I stood in the field and watched the Missing Man climb into the deep blue yonder, after 30 years of visits, made more frequent recently by my missus love of Jags, I was pretty choked. The silence that followed was cut by the sound of skylarks, the crowds at the end of the runway shuffled silently away, it was the end of an era.
Yesterday I went to see the last rights in Norfolk, it went badly for me, I already spent quite a time writing this down, only for my computer to crash, and lose everything, so here we go again.
I was woken at 6:30 by madams father on the phone to tell me that he had a bad knee and couldn’t go, madam, bless her, Jaguar stalwart, had such a bad back that she couldn’t get out of bed.
While making my butties and geting stuff ready, I realised that 2 of the batteries for my trusty, tatty camcorder hadn’t charged overnight so I dug out the posh family Sony only to find that it had 35 mins on the battery and the charger was missing, ok for a standby I thought.
My Canon SLR, which I rarely use these days, had run out of film and despite my efforts, non could be found, it had to be the basic family digi then as standby.
The journey was horrific, the car was running rough for some reason and the rain was torrential from Bury St Edmunds to Diss, I nearly turned back.
The Norwich ring road had red lights all the way round and on arrival at Scottow the parking situation was desperate, I had to leave my car on the Buxton road and hike up to the end of the runway.
I decided to stand in the old horse field near the derelict house and found a telegraph pole to lean on. Unfortunately every small child and dog from Norwich had the same idea.
I did find some good conversation however, an old local boy with an impenetrable Norfolk accent and a retired couple from the coast, the husband having the reputation of fainting in front of the Queen during a parade in 1953.
There were some keen types behind us who kept us informed of events, one of them being a young Australian who couldn’t tell the difference between a Spitfire and a Tornado.
We saw the diamond 9 plus 2 racing about in the distance, but their arrival took us by surprise, question is, with the knowledge that large members of the public, who pay for this, were present, why didn’t we get a good blast along the runway, all down to ceremonial protocol I guess, but Joe Public were not happy.
We then witnessed the Tornado’s in close formation, high up, waiting for the Harrier, again, a quick flybye for those that matter and no thought for the general public who were there in very large numbers.
OK, I appreciated that the Spitfire and Hurricane couldn’t attend due to crosswinds, but try explaining that to families out of Norwich.
Eventually I wandered over to the other side of the runway, opposite the control van, if any of you noticed, I was the dude wearing the wax long riding coat, green rucksack and yellow and white brolly.
I then spent the time listening to the band and watching the local bird life through the bins, ie a buzzard being attacked by gulls and the mating procedures of the skylarks while watching the kids destroy the crops with no admonishment from their dads.
Suddenly the bigwigs HS arrived on the taxiway, my trusty vid decided to pack up and I spent most of the time with this beast a few feet away from me swapping cassettes into the posh camera which decided to run out of time, great.
So when the Jags lit up, the rain started, I stuck me brolly in the Soviet proof fence and waited.
Of course they taxied down the runway so I missed the close ups, then the vid failed again and was nearly kicked into the field, so it had to be the crappy digi, the rain effects were superb but our digi only takes what it feels like taking, no control.
At least for once I didn’t see events through a view finder, thank god for the ear defenders, and that was that, 2 last passes and no more, my vid won’t even play back what I managed to take, madam has stopped me from kicking it up the garden.
Our holidays in Sheringham may have ended, it was a very sad day.
By: DBW - 3rd April 2006 at 10:33
A very sad day, We turned down the single track road just before the crash gate and found that there was very few cars parked there. Knowing that the run in was from East to West we managed to find a nice spot directly under the track of the diamond 9 and Tornado/Harrier combine. Surprisingly there was only 6 or 7 cars and no more than 20 or so people there. After a Burger in the village we reloacted to the 04 threshold and watched the jaguars depart from there, quite an awesome sight as they thundered past in the rain in afterburner. Sadly just before the Jags left a poor enthusisast was chucked over the fence and into an ambulance for some reason, hope he is OK.
Shortly after the departures the rain stopped, I think it was appropriate in a way for foul weather, it seemed to match peoples depressed moods.
By: Pete Truman - 3rd April 2006 at 00:23
Gawd, I feel for you Pete – a sad day made worse by Mr. Murphy!
I did wonder how the day would pan out for those outside at crash gate 3 – crash gate 4 would have been much better for viewing the flypasts and take-offs (but offering far less room I admit).
In the station’s defence, the flypasts were advertised as being over the parades (and practiced as such) – along the runway would not have been of much use for that. I agree it’s a great shame but deliberately putting on what would in effect be an air display for the public would put the RAF in a lose-lose situation with the press likely to crucify them for wasting public money etc. (look at the reports of the recent Jag deployment). The Hurricane cancelled early in the morning, and the Spitfire cancelled not long afterwards – the weather has us all at its mercy, as the rain also proved.
Incidentally, the Jags had to backtrack on the runway as the taxiways were still blocked by seating and the parade dais; the BAe 146 was parked the other side of this blockage so could taxi normally.
I agree with what you say, sorry, I’ve been in a bad mood all day and should have taken the time to say how superb your pictures were, due to madams bad back, I now have to slink off into the spare bedroom to try and get some kip. Incidentally, I did video the hordes at the end of the runway but I’m unable to get the vid to play it back, it was too warm tonight for me to have the excuse to light the fire with the bloody thing.
By: barrythemod - 2nd April 2006 at 22:45
I stood in the field and watched the Missing Man climb into the deep blue yonder, after 30 years of visits, made more frequent recently by my missus love of Jags, I was pretty choked. The silence that followed was cut by the sound of skylarks, the crowds at the end of the runway shuffled silently away, it was the end of an era.
Ah man,at the end of this report I had tears in my eyes.A crap end to a crap day.Thanks for telling the rest of us who couldn’t/wouldn’t attend.Your quote above sounds like the end of a novel 😎
By: Manston Airport - 2nd April 2006 at 22:40
Now whats going to happen to it?
James
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April 2, 2006 at 7:09 pm