Fridays "Flying Legends"

I went on Friday last year, and from the time I arrived (11.00) till 16.30 it was pretty much non-stop action, especially from mid afternoon, when many of the overseas machines flew in. Almost all the weekend displays practiced their routines, and the 3 Mustangs were fabulous.

I took my my mountain bike with me so I could move round the airfield and go in the field, or under the appoach. If the weather is good, it should be excellent .

I was astonished how few people were there.

Yes.. go in on the friday by all means, but don’t automatically expect any action. A couple of years ago i went in on the friday practice day and all that came in was a P-51. Also be warned that the weather is more critical to flying on the pre show friday than at the weekend.

I take that as one positive!

There’s some discussions going around in the household about changing our yearly Flying Legends experience from the regular sat-sun attendance to friday-saturday instead. I read here there’s an increase in tickets for friday?

Is it worth it doing it like that? I am one of those who would like to catch as much as the action as possible, as it’s my only airshow per year. However, it looks like I have to give in to leaving for home on sunday this year.

Any takers? What’s the negatives and the positives?

No sitting on the hard shoulder of M11 (endlessly), or half an hours walk from where you finally parked the car, to the aeroplanes, no step ladders, or fast food outlets stinking the place out with burnt onions, or over zealous comentary, right in your ear, because thats the only place theres a space (funny that) and reduced admission price i.e standard entry price; (free for children) all you do get is a leisurely day of A/C flying in, and air testing the resident ones…..the sheer hell of it, I don’t think I could go through all that again!

They had a rethink on upping the prices on Friday – – too right to,blooming cheek.
http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.6645

we did 3 days last year and were so much more relaxed!

To tell the truth, I am not convinced it’s a good deal for me personally. My travel-company wanted Friday and Saturday. Going all the way from Scandinavia I was a bit puzzled why we couldn’t stay for the entire weekend so we wouldn’t miss out on any action. If it was me going alone, I would go all three days to be sure. I don’t really want to pay that kind of money and then leave almost halfways thru it. I’ve been there Sat and Sun every year since 06 and Sunday in 05 and I’m conservative enough to not try to fix stuff if it’s not broken. Not convinced, but too late to change now. Majority speaks.

To be honest last year was an exception, as virtually the entire display programme was of aircraft not resident at Dx. This year barring any last minute CAA issues will i should imagine be ‘back to normal’.

(Virtually = The Majority).

To be honest last year was an exception, as virtually the entire display programme was of aircraft not resident at Dx. This year barring any last minute CAA issues will i should imagine be ‘back to normal’.

Last I checked, it said ‘suspended’, but I’m not saying either this or that.

My travelling buddies are less into it than I am. I am a warbird/historic aviation/ww2/fanatic. They’re just into it…big difference 😀

A couple of years ago i went in on the friday practice day and all that came in was a P-51.

I know… they are just soooo common… I went up to an airfield last year quite a few weekends in the summer and all that flew was a P51… or two… but do you know what… it was absolutely fantastic…
Don’t ever get complacent… you never know when it will all end…

I think it was more to do with the fact that Duxford wanted to charge extra for people going in on the Friday even though they weren’t giving anything extra away.
They can’t guarantee that private owners are going to turn up and fly or practice on that day.
I certainly don’t take anything like the P51’s flying for granted ,i think the halcyon days of just flying for the hell of it have gone now,everything comes down to cost,fuel,insurance,maintenance.

That is certainly good news Wyvern Fan,

Glad to hear they are back on track. Do you have a time scale on this, with regard to other shows??

I have no insider knowledge on this one merlot… my comment is more hopeful than definate.!

I know… they are just soooo common… I went up to an airfield last year quite a few weekends in the summer and all that flew was a P51… or two… but do you know what… it was absolutely fantastic…
Don’t ever get complacent… you never know when it will all end…

Not complacent Yak 11.. just honest. 😉

In order to keep the peace at home, I do Friday (as an annual leave day from work)and Sunday with some mates. The atmousphere on the friday is very nice – the tank bank is empty and I can geek out at my own pace around the hangers. Sunday is a more ‘airshow’ type outing with some less fanatical friends:)

I am around on Saturday to keep the Boss happy too – we all win!

DS

As a bit of shameless self-promotion, I posted a large thread here detailing my Friday experience a while back. 😀

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=97318

I’ve only been doing the three days for the past couple of years and can’t recommend it enough. Can’t speak for the pre-2008 Fridays, but I’ve always been lucky in seeing a full day of flying. What’s great is that many of the aircraft that display on the Friday are involved in multi-aircraft sequences over the weekend, so you get to see them from a different perspective. There’s just a wonderful atmosphere at Duxford on that day.