Riat 2003

I was! I got really good photos of Gulfsteams, CitationJets, A330, B757,Casa 228, Extender, Stealth, Gripen, Typhoon, Hawk’s. Utterly Butterly Ladies! B747, Jetstream 41, Bae-146 etc. Best day yet. Cant wait for Farnborough 2004

As another spotter type I managed to get there for the gates opening at 07:30 walked the static line up twice, with 75% of that time doing the 100 years of flight exhibition twice. I departed the field at 14:00 having seen one fast jet fly you have seen them all.
I am still sulking from the fact that altough I got a cheap ticket via my other half who works for BAe(they used to make aircraft you know!) I missed out on the staff hospltality( granstand,free lunch,programe etc) for the same price. Nearly resulting in divorce proceedings as she was too late in registering for this offer!
The argument used to be that the admission was set at a price compatable to a day at a theme park. Now it has reaced the £30 barrier any pricer and it will cease to follow that trend. I choked when I saw the public grandstand was £18, that is a rip off. Is the photo bus the most expensive bus ride in the world?
I too think Concordes absence was a big blunder.

Couldn’t agree more Vulcan903. One of the best things i did on the day was to £10 donate to the Vulcan To The Sky Campaign.

Good point about the Concorde. At least EAA Oshkosh had a good excuse a couple of years ago when they did the same thing.

I came in on the 747 on Sunday. 14 minute flight from Heathrow. Best £99 I have ever spent for a flight. Captain talked through the take off and landing.
Fairford was the same old format. I remember 10 – 15 years back when aircraft would be holding on the taxi way waiting for the current display aircraft to finished. Now it long gaps, Tornado, gap F16, gap Tornado.
Good to see the F4 again.
RIAT have broken the golden £30 admission cost as well, and you don’t get to see a Canberra, Sea Vixen, Gnat or a Hunter in flight, which basically omits the Cold War years from history.
And to top it all off, all the marketing stuff had a very special aircraft pasted on it – Concorde and was it there, nope! Biggest let down and swizz RIAT have pulled off yet.
Rather than have two miles of static Tornado’s why not have them all up at teh same time!
Sadly RIAT is a big Corporate machine, and it is showing signs of age.

Luck Sod:)

Maybe I should just point out that I am on over the fence spotter/photographer and only paid for Saturday’s ticket, I’m certainly not made of money, but I am lucky that I know a guy who lives 2 minutes walk from the threshold who lets me stay there for a few days each year.

Plazz

True Bluesky, very true. Yes I see where you are coming from. If the airfield was open to the public until 2130 then yes you would have thought that all of it was open.

Well I have some pictures to come of the static display, as Im not very good at capturing them in the air like other on the forum are… so least you will get to see some of them, though I know its not the same. 🙂

Cheers Mate.

Point taken, but it would have been nice if the organisers had advised visitors that the statics were going to be closed. The airfield was open until 2130hrs because of the open air concert, so why stop people viewing statics???

But surely if you knew or had a feeling that all the displays were going to be jets of the modern era… you would have decided to walk round the static areas?

This is what I did. And if there was something of interest flying I would just sit on the nearest patch of grass and watch.

Fine if you can afford the tickets!!

One day just isn’t enough, if you can handle it you need to go to RIAT for a few days, this year I spent Thursday and Friday watching the flying and Saturday just walking around the static park. Sunday I had work commitments then back to Fairford Monday for the departures, which I still think is one off the most entertaining lazy days watching aircraft you can get.

Plazz

If you think the show is a bit dull with Tornadoes and F16’s wait until every airforce has F35’s, I can see it now, rows and rows of them:(

My point is that the static display of 100 yrs was closed before the flying dispay finished. Therefore, if you watched all the display, then you couldn’t see the statics.
Last years flying display was much better. They had BBMF, Sally B, P51’s Spits, Hurri’s etc. This year??? 90% jet!

First let me start off by saying hello and welcome to the forums. 🙂

The only problem I found was with the flying display. Yes sure it was mostly tornados and Herc type aircraft… but as has been said elsewhere on the forum, thats what Air Tattoo is about, not the older aircraft.

Though yes, really this year there should have been an exception to this, with it being a 100 year celebration, it would have been nice to see the elder aircraft in action, after all they are what made flight what it is today, but alas they were on the ground the entire day.

The main problem as I have said before is how long the interval between each display was… 10-15 each time… it must have been!

But overall, I dont really have any problems with the show… its the first time I have been to it, and I was very impressed with what was on display, I couldn’t of asked for more. There was so much on display I couldn’t get round to see it all, that just goes to show what a variety there was.

You had the Wright Flyer replica, the aircraft that started it all, right up to the Boeing “X” plane of the future. There was something for everyone.

As for saying it was not a 100 years tribute to flight I would disagree. You are just basing it on the flying display, whereas if you had of got round the entire show you would have seen that the 100 years was there.

Cheers

The NZ 757 did a truely amazing climbout, reaching about 8000 in 2 minutes, pretty naff lov viz scheme though. The A330 was nice flying with the Tornados, its destined for EVAair. A few airliner charters apart from the BA ‘lump, KLM Fokker 50, Eastern Airways BAE41, Dutch Dak, and a few biz.

HI JUST GOT BACK FROM FAIRFORD IT WAS BRILLIANT WELL WORTH IT THE ONLY THING IS AT £7 THE FOOD DRINK AND THE PROGRAM IS VERY EXPENCIVE AND MY TIP IS GO TO THE BRITISH AIRWAYS BIT AND BOOK INADVANCE THER SIMULATER RIDE IT IS £15 FOR 15 MIN INCLUDING BRIEFING TAKE OFF FLYING AND LANDING IN A BOEING 737 IF YOU LOOK AT THE BACK OF THE PROGRAM THERE ARE VOUCHERS AND YOU CAN GET A FREE BADGE ALSO £1 OFF A CONCORDE POSTER WHICH THEN COSTS £2 IT IS WEL WORTH IT THE RED ARROWS ARE AMAZING THIS YEAR 5 NEW ROUTINES AND IR IS WELL WORTH A VISIT

Ive been home bout 20 mins,
The Show was very good, with not too many interuptions.
I have two films in to be developed which I will get back monday. The high light for me was the F117 Night-hawk (slealth) flying in formation with the red arrows!!
Hopefully my new camera lives up to my expectations and the pics will be very good

😀

Thanks for that Preston. Mind yu I more than make up for my dry stretch here once the BA777 leaves the runway. I saw on the news that the BA strike is over so Andy should be able to get his flight. I would be gutted if that had happened to me although there are flights in from Kemble I think.

Regards
Old Git
A.K.A. Keith

P.S. I hope the italians send some properly maintained aircraft this year. I was on the verge of asking for a refund last year!!!

… and you cant even have a pint after work – or maybee if you have a pint they’ll chopp of ya hands so you dont have to work – and you can still drink through a straw???

I wouldn’t recommend trying it tho!

It is now just after 10am GMT Saturday 19th. By now the charter flights should have landed and the display will be just starting. I would have downed my first pint at the beer tent at Reevy Campsite and be making my way down towards the runway end. Instead I am 4000 miles away up to my eyes in work with a pile of sand outside the window. I feel very sorry for myself. I hope everyone who is going from the forum has a good time and I look forward to the reports