Waddington Cancelled

re

Doubtful, besides the loonies that are driving around with their mobile fireworks display wouldnt stand a chance getting into a military establishment these days. Just typical UK, you know a bit of bad weather and we come to a grinding halt LoL. Bex

Even if it wasnt for the bad weather, with thousands of peaple on site, at what is virtually the “RAF’s shop window with freinds invited”, to give the go ahead would have been far too risky.

There are a lot of perfectly decent Asian stall holders every year at Waddington,and any low life could hide among them. Besides they wouldnt be allowed to refuse entry to anyone just for being ethnic.

Waddington has the advantage of being very modern but most bases have very primitive defences.

And even if there was no actual threat to Waddington itself, you could appreciate the emergency services being on alert elsewhere.

I dont blame the team at all, allthough I was hacked off no-one had put up any signs at Lincoln Railway Station to announce the show was off. (this is where the shuttle bus runs from) Quite a lot of enthusiasts were stuck there.

I am sorry but I do not agree that it was not the organisers fault—not that the show was cancelled—but the fact they left a lot of people to drive all the way down there to find out!!!

I listened to BBC national radio 2 and 4 all the way down during my 2 1/2 hour drive and there was not even a mention of it!!!

I found out less than a mile from the base when a policeman told me the show was cancelled!!

I checked the web site prior to setting of and it clearly said that the recent heavy rain was no problem at Waddington as the drainage was excellent.—I see that post had been removed once the show had been cancelled.

There was not even a mention of the possability of cancellation on there.

If the weather was too bad and forecast to get worse then why not call the show off earlier—it would have saved me nearly £50 in diesel costs alone, not to mention the early start etc…

Would it really have taken much to ring the national BBC and ask them to put an announcment out???—It is no point only informing local radio as people dont find out until they get in the area!!!!

A real crap end to an already crap day……..:mad:

The weather was at its worst [regular torrential cloudbursts] between 6.00 and 7.30am and as you will see from the pictures in the last posts here http://forums.airshows.co.uk/cgi-bin/ukarboard/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=1;t=34439;st=100 that things went downhill very fast.

I made it onto the base and had to leave [just got off the grass!] and I have no doubt that the organisers took the correct decision.

As far as national radio goes I believe that they were “featuring” the various terrorist issues that were unfolding around the country!

FB… Then maybe thats why they asked you to leave, but we had to stay? There certainly was a lot of FOD about! What were you displaying? Maybe thats also why at least one of the indian IL76’s is still here too…because it’s stuck in ‘Alfa’ surrounded by coke cans and burger wrappers!!!

It’s not a 76. It the IL-78 Midas tanker. It is down to take part in the exercise aswell as participating at RIAT.

Did the Airshow at Waddington go ahead as planned on the Saturday if so what flew ? any help would be appreciated:)

p.s.—I wonder what chance people have of claiming a refund on their fuel costs?????—not

😡

I am sorry but I do not agree that it was not the organisers fault—not that the show was cancelled—but the fact they left a lot of people to drive all the way down there to find out!!!

I listened to BBC national radio 2 and 4 all the way down during my 2 1/2 hour drive and there was not even a mention of it!!!

I found out less than a mile from the base when a policeman told me the show was cancelled!!

I checked the web site prior to setting of and it clearly said that the recent heavy rain was no problem at Waddington as the drainage was excellent.—I see that post had been removed once the show had been cancelled.

There was not even a mention of the possability of cancellation on there.

If the weather was too bad and forecast to get worse then why not call the show off earlier—it would have saved me nearly £50 in diesel costs alone, not to mention the early start etc…

Would it really have taken much to ring the national BBC and ask them to put an announcment out???—It is no point only informing local radio as people dont find out until they get in the area!!!!

A real crap end to an already crap day……..:mad:

FB… Then maybe thats why they asked you to leave, but we had to stay? There certainly was a lot of FOD about! What were you displaying? Maybe thats also why at least one of the indian IL76’s is still here too…because it’s stuck in ‘Alfa’ surrounded by coke cans and burger wrappers!!!

Civilian, but we weren’t a static display, the plane was kept airside and displayed saturday. It was my understanding that only the SU30s were staying, until Fairford at least.

FB

Fournier Boy,
Are you military or civilian? I’m a civy, but my ac is up at Waddington for the show… We weren’t asked to fly out. On the contrary, we were told tonight that no aircraft are allowed to start up on the ‘public side’ because of the huge FOD problem that they now have. I was there at 6 this evening, and there were plenty of civilian aircraft on site… Tiger Moth, Austers, AN2 chipmunks etc… As for the Indians… Do you mean they were leaving, or there aircraft were leaving? Their aircraft were still there at 6pm… I thought that they are there for the next 2 or 3 weeks?

It came down to the availability of police support with many weather related events happening in the Lincoln area it’ wasn’t viable .

Real shame it was cancelled, drove all the way from Cranwell as well.

Looks like the river Witham bursting its banks down in Lincoln city was the true culprit though. If I was one of those who try to make a point by blowing up others, I must say I’d rather find Wimbeldon more of an attraction, rather than a air show that the average Joe public has never even heard of.

Dave

The JP belongs to the Newcastle Jet Provost Group and I believe Neil McCarthy posts on here from time to time.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/newcastlejetprovost/

I went to the arrivals enclosure at Waddington on Thursday & Friday.

My car was not searched.

I was parked right in front of the low metal barriers – two of which were ‘apart’ – ie not connected together.

Had I been a terrorist, I could have easily parted the barriers (even if they had been connected), driven at high speed across the runway to the dispersal area and either fired off a few RPG rounds, or grenades, or even a homemade Molotov cocktail into the closely-packed aircraft before being stopped.

OK, the scenario is a bit fanciful, but not beyond the bounds of possibility.

Had I looked of middle-eastern descent, or even Indian, I doubt if I would have been subject to any more rigorous security than I was.

I’m not criticising or blaming anyone, just pointing out that ‘wouldn’t stand a chance’ is a bit of an exageration.

Ken

I stand corrected, by the sound of it then Security was a joke. Sheesh, in the “Old” days, if the IRA had been on form a few days before an airshow the Bikini State would have gone up big time.

Bex

Got onto the airfield at about 07:30 with the sun just breaking through. Had a bit of difficulty getting the motor over the grass to the Canberra Association enclosure though. It was extremely muddy, like a linear Glastonbury. :rolleyes: They started laying straw but this would really have made no difference. It wasn’t difficult to work out that the RAF didn’t want to have several hundereds of civvies in cars having to be towed off the grass/mud at the end of the day therefore cancellation was pretty much expected.

Alert state at Waddo was at Heightened which, although not Normal is OK for general airfield access in such circumstances. Mind you, Snow State was GREEN, so that’s all right then.

Anyway, hired a little scooter thing (brilliant with a 40amph motor) and ‘did’ the static. A few pix for your interest. BTW, who’s is the JP? Anybody on this forum?

.

Doubtful, besides the loonies that are driving around with their mobile fireworks display wouldnt stand a chance getting into a military establishment these days. Just typical UK, you know a bit of bad weather and we come to a grinding halt LoL. Bex

I went to the arrivals enclosure at Waddington on Thursday & Friday.

My car was not searched.

I was parked right in front of the low metal barriers – two of which were ‘apart’ – ie not connected together.

Had I been a terrorist, I could have easily parted the barriers (even if they had been connected), driven at high speed across the runway to the dispersal area and either fired off a few RPG rounds, or grenades, or even a homemade Molotov cocktail into the closely-packed aircraft before being stopped.

OK, the scenario is a bit fanciful, but not beyond the bounds of possibility.

Had I looked of middle-eastern descent, or even Indian, I doubt if I would have been subject to any more rigorous security than I was.

I’m not criticising or blaming anyone, just pointing out that ‘wouldn’t stand a chance’ is a bit of an exageration.

Ken

I have to agree with a previous post about todays cancellation. I was informed by two separate policeman that it was cancelled due to receiving a terrorist threat.:mad:

Duxford didnt do to bad either, along with our DC3 several coach parties and quite a few cars diverted to Duxford after the cancellation.

Dave j is a third correct. As i was present at the meeting and subsequent pilots briefing at Waddington this morning ,there were several reasons for the cancellation:

Car Parks flooding: very difficult to deal with and only noticable when cars arrived

Lack of emergency services: a local river burst its banks during the early hours and in that situation much of the emergency service cover (particularly fire) and police were pulled from the airfield. Under these circumstances there were not enough emergency personel on site for the number of visitors expected, nor enough to cover a flying display.

Security; the organisers were trying to cover these two previous problems however the Chief Constable stepped in and gave the final say in the matter. With current levels of threat that existed at that time this morning, a large gathering of public, on a military base was not going to be allowed.

Military were told to stay on site, civilian aircraft were asked to either to fly out, or leave the site.

As for departures, a number of the flying aircraft have left already. The Indian Air Force were leaving as I took off. The Met man this morning told everyone that in his opinion if the remainder wished to leave they were to do so either this afternoon or before 10am tomorrow (monday) morning.

Personally i think the organisers did the best they possibly could considering the limited information that was coming in from on high, decisions had to be made quickly, and plans had to be put into action promptly.

They did very well and i thought were very professional about it. Certainly there is more information out there that we were not told and i’m sure the military crews were.

Its a shame, but s**t happens.

If you have a ticket for todays show then visit there website. This has info on how to get a refund. www.waddingtonairshow.co.uk

Hope this helps
Phill

www.outflankeduk.com

Just seen the link,many thanks.Still would loved to have seen the Indian AF do it’s stuff.Waddidngtons loss was definatly Newarks gain after seeing th car park and line of people wating to get through the gate !

If you have a ticket for todays show then visit there website. This has info on how to get a refund. www.waddingtonairshow.co.uk

Hope this helps
Phill

www.outflankeduk.com