Red Arrows – allows an early get-away.
Blokes with loads of badges, flying suits, step-ladders, cameras, baseball caps etc. A bit eccentric maybe, but their hearts are generally in the right place.
All those stalls with books, models, etc.
Static displays (e.g. Duxford) – kill two birds with one stone.
Old Warden.
Taxying aircraft – especially Spitfires and 109s with their narrow landing gear.
Slightly overcast, but warm weather.
First time aircraft attendees (scoops).
Jets (apart from the Sea Vixen) – allows more time around the stalls.
Flying programmes between 1400-1730.
By: Arabella-Cox - 14th January 2003 at 13:47
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
Much like Kev, for me an airshow isn’t just about going and watching aeroplanes cavorting through a cloudless summer sky, enjoyable as that may be. I tend to go mainly to Flying Legends and the smaller fly-in’s such as Rougham and Gransden, where the atmosphere is less commercial, and somehow a little more thoughtful.
If pressed to pick one thing that I enjoy about these smaller shows… well firstly I’d say ‘Enjoy’ isn’t the word I’d use to describe this. ‘Appreciate’ is probably more apt.
Every year, the Children In Need Fly-In is held at Little Gransden in Cambridgeshire, and every year, a small and really quite touching service is held in memory of those men who flew from nearby RAF Gransden Lodge during the Second World War, and who never returned. The service is followed by the Last Post, a minutes silence (always impeccably observed), and, in each of the last three years, a display from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Lancaster or Dakota.
And every year, I spend those few moments in quiet contemplation, watching a sedate but beautiful individual diplay, and remembering that I am only able to do so because others gave their lives for my freedom.
By: patb - 14th January 2003 at 01:20
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
A few more:
Going to a smaller show and seeing something pretty amazing (P-51 display at Redhill, 02)
Realising it was a pretty poor show but knowing you would do it all again tomorrow
Spontanious applause from an appraciative crowd
Knowing you are too old and “cool” to wave to the pilot but doing it anyway (Any Duxford)
Getting decent food organised the day before so you don’t get ripped off with donkey burgers (Mildenhahll accepted)
By: Snapper - 13th January 2003 at 22:38
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
What, the TFC crews get stoned on airshow days? Bloody Hell!
The food at Mildenhall.
The food at Mildenhall.
The food at Mildenhall.
The food at Mildenhall
The food at Mildenhall.
The food at Mildenhall
The planes
By: munnst - 13th January 2003 at 19:29
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
Opening the TFC hanger door and smelling that mixture of dope, petrol and oil!
By: Bluebird Mike - 9th January 2003 at 20:50
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
Shame on you. x(
By: Merlin3945 - 9th January 2003 at 20:16
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
>A complete lack of Helicopter display teams.
Sorry got to disagree. I saw the Blue Eagles last year at Leuchars and they really were something else. I actually watched the whole display from the one spot I was stood on. Apart from the one thing most people go to see. The BBMF. I saw them while I browsed around the stalls. I had seen them and indeed the Lanc for the first time last year at East Fortune so I could afford to wander round while they were displaying. No Disrespect to the pilots and crew it was just that I had seen them before a couple of months earlier but as for the rest of them most I had never seen before.
Merlin
By: Snapper - 9th January 2003 at 20:14
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
WW2 planes. Bookstalls. Comparing the size of my ladder.
Ok, so we all love the Spitfire. We respect the Hurricane as truly great.
BUT 6 OR 7 MUSTANGS PULLING A TIGHT HIGH-SPEED TURN AT LEGENDS, WITH THAT WHISTLE FROM THE WINGTIPS AND THE ROAR FROM THOSE MERLINS (Why doesn’t a Spit Merlin sound like that?). Astonishes me EVERY time. You won’t ever persuade me that there is a sound that beats Mustangs mixing it.
By: kev35 - 9th January 2003 at 19:07
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
I really enjoy the sound of an airshow. The sound of the aircraft obviously, especially when sweetened with the music of the odd Merlin, but it’s more than that. It’s the laughter, the enthusiastic but ill informed debate over whether it’s a Spitfire or a Hurricane when it’s actually a Mustang, the passion of those whose six years of hard work have just put this or that aircraft back in the air where it belongs. It’s the sound of the little boy looking at a Blenheim and saying ‘Grandad, did you really fly in one of those?’ Or the veteran shedding a tear at the memory of the comrades he lost….
But even more so, cliche or not, it’s the sound of freedom. The freedom fought for and gained in the past and the freedom we revel in today.
Regards,
kev35
By: neal h - 9th January 2003 at 18:31
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-01-03 AT 06:31 PM (GMT)]I agree with pretty much everything you said Damien(nice shot of OFMC Harvard on front of TT by the way).
Also, the evening sunlight glinting off the Gladiator at Old Warden
Glider display’s. I have to put that as I’m begining training to fly Gliders in a couple of months.
RAF Cosford shows. I used to live and my family still do live nearby and thats where my interest in aviation began.
By: sparky - 9th January 2003 at 17:32
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
Damien I think you’ve got it about right ..roll on the start of the season 🙂
By: Willow - 9th January 2003 at 16:15
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
Something new and exciting. WOW
Something old and exciting. Ah, memories
Bright sunny days with occasional dotted clouds
Having the sun behind you (you’d never guess I take photos)
A well briefed commentator that knows when to be quiet (merlins)
Old aeroplanes being treated with respect.
New aeroplanes being flown with no respect.
A complete lack of Helicopter display teams.
A Programme that actually tells you what you want to know.
Flying programme being well thought out (eg. B17 followed by B1 to show US bomber development etc etc etc)
Unusual formations
Static displays that you can photograph
Kids (not mine, I don’t have any…yet!!) actually enjoying the day.
Veterans enjoying meeting old collegues
Actually getting out of the airfield without traffic problems (RIAT to note)
Getting home and thinking ‘I enjoyed that, lets do it again next year’
By: Moggy C - 9th January 2003 at 15:30
RE: Airshow Enjoyment – what do you enjoy about airshows?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-01-03 AT 03:31 PM (GMT)]Shuttleworth sunsets.
Spend most of the day preparing a truly scrummy picnic.
Only just over the hour to drive
Generally meet-up with a few chums
No need to try and get to the crowd line. It can be seen just as well from by the car
Pop the cork from a bottle of chilled sparkling white
No litter
Polite people everywhere with all the time in the world
A handful of endearingly amateur stands
Two and a bit hours of flying, all interesting types
Usually at least one Merlin
And generally quite a good commentary (There was a real bummer in 2002 or 2001 (Bring back John Blake)
Moggy
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January 9, 2003 at 2:46 pm