The first thing to say is that it happened ! Far from certain, when the Abingdon show and others cancelled at 36 hours notice due to the national bereavement. After some consultation, IWM decided to go ahead, a decision greatly appreciated by the thousands who attended, and of course those individuals who felt strongly that quiet reflection was more appropriate were welcome to make their own arrangements.
The event was commemorative in nature, to a cause dear to the Royal Family. Let us remember that the Lancaster flypast was one of the most cherished parts of the summer’s Jubilee celebration, and the weekend was quickly configured to include a heartfelt salute to the late monarch.
The display commenced with a lone Spitfire ( PR11) taking to the skies, and in a sequence without commentary, perform a lyrical and moving presentation of that classic fighter profile, arcing and rolling across the cloud-dotted skies, a poignant salute to the wartime generation, and of course Her Majesty herself. John Romain flew this slot, with a style and instinct that might have you believe that Ray Hanna’s baton had indeed been passed on.
The weather was fine yesterday, though reportedly a bit showery on Saturday, but generally quite suitable for a full display, and began with two Buchons getting airborne, after which Paul Bonhomme and Steve Jones flew a tight two-ship sequence, both trailing smoke. The slight crosswind caused the cancellation of the Nimrod biplane, though it has to be said the nine DH Moths seemed to manage just fine.
The display content was essentially a generous scoop of many of the UK’s cherished warbirds, naturally featuring many of the Duxford residents, and a few others returning after an absence, such as the silver MK XIV RN201, and the ex Robs Lamplough Staggerwing, back at DX after 40 years away!. Bob Davy has brought his muscular YAK-3UT (F-AZIM) onto the circuit and performed a notably fast routine in the compact fighter, another shape back at Duxford after quite a few years.
The highlight of the display was of course the mass Spitfire and Hurricane flypast, taking off yesterday from the M11 end, thus giving the occupants on the re-opened Tank Bank that treasured view of the take offs nearly head on. The record was not broken yesterday, with the mooted 20 Spits ending up as 16, plus four Hurricanes, but one can hardly complain! It is still sensory overload, as 20 fighters get airborne in just a minute or so. The assembly of the Balbo is a well-honed craft at Duxford, a sight not seen anywhere else in the world, and even after decades of Duxford displays it never fails to impress. It is nice to hear some new names on the list of pilots, and regardless of experience, it appeared to be flown flawlessly.
The display ran very smoothly, and seemingly without any incidents or ‘moments’ at all. Reflecting on the event, one has a degree of relief that the Duxford magic has not been lost, and it would appear that co-operation and collaboration has resumed between IWM and the resident operators, after a troubling period which saw the much-lamented loss of Flying Legends.
This was not quite Flying Legends, and there was virtually no contributions from Europe ( apart from Czech helicopters) but it was packed display of warbirds, which is, after all what people really want. It had a buzz and excitement which you only get at this hub of warbird flying, and which their ‘family displays’ simply do not generate.
The shadows lengthened, as spectators packed up and drifted away, and the passenger- flying Rapides and Tiger Moths once again reclaimed the airfield. Looking across the now-empty public spaces, how pleasing it was to see there was almost no litter left behind, perhaps a manifestation of the atmosphere of respect and duty which the place generates.
Duxford – still the best !
By: bazv - 27th September 2022 at 22:30
Yes we had 2 nights in a fairly local hotel + 2 tickets + parking permit which came to around £300,OTOH we are almost bereft of airshows in scotland so it was nice to spend 10 days ‘dahn sarf’ doing various aviation and steam railway related visits.
On another plus – we were extremely lucky in that the weather was correctly forecast for the sunday,so we took a risk on the previous thursday and bought the tickets/permit online,we stayed with friends on the fri night and she printed off the tickets/permit for us.
It was a very enjoyable show – I have only done a Duxford airshow maybe 5 times in my life so still a special treat (except for paying to get in LOL – most airshows I have been to in my life – I have been ‘working’ and therefore being paid to enjoy the flying)
By: dhfan - 27th September 2022 at 17:21
My days are definitely over then.
Not so much the grub as I always stoked up before entry, but with two tickets, probably at least one overnight stay due to a journey of a couple of hours plus and advancing years, that’s a weeks’ pension gone with no guarantee it won’t be rained off.
By: Trolley Aux - 27th September 2022 at 16:25
Tickets still need to be purchase pre airshow and of course the separate car park ticket you then need to print said tickets to show upon entry.
I went this year VIP i think it was 150 quid all in, a great view but my days of airshows is probably over due to the fact that tins or bottles of water 2.50 each, burgers needing mortgages and a friend bought two curries and 6 cans of coke was 55 quid I think.
the good thing with the VIP tix was it took 4 minutes to get out of the car park!
By: dhfan - 27th September 2022 at 11:19
Do I gather a smartphone is needed to buy tickets for Duxford airshows now?
Having said that, as I believe they’re still all advance tickets anyway, I’ve probably been to my last Duxford airshow.
They can get insurance against bad weather – I can’t.
By: bazv - 17th September 2022 at 21:54
Without wishing to hijack this Duxford thread,but related to the ‘Stirling’ post above.
I put together a short video (3.45) from Cosby on fri/saturday,the first 2 clips are the C47 and PBY arriving/landing on fri afternoon,the rest is take offs and landings from t’other end on saturday.The ‘interesting’ arrival is maybe not quite as dramatic as portrayed above,there was a fairly strong crosswind gust on very short finals – I would think far too low to attempt a ‘go around’ so I guess the pilot had to make the best of it,the pitch forward onto the nosewheel did not look too hard although hardly ideal.
It was lovely to be so close to the runway/strip/action
By: Stirling - 17th September 2022 at 21:11
I too made a week of it starting with my first time at the Cosby show on Saturday and i was, like others i overheard amazed at the contrast of the B17 display away from Dux; it was banked over at approx 350ft all way down showline which was L shaped so it also felt like it was circling you , it wasn’t just 3 flat flybys and land like at Dux. The Catalina was there and what a STOL aircraft it is when light, the £5 to go on board was a bargain. Mind you the Catalina show landing was a bit sporty curved approach right down to hard on main wheel which threw it hard onto noseleg before the other main – for a split second it was pointing straight for crowd – if it had ploughed in and slewed.. good job ground was rock hard and I overheard one of the crew discussing landing after. After the B17 it was the P51 Contrary Mary and what suprising letdown act as no aeros IIRC and dull natural metal just didn’t work against the sky compared to the olive drab of the B17.
Duxford I did Friday as these days no smart phone means no tickets can be bought, still i wasn’t moaning as the cost saving meant I could spend more on books – I noted there were fewer book stalls than the previous year infact maybe only one The Aviation Bookshop but they had some superb multibuy bargains. Speaking to the campsite warden they normally get alot of Duxford visitors but they were noticeably quieter than normal and hardly any overseas visitors.. I was intrigued that the TFC Fiat CR42 has now been disassembled compared to last year when it was visually complete and engine inhibited, Choosing my words carefully; apparently the contracted out work has not been to desired standard and so requires some remedial work , I suspect therefore it may well need some fabric recovering as well.
By: bazv - 15th September 2022 at 09:09
We were ‘down south’ for 10 days but had not planned/booked anything due to unsettled forecasts by the ‘weather guessers’,our first port of call was the Victory Show at Cosby where we were lucky with the weather and did the fri and saturday happily esconsed not far from the PBY and C47 🙂
We then travelled clockwise around England (norfolk/essex/kent/wilts/OW) taking in some beaches and steam railways and even Lakenheath/Mildenhall spotters sites.We went to OW for the DH fly in but it was cancelled for obvious reasons (anyway the weather was awful so it saved a load of lovely biplanes getting very wet).During our travels we booked for Duxford on the sunday due to an optimistic forecast – gosh weren’t we lucky that the forecast turned out to be correct :).
Nice write up Propstrike 🙂
John Romain’s opening display was exceedingly smoothly flown (as you would expect from an engineer),the flying was well planned and all pilots displayed great talent and nobody ‘overcooked’ the flying – all very nicely done.
I will not name many pilots individually as I have worked with many of them in previous jobs :).
I will mention the Spit Mk XVI which gave a very smooth and tight display,I actually thought it would have been flown by a relatively young pilot but not so,when the pilot dismounted after the display he was obviously a ‘mature’ Gent (George Haye ? the owner ?).
There was certainly a lovely variety of aircraft types to take in – nothing at all to dislike and a nice touch that we had the Norwegian Vampire flying just prior to returning home from filming duties in East Anglia.
We both enjoyed the Staggerwing display immensely,both being flown enthusiastically and smoothly.All in All a great day out with flying from 1310 to 1730ish with only a few short breaks.
Unlike L-M and DB I am not a fan of big ‘Balbo’s’ – it was perhaps a nice tribute to the Duxford Wing and certainly an impressive sight/sound – especially with the 3 Spit 1A’s whistling away merrily at the front 🙂
By: Trolley Aux - 13th September 2022 at 12:11
A great summing up of the event PS. I went and yes a great warbird weekend. easy in at 8am and a very quick out at 18.15 which a big hats off to that organisation of parking. Hats off to IWM for not cancelling I do feel a slight over reaction and as you have stated if you did not feel you could attend after the passing of Her Majesty it would be your decision as per the Bank Holiday 19th September 22 for the funeral
HM GOV Statement
“This bank holiday will operate in the same way as other bank holidays, and there is no statutory entitlement to time off. Employers may include bank holidays as part of a worker’s leave entitlement.”
To be honest the only thing I think spoils Airshows not is the price of a can of drink, Duxford water, Coke etc £2.50 a can or bottle, I take my own not because I am tight but because it is way too much it must of cost some families a small fortune. and I cannot be bothered to queue up for 30 minutes.
All in all a good show
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September 12, 2022 at 10:23 am