Biggin Hill – Air Farce

My first outing to Biggin Hill, and was slightly disappointed. Took 1 hour to get in, and well over an hour to get out again. It was criminal how they could queue hundreds of cars down a country lane, with golfers trying to drive up the opposite direction, blocking the roads completely!

As for the air show itself, it wasn’t so bad but it doesn’t come close to any of Duxford’s Air shows or Fairford’s RIAT.

From a photographic point of view, it’s a nightmare as you’re facing straight into the sun the whole day.

Think that’ll be my first and last visit to Biggin.

Having just got out of the historic aviation industry I can also tell you that some very well backed/healed opperators are actually participating at below cost. Now that is a good way to kill off an industry.

But hey, what the hell, not my problem anymore..

mick

Do the Air Shows provide a lucrative income for private owners

They provide some income, but hardly ‘lucrative’ in as much as for most operators its considerably less than their expenditure on keeping the aircraft available to participate.

So which commentator informed the crowd that the P-40 had a Merlin engine then? :diablo:

I actually thought the best commentator was the one with the parachute team (Tigers?). Cheesy, down to earth and with a quality local accent – though sadly he missed the opportunity to shout ” ‘ave it!!!! ” as they hit the drop zone marker.

There was a distinct “Smashy & Nicey” air to quite a lot of the commentary!

I was going to say that you are all lucky you have an air display within reasonable travelling distance, but I suppose its a British pastime to moan about something. If its not a poor weather day, your particular interest in Fast Jests, Biplanes etc has not been satisfied. Also all these non-aviation stalls what a waste.
How many Air Displays would there be without the participation of the UK, US and European Air Forces and enthusiastic owners. Do the Air Shows provide a lucrative income for private owners – that will be right! Without attracting Joe Public you could have 1 Air Display a year for the “Enthusiasts” charging £1,000 a head.
Get a life Boys!:D

It was only when I got back that I realised I had not inserted the aeroplane into Hector at any point. He was probably glad!

Melvyn,
If we see you at another show we will certainly say Hi, as Samantha did wonder where the (legendary) rubber chicken was, and was going to ask you!!

She is very impressed with the Rearwin, as she had never heard of one before, (She’s into paraffin burners!), and loves the colour!

I actually thought the best commentator was the one with the parachute team (Tigers?). Cheesy, down to earth and with a quality local accent – though sadly he missed the opportunity to shout ” ‘ave it!!!! ” as they hit the drop zone marker.

He was great. You’d never tell he was a Londoner would you?? I had a chat to him afterwards and told him we had been debating whether to put on some Chas and Dave music while he was on and he told us he wouldn’t have minded. he was enthusiastic, funny and entertaining. I thought he was a hoot and he was a good chap too.

I also thought George Bacon from the Blue Eagles and Brendan together was brilliant. I couldn’t have added anything to that as I was laughing too much.

Ur, no Canberra, Sea Vixen, Venom, Vampire, Gnat…. do any air show organizers bother supporting privatley owned classic jets????

No UASF fast jets, No RAF C17.

RAF event thingy was OK, but nothing compared to what Yeovilton do.

Paid £65 to get in, got my tickets at the pay point, then 15m further on had to stop and have my ticket stubs removed :confused:

Parked up, and was met by a holy joly wanting money 😡

The site ran out of bottled water by 3pm, no free water. No prices on the catering concessions.

Of course the Chinook was a show stopper.

Exiting the site was bl**dy brilliant and was down the pub, having a beer by 7.30pm.

Perhaps the budget didn’t stretch to ‘Private classic jets’ I seem to recall BH has got behind these in the past few years….If they kept booking them you’d end up saying “It was the same as last year”

Catering Prices were in the programme…

No Free water! It’s a bloomin airfield! Bring yer own and stop being such a VICTIM!

I have just spent an entire weekend trying not to set up double entendres like that with Brendan who has rarely been known to not knock them into touch!

Liked your girlfriend’s hat too. Would have hated to see it get blown![/QUOTE]

There must be a smart answer to that somewhere::D

[QUOTE=TMN;1122588
A good show topped by great commentary from Melvyn and Brendan.
I can’t say we’ll be there next year (due to the distance) but we WILL be back at some point![/QUOTE]
Thanks for that, much appreciated. We had a hoot and the commentary position was air conditioned!!!

p.s. Thanks Melvyn for motioning to my girlfriend to remove her hat before you swung the Rearwin around – a true gentleman.

You should have said something and come over for a chat. A nice chap collared me on Sunday and asked if it was a Rearwin. It made a nice change from “Is this a Beaver” (la Ferté Alais last Tuesday morning) “What kind of Cessna is this?” or “get out of the wy, can’t you see I’m trying to take a picture”.

Liked your girlfriend’s hat too. Would have hated to see it get blown!

[QUOTE=Roobarb;1122032]As for the stalls it was a case of spot the aviation theme! I found one stall selling those 1980’s airshow photo books and two selling models and that was it. Now Biggin Hill has always had its share of non-aviation stuff like conservatories and do it yourself type stalls but they seem to have forced out all of the favourite book stalls etc of old. You couldn’t even pick up a musty old aircraft mag to reminice about the “good old days”. At least Campkins were still there for my beloved film 🙂

QUOTE]

The pitch prices at Biggin Hill are very high compared with most other airshows, which I feel puts off a lot of the aviation-related stalls. You simply struggle to sell enough books, magazines, patches etc. to cover your pitch fee and other costs, let alone show a worthwhile return for the weekend. The dearth of aviation stalls was very noticeable. Two conservatory sales, though, and you’re breaking even.

The Vulcan Restoration Trust was there but our stand was stuck on a new row of stalls beyond the grandstand and the RAF display. These were (supposedly) premium flight line pitches and cost the same as those in the main exhibition area. However, to say that public circulation around the new stalls was low would be an understatement! I’m sure a lot of people at the show didn’t know the stalls were there – there was nothing in the programme to draw the crowd’s attention to the new layout, although the commentators did try to tell people about it over the PA. Even if people did know there were extra stalls, it’s doubtful many would made the effort to walk down what, to all effect, was a dead end. We probably did less than 30% of our normal business (which is a loss we can’t afford), so it’s doubtful you’ll see us there next year.

Rich

p.s. Thanks Melvyn … a true gentleman.

MELVYN?! Shome mistake surely…

My, is that flour-bombing Rearwin overhead? What a quick 12,000 mile transit, old boy.

Our first airshow at Biggin Hill on Saturday and I have to say we were impressed with the ease of getting in and out, but then we were at the golf course end.
No delays (thankfully) getting back to the M25, which was a major bonus as it was a round trip of 400 miles for us!

A good show topped by great commentary from Melvyn and Brendan.
I can’t say we’ll be there next year (due to the distance) but we WILL be back at some point!

p.s. Thanks Melvyn for motioning to my girlfriend to remove her hat before you swung the Rearwin around – a true gentleman.

I’ve been going to the Biggin Hill Air Fair man and boy for years now and the entrance and particularly exit was a piece of cake this year, I remember some hellish egresses in years gone by.

Loved the new layout, very novel waving to Miss D as she taxied past the car, I was lucky on the sunday in that I had just the rope barrier on one side of the car.
Saturday I arrived late and was parked near the back, but had some aircraft to ogle as I set off on my yomp to the main display area, I speak as a veteran of Mildenhall Air Fetes of the late 70’s when you had a two mile trek to the static display, the tail of the C5 being the aimpoint, so no airshow with the possible exception of RIAT can trouble me walking wise.

The weekends flying was superb, as was the excellent commentary pairing of Brendan and Melvin.
Well done to the organisers, congratulations on a safe, well executed show in lovely weather.

I normally go on my motorbike to avoid the traffic but we took the car this year for various boring reasons.

Got there at about 11.30, but a bit of a queue once we were on the airfield to get through the turnstiles. Left at 5 and straight out. So, I’d agree with the experience of most that it was pretty well organised.

And a great show, one of the best I recall in the 30-odd years I’ve been going to the Bump.

Great show, great weather! 🙂

Got off the airfield easily enough (golf course exit), but it took an hour or so to get through the lanes and out to the M25….. hardly the end of the world though is it… no better and no worse than I expected.

Overall I was very happy with the day.

I walked to the show from my house and walked back afterwards. No queues, no early starts, great show too!

A little forward planning pays dividends 😉

I’m extremely grateful for the weather this weekend – if it had been seven days ago it would have been a washout. The WW1 segment was fantastic, as was seeing the Buchon performing with the ‘local’ MKIX and ML407.

Only a year to wait for the next one.

Why is the Sea Vixen grounded?

Because it’s CofA expired on 18/5/07 for starters.

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1&mode=detailnosummary&fullregmark=G-CVIX