Manston Event May 30th

What dissapointed me most was the complete un-interest shown in the flying by most of the air cadets there, to see that marvellous spitfire display completly ignored by a gaggle of kids/teenagers in RAF colours seemed such a waste.

Sad to read, compared to the ATC present at Brunty on sunday who were enthusiastic.

should have asked for your money back…

I thought that the lack of information about the actual flying displays and the poor communications were disappointing. At a fiver for a car and free if you were on foot my expectaions were not too high but nevertheless I am sure it could have been better organised. And the sun shone in time for the flying and when he finally got off the ground we were treated to Dan Griffith’s usual stunning display of the Spirit of Kent.

I have to agree, i live in the area and visit the museums a lot, but have never been able to get to any of this events before, and tbh i found it dissapointing, and i didn’t even pay for parking!!! The flying schdule was very disjointed, and even the stewards didn’t seem to know what was going on, we all expect changes to these occasions, but to be told we were expecting the decathlon aerobactics aircraft was going to display and then 30mins later finding out that the display slot time had run out seemed very odd.

The ground displays had no organisation,and seemed very confused, there was no infomation about the vehicles on display(an info board of a few lines keeps people interested) and there seemed to be an awful lot of stalls selling junk, or the obligatory huge raffle tent with five containers of alcohol to draw you in…

What dissapointed me most was the complete un-interest shown in the flying by most of the air cadets there, to see that marvellous spitfire display completly ignored by a gaggle of kids/teenagers in RAF colours seemed such a waste.

Dan Griffiths display in the Sprit of Kent was quite stunning, he showed the Spitfire in such a way that all of its profile’s were covered. His display is diiferent and i believe he is up there with the best, Ray Hanna and Nigel Lamb!

I thought that the lack of information about the actual flying displays and the poor communications were disappointing. At a fiver for a car and free if you were on foot my expectaions were not too high but nevertheless I am sure it could have been better organised. And the sun shone in time for the flying and when he finally got off the ground we were treated to Dan Griffith’s usual stunning display of the Spirit of Kent.

The Typhoon did a practice display at Southend at about 4.30 this evening followed by the Hawk. I was pretty annoyed at being delayed leaving work but the delay meant I was driving along the seafront as the Typhoon finished so it wasn’t so bad after all.

Southend

Just a Typhoon coming and going to Southend. Two are parked, one is spare.

Plus of course you can all see the newly arrived Nimrod.

All in all sounds like a good day and the weather is not looking bad, so that’s my Sunday sorted!:) Will any of the participants at Southend be using Manston as a base?

2 x DC8 in Sunday, plus Flybe and Egyptair. Parking is indeed by the dead Dc8 and 747. Parking via a one way in – one way out system, the road through the airfield is closed. Spitfire, Harvard, Messershmitt and Stearman are main flyers 😉

[QUOTE=Elliott Marsh;1587316]YouTube of Dan’s 2008/9 displays, well worth checking out if you have a few minutes. He flies a very different display profile to any other warbird pilot I’ve seen which keeps the aircraft solidly in front, and close, to the crowd. QUOTE]

See what you mean about the different way of displaying the Spit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kxhyPM3Tbw

I have heard the yak has been replaced by a harvard, and there were some concerns over the servicability of the spit, but the tiffies have just landed, sunday is also a busy day at the airport for cargo aircraft, so some 747’s/a-300’s/dc-8s about!

Many thanks – and I will look forard to seeing your usual selection of terrific pictures, if you share them with us.:)

You can park in the carpark between the two museums, but that fills up very quickly. The main carpark is just down the road to the left of the museums, on the large grass area where the DC8 and 747 corpses are.

I got there at about 10-10.30am last year, drove in to the parking area mentioned above with no problems.

Thanks Elliott. Sounds very promising – it says it starts at 1100. Is the parking between the two museums? When is it advisable to get there to find a decent space?

I am!

If it follows the same format as last year, there should be plenty to see on the ground (military vehicles, stalls etc) in addition to the two museum buildings. Flying-wise, last year saw two ‘Kent Spitfire’ displays from Dan Griffith, and an appearance by the locally based TG Aviation Stearman. The Spitfire displays were absolutely fantastic – there is excellent footage on YouTube of Dan’s 2008/9 displays, well worth checking out if you have a few minutes. He flies a very different display profile to any other warbird pilot I’ve seen which keeps the aircraft solidly in front, and close, to the crowd.

The Typhoon will also be operating from Manston for the Southend airshow, though the arrivals/departures are best viewed from the roadside or the laybys under the approach.

From memory, this year we have the Spitfire, Bf-108, Stearman and Yak 55 to look forward to…possibly one other aircraft, I can’t remember!