A reminder of the late great Mildenhall, and what are your memories.

re

I agree the B52 going past the crowd with its wing over your head was absolutely incredible. And Mark Hannah going past in the F86, waving to the crowd.

707

Thanks for that. Reckon that clip was from that series on BBC ages ago. Shame it is so indistinct. That prog had a clip of Hoover in his Shrike Commander doing a barrel roll without spilling his martini. Amazing.

Here is the 707.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ546BEps-M

Boy? Yup

Nice F27 shots. Need the moving image to get something like the real effect. First time I saw this I could not believe anyone would be allowed to throw a plane of this type around. The smoke was there to prove that the engine was off… not just feathering the prop. It went into turns in and out of the ‘dead’ engine too. Then he’d fly past and reboot the engine – you could hear it spooling up. Then the smoke would spew out. Climax of the show routine was a Khe Sahn landing. Steeply up then a perilously steep descent with the wheels down.

The pilot’s nickname was ‘Boy’ coz of his age. Some Dutch humour.

There were several pilots one called Rifle-Trouser or something sounding like that.

This display was much on my mind when returning from Schiphol on a KLM Friendship descending into Gatwick out of the clouds willing the engine I could see out of the window to keep going and the undercart to descend… and there it was.

No doubt everyone has also seen the vid of G222 mess up Khe Sahn landing at RIAT… I have some footage of it doing a barrel roll. Anyone know where you can see that 707 barrel roll? Check out my YT site for a vid of a Vulcan B1 being rolled at Farnborough by Roly (!) Falk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in4Pmp84BWM

Some more pic’s of ‘Boy’ Soons in action.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0712553/M/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1018926/M/

G222 sounds possible.

The start of the F27 display where he hit the smoke button on the ground whilst running up to max power before letting off the brakes, emerging from the smoke to get airborne seconds later, to then pull the gear and remain about 2 metres off the runway for its full length before pulling up hard into a wingover is forever ingrained on my memory.

But he never did roll it, so my vote still goes to the Italians.

Moggy

….ah, the memories……

I think it would be somewhat difficult to confuse with what happended at Ramstein……..:eek:

But I’m sure a Frecce Fiat G91 crashed off airfield at Eriswell whilst doing a display, must have been 1978 or 1979 ish.

It was 1979 as far as i can remember.

G222 sounds possible.

The start of the F27 display where he hit the smoke button on the ground whilst running up to max power before letting off the brakes, emerging from the smoke to get airborne seconds later, to then pull the gear and remain about 2 metres off the runway for its full length before pulling up hard into a wingover is forever ingrained on my memory.

But he never did roll it, so my vote still goes to the Italians.

Moggy

Are you sure you mean the F27?

Moggy

Yep,Moggy, it was definitely an F27 flown by a guy called Jan Ribbentrop ( or certainly something similar anyway!)

The dispaly was always stunning and saw it on many occasions inc my homeshow at Finningley. The only thing I’ve seen since to compare were,as you say, the G222 and the Swedish 130 before being censured somewhat by the IAT safety committee!!!

One puzzling thing about MAF was the relative presence of the US armed forces. While they always turned up with a showstopper like the C5, B2, SR71, TR-1 etc often their fighters were best shown off in the hands of the non-Americans.

Agreed, the Europeans know how to show off an aircraft!

For a military service,the USAF is a pretty risk adverse organization…
And when it comes to airshows, even more so after the Italian team crash at Ramstein.

But the best of the lot was always the F27 Troopship. Stunning aerial antics in such an unlikely machine.

Are you sure you mean the F27?

It was always the Italian AF G111, twin prop heavy transport that did a series of ever increasing angle wingovers and then finally pulled off a complete barrel roll.

Moggy

YT

I had it up on YT until the poxmongers shut me down without warning.

Now I have to find it on one my HDs. Stay tuned!

MW here is one of my new YT sites:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Royzie555

Stunning aerial antics in such an unlikely machine. I have a video of it somewhere.

Royzee, you must post it, pretty please 😀

The Dutch!

One puzzling thing about MAF was the relative presence of the US armed forces. While they always turned up with a showstopper like the C5, B2, SR71, TR-1 etc often their fighters were best shown off in the hands of the non-Americans.

For example the Dutch AF which used to show off the NF-5A very well then switched to the F16. Superb.

They also had the French Alouette choppers in their team The Grasshoppers who were vg too. But the best of the lot was always the F27 Troopship. Stunning aerial antics in such an unlikely machine. I have a video of it somewhere. Somehow doubt they’d let anyone do that these days. Mind you the Swedish AF Herk was almost as much fun (or the Transall) but without smoke and the engine off routine.

Meanwhile, you can watch my clip of the MiG 29 on YT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJBQ5r3WTC0

What was the incident with the Frecces, are you not confusing it with Ramstein.

I think it would be somewhat difficult to confuse with what happended at Ramstein……..:eek:

But I’m sure a Frecce Fiat G91 crashed off airfield at Eriswell whilst doing a display, must have been 1978 or 1979 ish.

Great times indeed.

Primarily my memories are of seeing the might Tomcat for the first time, the SR71 having a bit of an engine ‘burp’ and spouting about 50ft of flame out of the back of one of it’s donks!!!! and the c130 LAPES drops along with the MC130 Fulton recovery demo.

And of course the burgers……you wan SOOOORCE!? 😮

Great topic.

Great days.
The first time my missus ever went to an airshow was when we first met, 1997, what an event that was, Reds, Thunderbirds, Frecces, Patrouiles de France, Patrouiles de Suisse, Turks, B-2, F-117, fantastic weather too, must have been the USAF 50th anniversary, one of the best airshows ever.

Yes,it was the 50th,the calendar cover that year was dark blue,the crest title was “Fifty And Forward”,which included colour photo’s.It was also the 50th anniversary of supersonic flight and on show was a mock-up of Glamorus Glennis,the first plane my son “fell in love with” after seeing The Right Stuff.Still got one of the celebratory plastic bags (how sad am I ?)
Also remember the B2 Spirit fly-by escorted by 2 Eagles:eek: .
My burger was always “wet”,washed down with a beer,fished out of a large bath of iced water.

Mildenhall Memories…

Who remembers the year that the C-17 was first displayed?

It was priceless….

The aircraft had just taken off and the commentator announced over the Tannoy that the C-17’s display sequence would be introduced by a certain “Major Bender” of the USAF.

All I remember was a massed break out of Beavis and Butthead style tittering from the crowd who found this highly ammusing!

Must admit to having a bit of a chuckle over that one myself:D

I went every year from 1984 to 1993, and always stayed at the White House B and B on Beck Row…It was more or less my annual holiday. Fond memories of standing on “The Mound” on arrivals day and shooting God knows how many photo’s…Strolling in to the show past vast queues of traffic…to get in as a pedestrian for £2.00….marvellous stuff!…too many memories to list!!

I will dig out my photo’s and post a few….

Regards;
Steve

Burgers….

and seeing several aircraft end up as smoking holes (Vintage Pair, Frecce Tric G-91, T-34 etc etc…..:(

and walking what seemed like miles in those days but probably now’t compared to RIAT.

I think I also remember seeing a real Fulton recovery system demo from the ARRS based at Woodbridge but maybe my memory is playing up..

The Canadian F-104 duo appearing from behind the crowd!

And in those days, I did have a Zenit ‘iron bodied’ 35mm camera……But it did the job!

Those were the days

What was the incident with the Frecces, are you not confusing it with Ramstein.
I had just got in and was just about as close as you could get when the T-34 went in, what was so horrible was that the aircrews wives were watching from the tower, coupled with the fact that the bodies were removed in full view of the crowd.
On a lighter note, I remember the Canadian Starfighters coming over the crowd, I’m sure it was a 3 ship, the leader not having wingtanks, it filled the lens of my Zenit.
They seemed to be having a competition that day with the Luftwaffe F-104’s to see who could fly the closest, lowest and fastest, the Canadians won it with a close low pass at almost Mach 1.
I only had trouble getting in on my first visit, not being wise to the event, we ended up being routed all over the place, ending up being sent across the eastern end of the runway, that was fine, except that the inevitable first item, the KC-135, just happened to land over the top of the car, an experience not for the faint hearted.
I remember the Victor trailling Kerosene, it landed in a cloud of the stuff too, we thought it was about to detonate, similarly the first time you see a tail high take off of a B-52, it’s pretty hairy.
When the F-14 displayed, and I reckon it was 92, there was quite a Naval contingent that year. We were invited on board the transport version of the EC-3, on asking why all the seats faced backwards, we were told that it enhanced the survival rate if it fell off a carrier, nice.

I can still smell them 🙂

😀 Ahh yes….BBQ Sauce soaked Burgers, Cooked in a make shift BBQ!

I seem to recall that each Squadron/Wing etc had their own Burger Bar! 😀

Fond Memories indeed….Would be good to see some piccies!