weather first.

I did notice that Waddington had laid a steel road from the main entrance all the way across to the parking Grass. they was prepared a little this year after last years mishap. and it rained most of the Saturday moring also. it saved the entrances and they got Sunday out of it also.

I still can’t see why all the fuss, one bad year because of something that nobody can control and everyone starts ranting.

Fairford is the only real option for a show the size of RIAT, it’s a great airfield. Any airfield would struggle with the amount of rainfall that they had, the organisers made the right choice considering the conditions. One bad year in all the years IAT/RIAT has been going doesn’t mean that it is time to move to another airfield, which in turn may bring another load of unforseen problems. Forget the campsites and the carparks, it wasn’t safe for the public to be allowed into the showground itself.

I had been looking forward to RIAT for a while but having seen the conditions I feel it was the right choice, it wouldn’t have been fun walking around in that all day. Roll on next year.

FRIAT Press release

Just been looking on the RIAT website and there is a FRIAT press release only available to be read in the members area, does anyone know what its about?

Never really understood why RIAT couldn’t share Farnborough’s airfield and happen every other year or why with the odd few unoccupied ex-American bases, we dont have one setup as a ‘National air pageant’ showground and save Farnborough the traffic!

A return to Cottesmore wouldn’t be fun – I went in 2000 and access was grim, even from the campsite!

What peeved me more about RIAT wasn’t the cancellation – I can understand the caution having worked outdoor festivals – it was the large number of folks walking round dressed as though they were at Wimbledon. I was on the campsite at Kempsford and spent Saturday and Sunday watching them and thinking “Hang on – its unsafe for me, so…”.

Don’t knock the Americans for not allowing on-site parking, they’ve done the event proud over the years in arranging unique visitors (the B2, F117 and so on) it’s just a shame that there isnt a RAF base capable of staging it.