What do we want to see at RIAT 05?

crazymainer,

What on earth makes you think that the F-14 will be appearing with the reserves? They have never operated F-14’s and never will.

RIAT 2005?

Has to be a full blown Canberra PR9 display.

more toilets, less commentary

Airshows seem to be the only events where the men Q2P and the women don’t. Hurrah!
AF: Wear a skirt next time.
What do I want to see? It would be great to have the groundcrew accommodation not so far from the airfield!

How about a Lightning or two that would be nice flying that is

Amen to that

more toilets, less commentary

CrazyRob,

There are no F-14s in Naval Reserve squadrons for a decade or so, they have all long switched over to the Hornet.

Still operational with the Tomcat are, with their transition date:
VF-11 may05, to Subpar Hornet
VF-31 sep06, to Subpar Hornet
VF-32 nov05, to Subpar Hornet
VF-101 sep05, to disband
VF-103 mar05 to Subpar Hornet
VF-143 apr05 to Subpar Hornet
VF-213 may06 to Subpar Hornet.

Now some of those units might actually find themselves disestablished or lose their Tomcats prior to the dates mentioned (depending on how the budget cuts will turn out in detail), but there will still be room for a Tomcat or two to show up at RIAT. Don’t forget that very, very shortly before the retirement of the A-3 Skywarrior, one showed up for the 1991 IAT at Fairford.

1993 was the last year an F14 Tomcat attended an IAT. It was an F14A from VF84 and was on show in the static park next to an A6 Intruder. I would post my pictures if the attachment thingy was fixed!

Being one of my favourite aircraft I would love to see one at this years IAT but I don’t think it will happen. Instead I’m off to NAS Oceana in September for probably the last ever appearance of an F14 at an airshow.

Plazz

I’ll try linking a photo from IAT 93, Hope it works!

Flanker Man,

Yea that was the year I remember my dad telling me that the USAF wasn’t to impressed by the pilot I think he might have been a Civilian Demo Pilot.

Anyway thats was a real long time ago and if I was going this year I think a Tiger Meet would be real cool to see.

Cheers
RER

Hi All,

Just threw my RIAT 25 Anv. Dvd in and yes it was 1976 that the F-14 along with A-6, A-3.KA-5 and F-4 from the USS America where their.

Cheers
RER

I think that was the same year that the F-14 and F-15 tried to ‘out-fly’ each other ???

I remember the F-15 landing at Greenham Common and doing a high-alpha rollout where he kept the nose up for as long as possible before the speed bled off – and scraping his exhaust buckets on the runway.

I also have a vague recollection of F-14’s being at Greenham Common on the same year as the 25th anniversary of the first flight of the C-130 – so that would make it 1979 ??

There was a line-up of 25 Herks – and I definitely remember an S-3 – because I spotted that the ‘eyebrow’ windows over the flight deck had the dark anti-glare(?) material torn off.

Ken

PS – They also demonstrated a Fulton recovery – using a dummy!

Fewer F16s.
Fewer flypasts to the left, then turnaround and flypast to the right, and repeat until crowd is asleep.
Fewer hospitality marquees hogging the central crowdline: nothing annoyed the public more (in the years when I went, anyway) than the endless rows of empty seats whilst the paying spectators were jammed in like sardines during the flying displays.
Colour schemes rather than a dozen almost exactly the same aircraft only differentiated by their serials.
Something different. Anything, really. Airliners going to or from Heathrow doing a flypast, or a ballet by a massed helicopter force – sort of like the massed attack they used to do (still do?) at Middle Wallop. More anti-SAM flares. Anything.

Flood

Bigger, longer and slower traffic queues 🙂

(Speaking as one who has just acquired a motorbike again)

Moggy

I want to see a lot of forum members there who take pics and show them with us (non-UK resident members) here. 😉

J.V.

Have the Italians fully retired theirs now?

Yes. There were supposed to be 4 at RIAT last year, but they didn’t turn up for some reason…..

We’ve also missed the boat for the old F-104 now,:(

Have the Italians fully retired theirs now? What a beautiful aircraft they are. I was hoping to see them this year but if they have been fully retired… 🙁

Hi All,

The days of seeing a f-14 at any Airshow US or Europe are over as of last year this Year saw the Decon of the last Carrier Based F-14D Squadrons and VF-101 the 14 Rag Squadron are in the process of converting to F-18C/D.

Their will still F-14 in Naval Reserves Squadrons but the exact num,ber is still being work out.

If I was going to RIAT this year I would like to see something like the 95 show witht he massive fly by for the 50Anv. of end of WWII. This being the 60th Anv. and in reality the last time that we will have a large section of WWII Vets. I think they should go all out.

Cheers
RER

I went to the Fort worth airshow in Texas on me travels and they had an F14 there and it was the first time I had seen one, man what a machine we definatly need to get one over here maybe legends 😉

One of those ideas that at first make you go what??? 😮 , but thinking about it, with a little help from the Fighter Collecton, you could have the ultimate Grumman Cat flypast!

A few bits I would like to see as a spotter
Nimrod R1
Some of the French CEV fleet, plus a Paris(are they still in service?), French KC135 and E3. Funny how the French Navy and Army well support the event but not the airforce?
Greek F16
also a meet of VIP aircraft would be nice(French Da900,Belgum Emb135, Irish LJ45 etc)
also a mass para drop from 10 C130’s and a Tornado scramble.
On the historic side the Red Bull fleet(Corsair,B25 ,DC6 etc) plus both connies in formation.

F-14 at Mildenhall I seem to remember was around 92 or 93, I’ve got photos somewhere.

As for RIAT, it would be nice to see one here, but I very much doubt it will happen.
We’ve also missed the boat for the old F-104 now, and probably a Viggen as well. 🙁

Be also nice to see the Austrian Draken before it too goes this year, although RIAT may be too late for that as well. :rolleyes:

That leaves a MIG-21 then…..or

MIG-25 anyone…… 😀

My choice, a full monty Canberra PR.9 display….. 😎

I went to the Fort worth airshow in Texas on me travels and they had an F14 there and it was the first time I had seen one, man what a machine we definatly need to get one over here maybe legends 😉

My list:

Indian MiG-25
One of those elusive QinetiQ Alpha Jets
F-104
F-4
Su-27
MiG-29