For me the airshow season used to start with North Weald.
It’s a great venue with lots of history. Great places to take pictures. Fighter pan, taxiways, good trade stands. Trees, grass, and the potential to find something lurking in one of those many hangers.
For about 7 years (from memory) apart from trade shows and the Flypast flyin nothing much has happened.
Duxford is a great airshow and venue but I stll miss Weald.
I have stopped going to Mildenhall and Fairford. The only shows I go to regularly are Old Warden and Duxford.
So, how can we get Weald up and running again.
Incidentally what happened to all those aircraft based there? Bedsheet Bomber, Lincoln, Meteors, Dc3’s etc.
By: YakRider - 25th September 2002 at 11:59
RE: North Weald. What’s the chance of an airshow?
There are usually a couple of DC3s based at NW. One currently has no engines. There are also two Catalinas (though one is being readied to fly to the US). The Meteor is tucked away around the corner in a dispersal pen, but is looking the worse for wear. The long resident Sea Vixen was scrapped earlier in the year.
Tony Haig Thomas keeps his Avenger at NW, there are also several Yak 11s, 50s and 52s plus two Beech 18s and a Staggerwing. There’s also a P51 being worked on in one of the smaller hangars.
Jet-wise there are a number of JPs, an L39, a T33 in Thunderbirds livery and the Galeb is back again.
Also, a lot of interesting stuff comes in for maintenance – like Big Beautiful Doll a few weeks ago.
In terms of an air show, I think the big problem now is that Stansted is much busier than it used to be, and NW is under their airspace with a 1500 foot ceiling (whereas DX has 4500 and is well away from approach and departure paths). This obviously limits what can be done with aerobatics or routines by ‘heavy metal’, although the Yaks, Extras and Sukhois manage OK at the Aerofair, but they are smaller, lighter aircraft.
By: Arabella-Cox - 24th September 2002 at 17:04
RE: North Weald. What’s the chance of an airshow?
The Lincoln’s at Sandtoft. No idea on the rest though.
By: futurshox - 24th September 2002 at 15:56
RE: North Weald. What’s the chance of an airshow?
Bedsheet Bomber is still there, although looking somewhat the worse for wear. Couldn’t tell you about the others for sure though, although I think there is a Meteor airframe next to one of the hangars.
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September 24, 2002 at 2:59 pm