Shuttleworth display season opener sold out !

The MkV was of course sporting Czech markings, and apparently there were members of the Czech pilot’s family who flew it during the war present at the show, and were shown around the airplane etc. There is a wonderful film about the Czech pilots called ‘Dark Blue World’, which I thoroughly recommend, and a wartime Spitfire pilot once told me that it was the only film he had seen where they actually got the sound of the undercarraige right, as in when the undercarraige is retracted you can actually hear the thud-thud of the wheels in the wheel wells, and he was right, you can clearly hear that in the take-off scenes.

KurtB
It wasn’t me asking but I have to say…….not a fan personally! It’s good they put them on though yes!

I did read somewhere that they hiked the fees up for the stalls so i wonder if some stalls/food outlets just didn’t bother.

I did hear someone asking why they had put bf109 wheels on her!
Does anyone know why the wheel caps have been fitted on AR?

Because they always have been. It’s good to see, is it not?

What a lovely airshow 😎
We do not get the chance to attend many airshows but we had a 4 day window over the BH weekend,so with a good weather forecast we happily booked our tickets and drove the 400 miles south from perthshire on friday morning,caught up with some old friends over t’weekend and set sail for O Warden at a civilised hour on sunday,luckily we were coming in from the Cardington Rd so no traffic probs.We of course ended up in the far car park,but that was the plan as we needed a quick exit at a particular time 🙂

It was an almost perfect day for an OW airshow and we would like to give a huge thanks to all the Volunteers/Staff/Pilots at OW for all their hard work in putting on a great show,for us it was so nice to see the Boxkite and Avro Tripe flying – we saw some of the Blackburn display as we walked back to the car for a quick exit.

Excellent day – one of the best shows I have ever been to at OW – it being a sell out was great news for Shuttleworth.
I did hear some people complaining about the lack of catering facilities/comparing it to Duxford etc but any seasoned airshow punter will always have their own food/drinks packed and ready – I would imagine that the vagaries of the british weather make it very difficult to plan facilities etc.

Well done Shuttleworth it really was a great show :eagerness:

I was temped to ask about both the exhaust stacks and the wheel covers during the pilot talk, but feared being *that* much of a nerd in front of a crowd.

I’m sure I’d heard or read somewhere they they had the three exhausts that could be fitted?

I did hear someone asking why they had put bf109 wheels on her!
Does anyone know why the wheel caps have been fitted on AR?

The Mk.IX style exhaust stubs were fitted to some Mk.V’s, AR501 had them fitted at some point in her late service career so they are accurate for her. They make a better noise too, IMHO.

Congrats to all at OW on what looks to have been a great season opener, the weather certainly played ball!

Just a minor mention on the toilets, there are other toilets around if you sniff them out, (excuse the pun), there are some just next to the souvenir shop, between the hanger and shop. I have always managed to get in those without too much hassle, as they are not so obvious as the main ones, but we’ll keep it a secret for now ! Anyone else notice that the restored Spitfire Vc had Mk9 exhaust stacks instead of Mk V ? I quieried this and was told “we would have needed 24,000 pounds to get the proper ones”. There you go.

Yeah I’d echo all the above. Took my own food and didn’t need the lavs so can’t comment in shortage of those. I don’t do a vast amount of ground things but I too enjoyed Stu Goldspink’s pilot chat. He could have done with a microphone though! I’m on;y 28 and have decent hearing, and was having to concentrate quite hard.

I’d have said the traffic queue was partly due to the change to checking people’s tickets in-car before parking – which vastly slows up vehicle entry. I’m sure they used to have a pedestrian ticket queue by the College entrance to the site, and you could park your car and gather your things before presenting your ticket. All the shows I’ve been to anywhere with the latter arrangement have had vastly smaller traffic queues on average.

Displays superb as ever, especially JR in the Blenheim and Stu Goldspink in MH434 and the Hurricane I. It was also a real treat to see the Camel (Dodge Bailey, IIRC) displayed with the SE5a! Congrats lastly to Claire Tector on a fine debut in the Brisfit, even if her sideslip landing on the runway 12 looked slightly alarming from my viewpoint (I’m sure it wasn’t)!

A few photos from me to complement LN Strike Eagle’s much superior efforts above.

great day, got there at 9.00am on the dot, massive queues already, and gates had been opened an hour beforehand

Actually, it would seem they opened a tad before 9am!

We got there at about ten past nine (about usual for us), and much to our surprise, there was a long que along Hill Lane from just as you approach the airfield, to the entrance, which took us about another 20 minutes to reach the gates.

And once in, we found ourselves in the highly unusual situation of finding ourselves in overflow parking!

Having a chat with one of the parking control staff about it later, it transpires that people had started turning up as early as 6.am, causing the road to be backed up, so the only option was to let them in.

But with the wonderful weather, and a great display lineup, I guess it should have been no surprise!

And it was a great show.

Highlight fro me was the Blenheim, with John Romain putting to good use the closeness of the Old Warden display line, and showing how a display in such an aircraft (and venue) should be done.

Loved the pilot chat with Stu Goldspink, who’s easy, engaging, and friendly manner made it another highlight.

(Looking forward to the video being posted of it on the Shuttleworth YouTube channel).

And talking of Spitfires, a nice surprise was the appearance of the BBMFs newly painted XVI, which gave some nice passes, filling in whilst the Lanc and Anson formed up.

A really nice day, and one that must have pleased the organisers.

Cheers

Paul

Is the Lancaster painted in a different type of paint?
The exhaust staining is more obvious now, more akin to a wartime aircraft.

I’m glad you all had a great time. But I really hope the organisers listen to comments from punters, especially regarding more food outlets and toilets. I’ve been to several events where the same problems arise year after year and it really does spoil what could’ve been a great day out.

Rob

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=80751

Black Knight

So where are all the photo’s??????
It’s 23:13 & none have been posted, usually there’s plenty posted by 19:00

Surely they must be on the Flypast Airshow Forum, if you can find it, where one of the moderation team directed them to go some time back. :stupid:

Mark

.

Programmes all sold out too……::apologetic:

Fantastic day!
I got there at around 10 and only queued for about 15-20 minutes…….had a wander round for an hour then got a great spot about 50m to the right of the control tower!
One thing that I thought there could have been more of was toilets…..I ended up waiting a good while for the portaloos infront of the wallabe,alpaca and ostrich enclosure. Maybe there was more but I didn’t see?
Oveeall it was a great start to the season and an amazing first time at Shuttleworth for myself!

Agree with everything said by Reckless Rat, great day, got there at 9.00am on the dot, massive queues already, and gates had been opened an hour beforehand, just about managed to get a decent spot, then it was chocka. Agree, not enough food and drinks places, queues were horendous at the few there. Best always taking food and drinks with you. Overall, a great day was had.

Stunning Dan, thanx

Here’s some to be getting on with…

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr

Shuttleworth Season Premiere by Dan B, on Flickr