Report on RAF Scampton airshow.

Many thanks to everyone for the fantastic pictures.

The USAF were kind enough to contribute a flyby of a KC135, which made two passes which is one more than you usually get with RAF heavies.

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Obviously most of the static was made up of the planes that flew in on Friday and I do not intend, in general, to repeat them unless there is something of interest.

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The rear end of the Swedish Historical Flight’s Saab 37 Viggen

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Although the site at Scampton was used during the 1st world war nothing remains from that period. In 1936 a state of the art bomber airfield was constructed which included the four Type C hangars which are now Grade 2 listed buildings. The listing description, which is well worth reading is here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1391594

Hangar 2 was used by 617 squadron when they were operating from Scampton.

Hanger 2 was open in which was housed the fragile aircraft of the BAE collection together with various other artefacts and display boards relating to the squadrons which operated from Scampton. Squadron Leader (retired) P.J.Goodall was there to sign his book, he had been Commanding Officer of 27 Squadron based at Scampton which had been the first squadron to be equipped with the Vulcan B2. He showed us a part of the display which had a photograph of him in 1968 when the squadron adopted a “small” live elephant as a mascot, an elephant forming the squadron badge. This was derived from when the squadron was formed in 1915 at Hounslow Heath and they were flying the Martinsyde G.100 “Elephant”, so called because of it’s size and lack of manoeuvrability! Despite this, or maybe because of this, the squadron motto is “With all speed to the Stars”.

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Any ideas what this may be?

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It looks like it may be gimbol mounted and it is near a Blue Steel bomb/missile I am guessing part of the guidance system connecting to those front fins.

On Sunday I am pleased to say that the Pembroke was serviceable and nicely fits everybodies criterion of historic and rare, in fact I can safely say that this is the only one flying in the UK.

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The last act up to close the show was the RAF Typhoon display. Rather disappointingly this turned out to be another of those modern fast jets which I am pretty sure are not rare and have two afterburners as standard! You can check here; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurofighter_Typhoon

Golly gosh, shock horror, look away now if you do not want to see a fast jet!

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That closed what I considered to be an excellent flying display with something of interest for everybody.

We did attend Sunday to do justice to the static display, in particular that of HHA who are resident at Scampton, and to catch the aircraft that did not display on Saturday either by design or serviceability. Sadly the BBMF were not able to display on Sunday because of unsuitable wind conditions.

Hi, Goldilocks, sorry but I don’t think Alpha jets are particularly rare and I am pretty sure they all have afterburners, but I may be wrong. You could perhaps find out more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault/Dornier_Alpha_Jet.

Thanks, I.garey and for the correction which I have made.

Great pictures and a nice report. Note, the first “Auster” in the first post is Argus KK527/G-RGUS.

Gosh – a rare Alpha Jet with an afterburner !!

Goldilocks

At this point the Red Arrows were queuing up on a taxiway waiting for their slot, just eight ships as one pilot’s wife had had a baby that day, congratulations and hope all is well.

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Once the Cat had cleared the runway the Reds taxied down to the end of the runway and then, pause, the announcement came that one plane had a serviceability issue and was having to retire and as seven is not a workable number routine wise three further planes also retired sadly leaving just four planes for the Reds first public display at their home base. You have to feel for them.

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While the Reds were away forming up the Bronco came out to play.

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While an Alpha Jet was up doing what fast jets do……….

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The Norwegians were kind enough to bring along some iconic British jet aviation. which has now otherwise become a bit thin on the ground, in the form of two Vampires an FB.52 fighter and the dual seat T.55 trainer.

More about the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron here: http://www.historicalsquadron.no/article.php?Id=1379

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Clearly showing the difference in tailplane

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Next up were the American airframes with the Redtail P51 followed by Sally B and Miss Pick Up.

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At Scampton 551 aircrew and 266 aircraft, 96 Lancasters, 155 Hampdens and 15 Manchester were lost during the war with 57 Sqn alone loosing 284 aircrew killed.
We shall remember them.

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Bloody hell, I’d never have thought it was Bart Woodall’s G-BAGT! Drove past the Malden Rushett strip where he used to keep it last week, wondered where it was these days… Saw him leave Biggin at minimum airspeed and maximum climb rate once.

Thanks Hooligan much appreciated have put that right. Other than what you said no but she appeared at Old Warden last year see here https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/33924490142

The Helio H-295 Courier ’66-374 / EO’ (G-BAGT) buit in 1968 and previously registered CR, Portugal. As the man says these are very rare in Europe and the only one flying in the UK.

Apparently it appeared in an episode of Pie in the Sky with furthe info here http://wings-on-film.wikia.com/wiki/G-BAGT

“Built in 1968 as c/n 1288,[1] and originally registered as CR-LJG,[2] the aircraft was owned by Tanganyika Holdings Ltd[N 1] since 31 October 1972,[4] becoming G-BAGT when ownership was transferred to BJC Woodall Ltd on 28 August 1974. Since 31 January 2008, the aircraft has been owned by David Christopher Hanss”

Paul, thanks for the report and excellent images – first aircraft in your Austers and Chipmunk section is a Helio Courier. Know any more about it? Haven’t seen one in years, always a rare bird over here…

Thanks Mmitch. There was only access to one hangar, wonder in and out. The Museum is in another hangar but you had to have one of a limited number of free ticket, obtainable on site, to limit the numbers, to gain entry. Although the Fire museum has closed on site all their vehicles are still stored on site and were out on display both days. Hopefully I will get round to all this in time. We are already planning next year’s visit to be better placed to visit East Kirkby and sit at the end of the runways at Coningsby and Waddington. Thorpe Camp is also in the area and Woodhall Spar as it is probably worth visiting some of the pubs. There is also the new memorial just south of Lincoln. There area is literally covered with disused airfields and memorials so there is plenty to see whatever your interest. There appears to be plenty of flying at Coningsby as when we were at East Kirkby Typhoons were flying over a lot.

Thanks TT always welcome corrections. I have put that right. Once my brain gets something fixed in it I continue believing that despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Yes I hope we have a keeper here although one wonders how long Scampton will be operational. The Museum of RAF Firefighting has closed on site and are moving to new premises off site. Closure has been on the cards for many years and is very likely to be again as surely it is expensive to maintain air operations just for the Red Arrows.

I thought the format worked well with something for everybody, a small selection of fast jets and a nice collection of historic aircraft. It is a shame that more of the light aircraft on the static did not put on a display. Maybe next year.

Thanks for the report Paul. I would have liked to have a few days up there and attend it. The RAF say 50,000 attended over the two days so hopefully it will continue next year.
Was there much access to the museum and hangars?
mmitch.

Nice photos!
I went on the Saturday and thought it was a very promising start for a new show.
One more small correction – the parachute display team were the RAF Falcons not the Red Devils-note the appropriate canopies in your excellent stack photo!

The BBMF had been billed with the Lanc and 4 Spitfires but as we know this was probably not going to happen. BBMF pulled out all the stops to be able to appear at Scampton concentrating on the Lanc. On the day they did appear with the Lanc, a Hurricane and a Griffon Spit. Sadly, after all that effort, they were not able to appear on Sunday because of the wind conditions.

The display followed the normal pattern arriving and a couple of circuits in formation then splitting up for individual displays before forming up again to depart.

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We had not seen the Pembroke arrive but on the Saturday morning she could be seen parked on the far side of the airfield. As the Alpha jet was displaying the Pembroke started up and taxied to the holding point at the threshold of runway 04. With the Alpha jet down and clear of the runway the Pembroke started it’s journey to the other end of the runway for take-off on 22. As it passed us it became apparent that there may be a problem with the starboard engine. This was the case and she ended up stranded and out of sight at the threshold of 22 unable to make the left turn onto the only available taxiway. This blocked the runway for some considerable time as a tug had to be sent down the full length of the runway to make the recovery. A Global Stars 4 ship team had been fired up and waiting on a taxi-way in front of us and in the end decided to cancel their display as by then they had insufficient fuel to complete the display and divert, if the runway was still blocked, to Waddington. Whilst waiting for the runway to be cleared the autogyro came out and the Breitling Wingwalkers made a short take off on runway 22 away from the Pembroke.

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A problem with the starboard engine started to become apparent.

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And can be seen here, the starboard engine is still turning but at a much lower RPM.

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The Stars waiting for the runway to clear.

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And the autogiro also came out to play.

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Eventually the RAF Tug Display team took to the runway with an impressively slow and low pass along the runway…………

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Whilst the Wingwalkers were up the Pembroke could be seen being pulled along the northern taxiway hopefully to be fixed in time for Sunday’s display.

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Thanks Wyvernfan. They did make a fly-past before landing but, errr, I had not regularly checked the camera settings and must have accidentally changed them and the resulting pics are not good enough to use. Bit of a rookie mistake.

The RAF Scampton airshow is replacing the Waddington airshow which was original suspended whilst the runway was being resurfaced, however, when the runway was finished it was claimed that the operational demand was such that RAF Waddington could no longer support any further airshows. The Scampton show has been organised by the same team as RIAT, which runs like a carefully oiled machine.

Scampton is about the same distance north of Lincoln as Waddington is south and both lie on the A15. Unsurprisingly the layout of the showground was like a scaled down RIAT.

The only active runway now at Scampton is 04/22 and unsurprisingly 22 gets most use. The runway is fitted with lowerable over-run barriers at both ends. The A15 has been re-routed around the north eastern end of the runway as the result of a runway extension. For the show the part of the A15 close to Scampton was closed to through traffic for most of the operational days over the weekend. Those with enclosure tickets were able to park on the actual airfield whilst those with general tickets parked at the show ground just up the road with a free shuttle bus. No separate fee was made for parking.

The local councils are very keen to retain an airshow and have also put forward plans for an RAF Scampton Museum at Scampton. They see this as generating income for the area. The Scampton Airshow visitor feedback sought several pieces of information on how much we had spent in the area.

We were unable to make the Thursday fly-in day, however, we understand that there was very little activity so maybe that worked out well for us. Friday was very busy with aircraft either arriving or practicing continuously from about 9am to 5pm. Unfortunately runway 22 threshold is down a dip so regrettably from most areas of the PAV the actual touch down could not be seen. The PAV did extend further along towards the threshold but became quite narrow. We were early enough to get a place anywhere we wanted but at the time did not realise the problem. Later this narrow area became very congested to the extent that it looked like it would be difficult to get in and out for refreshments and the necessary.

Moving on to the first day of the show, Saturday. The show was opened with what has now become a bit of a tradition, the Reds escorting “something” usually “heavy”. This day we were treated to a Sentinal.

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This was followed by another heavy, an E-3D Sentry making a single pass.

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To finish off the heavy jets later in the show one of the Boeing727-SS2F operated by Oil Spill Response Limited put on a spraying display. This display has now become a regular feature at airshows and we are treated to a demonstration of dispersant spraying, with water substituted of course, and a lively climb out.

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Pictures are actually from the Sunday display.

The first actual display was put on by the BAE Systems Avro 19 – Anson. Have seen this aeroplane on static many times but this is the first time I have seen it in the air.

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The billed second Strikemaster wasn’t able to make it so the Strikemaster was accompanied by a Jet Provest. Shouldn’t think many people noticed the difference. They made a good attempted at putting on a display without actually doing anything that could be called aerobatic.

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Next we have the RAF Falcons who jump out of perfectly good aeroplanes. A mixture of the two days, the wind was much stronger on Sunday.

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Controlled chaos…

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And out of chaos comes……

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The interesting thing is that the jump plane is leased from a Canadian company.

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Then we have the Pitts Special doing its usual amazing stuff.

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A fast jet follows and then, sadly, things start going a little wrong.