RAF Mildenhall Air Shows

A cold beer from the ice-filled tub and a “wet burger” are ingrained in my memory:D
Does anyone remember having to take a leek in an open-air trench cordoned-off by a wind-break.Unforgetable….happy days:)

I’m afraid we won’t be seeing any more Midenhall airshows. Even if plenty of people can be amassed to organise such an event again, i don’t think such cholesterol levels are legal in this century.

Mildenhall was food binge!

Don’t remind us, I’m struggling with the hallucination of THAT Polish sausage which keeps hovering over the lawn.
Incidentally, while the secondary gates are still in place, there seem to be so many concrete blocks and spiky things behind them that I reckon it would take someone of the calibre of dear Fred Dibnah months to clear them away.

I’m afraid we won’t be seeing any more Midenhall airshows. Even if plenty of people can be amassed to organise such an event again, i don’t think such cholesterol levels are legal in this century.

Mildenhall was food binge!

Lack of personnel is a highly unlikey excuse for Mildenhall, in affect there are 3 bases within a few miles, Mildenhall, Lakenheath and Feltwell

Due to different operations schedules and different troop strengths because of deployments, bases are not likely to second personnel from other units just to put on an Open House. Both the fighter wing at Lakenheath and the units at Mildenhall do deploy quite a bit as well. Not to mention that the AR unit at Mildenhall is likely rather busy taking care of refueling needs for USAFE.

It’s all down to security, bottom line, the problem is that they’ve changed the entrance into The Hall so much that I can’t see how it could be modified to cope with airshow traffic

I know, I’ve been through there numerous times since 1999. However, airshow parking lots and security checkpoints are usually at alternate gates opened up for overflow traffic so that parking areas can be kept outside the bulk of the base’s facilities.

“Suspended” is completely accurate, and here’s why. Whenever a base puts on an open house, most of the personnel assigned to the base are assigned some sort of duty, such as parking, security, or as a vendor, to cite a few examples. Take away the personnel, and you won’t be able to put on an open house or airshow. That’s why a lot of units have had to suspend their open houses at various points over the past six years; there just aren’t enough people at the base to put on the show. When I was in Kansas we had to cancel our local open house one year for just that reason. The reason we were able to put it on pretty much every other year since 2001 was because there was a pretty sizeable ANG contingent on the base, and we let them run with it if we had a lot of people overseas at that time (do remember that open houses and airshows aren’t usually scheduled during the winter, so it’s not like you have a huge window if you want to try and just rechedule the thing). So, while there may be secondary security issues that have helped suspend some open houses or airshows, the primary reason is most likely still a lack of personnel.

Lack of personnel is a highly unlikey excuse for Mildenhall, in affect there are 3 bases within a few miles, Mildenhall, Lakenheath and Feltwell, I was in the area last week and us Brits are outnumbered, talk about ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’.
It’s all down to security, bottom line, the problem is that they’ve changed the entrance into The Hall so much that I can’t see how it could be modified to cope with airshow traffic, and I hate those timber panels inserted at drivers height so that you can’t see through the fence, what a waste of time and such an obstacle to keen types like me.
On a different tack, Lakenheath have kept their viewing area while Mildenhall have removed theirs. Why? No doubt there are CCTV cameras focused on the Lake area and I’m sure that everyone entering is processed via their car reg, good idea too, they used to do that at Wethersfield.
Perhaps some brave soul would like to put on a dustbin sack with a slot cut in it and test the theory out, hopefully, you wouldn’t be able to report on the results.

“Suspended” is completely accurate, and here’s why. Whenever a base puts on an open house, most of the personnel assigned to the base are assigned some sort of duty, such as parking, security, or as a vendor, to cite a few examples. Take away the personnel, and you won’t be able to put on an open house or airshow. That’s why a lot of units have had to suspend their open houses at various points over the past six years; there just aren’t enough people at the base to put on the show. When I was in Kansas we had to cancel our local open house one year for just that reason. The reason we were able to put it on pretty much every other year since 2001 was because there was a pretty sizeable ANG contingent on the base, and we let them run with it if we had a lot of people overseas at that time (do remember that open houses and airshows aren’t usually scheduled during the winter, so it’s not like you have a huge window if you want to try and just rechedule the thing). So, while there may be secondary security issues that have helped suspend some open houses or airshows, the primary reason is most likely still a lack of personnel.

The Official line from RAF Mildenhall is that the Airshow’s have only been ‘suspended’ and not cancelled, therefore there is always the possibility, however unlikely that they may re start again sometime in the future.

I am with you.
I think those days of “Open House” days in the UK are gone.
Oddly enough the Americans have had such things in Japan at least in the last 12 months or so – I know I saw them on their TV…!!!!

Unfortunately, with the current military climate, I fear they will not happen again soon if ever. The increase in military commitments was cited as the reason for stopping them and as far as I can see the situation has deteriorated since then.