Church Fenton airshow 26-09-2015

This was a long 230 mile journey to North Yorkshire but I would only travel this distance if I get it as guaranteed that the weather was going to be good Furthermore there has been no air shows here since it closed as an RAF base so I was a new show for me.

Sure enough, the weather was very good but my journe took too long. It should not have taken me any more than about three and a half hours at most but it actually took seven.

I drove up the A1, avoiding the M1 because most of the time the M1 is a nightmare.

Unfortunately, though I went up the A1 I was not spared. Having been delayed by two hours due to an accident, when I eventually got to Church Fenton, I was met by an almost endless que of traffic trying to get in to the show. This would not have happened had here been no accident earlier in my journey.

There has been lot of accidents affecting my m-way journeys this year. In other years such accidents have rarely affected my travel times.

Having now arrived at the airfield, I missed the first one hour and twenty minutes of displays but thankfully not the things I wanted to see the most. Having no time to meet my friends until the flying ended, I headed straight for the crowd line.

I then strolled through an exit along the crowd line and I became aware that I had just walked out of the official showground and in to a show car parking area which was right in front of the display runway. All of sudden therwere huge gaps in the crowd line and I positioned myself there for the rest of the afternoon. Just a few feet away and inside the showground people were packed like sardines.

Despite everything, I relaxed for the next two and a half hours and enjoyed the displays. Then I met my friends and later photographed some of the aircraft leaving. I was in no hurry to go home and I did not leave until around sunset but then the nightmare returned.

Thinking that the M1 could not possibly be a bad road late evening to travel on, as I got closer to the M25, I came across an endless 20 miles of coned off lanes with nothing happening and no sign that any work had been carried out. A new bridge is being built over the M1 but I would only expect about three miles of lanes blocked off either side of it, not a ten mile radius.

Coupled with the above, the hard shoulder alternated itself between being a hard shoulder and then an extra lane with a suitable plethora of stranded and overheated vehicle messing things up even more.

I was in this start/stop que of traffic for about two and a half hours lasting over 20 miles and this was at 12.30am! I did not get home until about 2.30am.

If the weather is good, I will go again next year and another show halfway home the following day.

Thanks for looking

Martin Eames