Pete TrumanI remember seeing the Kermit Weekes example performing at the Biggin Airshow about 1989, but I have the fond memory of seeing a Sunderland flying along the seafront at Southsea during the mid 50’s, wonderful sight, where would they have been based then.
Pete TrumanConsidering that the weather is crap today, I’m surprised that they are attempting a practice, presumably anyone living in the Lincoln area should be off to Waddington to see the fun.
Firebird
Was that also the Conningsby airshow where they had as many Spitfires flying as possible, seven I recall.
My mate stayed with us overnight and we set off from Braintree at 6:00, it was the pits of a journey, mostly on back roads. By coincidence, when we were qeueing to get in I spotted my brother and old man from Nottingham 2 cars behind us, amazing, then I was distracted by the centrifugal fan playing up.
Didn’t the Victor refuelling tanker do a fuel dump on landing for some reason and the runway had to be cleaned.
Pete TrumanIt was 27 Sqn which put a Diamond Nine of Tornado GR1s over Buck House in 1984. Perhaps this was the first such formation on the QBF? I seem to recall going to a Coningsby airshow a couple of years later when 65 Sqn(?) put a nine-ship of F2s over the Palace, with the take-off and a formation fly-by forming part of the show. Also, I think that was the year that they did a Spitfire/Tornado formation display (‘The Major’ in the Spit and Rick Peacock-Edwards (OC 65) in the Tornado). Are they doing the same this year with a Spit and a Typhoon?
That was some airshow, apart from the heat, my mate got sunstroke and my Cortina estate overheated while qeueing to get in, I thought I was going to have to take him to hospital, but a few pints of Batemans sorted him out, what a beer tent that was.
If I remember rightly 12 F-2’s took off, each with some different daredevil manouvre and refuelled somewhere over the North Sea. One had to return with a problem and did an emergency landing, I think he practically put on his thrust reversers while still in the air and stopped dead.
After returning in formation they were bounced by Phantoms, the ensuing low level dog fight must have covered the whole of Lincolnshire.
Pete TrumanI’ve got a grainey 110 photo of 1978 with 3 x Vulcans, 4 x F4’s, 4 x Lightnings and IIRC 4x Buccs or was it maybe 4 x GR.3’s?
And in those days the RAF used to do it properly and fly it in one BIG formation rather than the pansy seperated little groupings they do these days…….. :rolleyes:
Unfortunately all my piccies are on slides so I can’t publish, if I remember correctly 77 featured Vulcans with 4 x Phantoms, Lightnings and Jags with the Reds Gnats following behind, must have been Buccs in there somewhere, but I can’t remember.
I seem to recall that the BoB flypast started off with 2 Hurricanes and 4 Spits at low level, followed by diamond nines of Jags, Tornadoes, Harriers and Buccs in 4 formations, the Lanc then followed with Spit and Hurri on each wing, these two having reformed after the first flyby. I’m sure that the first jet in the formations was a pink Jag.
It was rumoured that 4 Concordes were going to fly past later, but we deliberately ate out at an Italian restaurant in Kensington and saw nothing.
I’m all excited now, surely the BoB flight will come in over the normal route, must find my video battery charger, my youth has lost it somewhere in his horrendous bedroom, git.
Pete TrumanWhy would the Reds and Canberra fly out of Manston, if that is the case they will go up the Thames estuary and I won’t see them, nor will Moggy, having his pint outside the Sole Bay Inn and watching them form up over Southwold. By the time they get to Kelvedon, the reserve a/c are still flying alongside the formations, along with the Hawk weather/route planes, they tend to break off just before Chelmsford, round about Hatfield Peveril, I’ve been watching these flypasts for 30 years, 1977 was cool with 4 Vulcans in the practice session, best one was the 50th anniversary of the BoB which was awesome, actually stood outside the Palace for that one, sad to see some of the a/c painted up in pink camo ready for Gulf War 1, how many of those did get shot down I wonder.
Pete TrumanHang on, what have I missed here, when were the VC-10’s overflying my favourite city and why.
Don’t you think that swimming pool is so badly designed, I went there shortly after it opened and the steel brackets holding up the windows were already corroding, the flumes were closed because of leaks and half the toilets were missing.
It also took about 20 minutes to convert the shallow pool into the diving zone, I don’t know why they didn’t build a new pool outside the city centre and flog off the old site for huge amounts of cash which could have provided a half decent design, ie: Colchester or Sudbury, sorry, swimming pool design is a big issue in this house.
Yes I have designed them my self, my latest is in St Kitts, complete with garage underneath, am awaiting the promised site visit with great anticipation.
Pete TrumanKeep fingers crossed that my lottery ticket comes up tomorrow as I’ll charter the new Airbus and take you all out there, however you will have to provide your own sleeping bags and tents.
Incidentally, what does it cost to do a high speed run in a Frightening at Brunters or Cranfield, the take off sequence and fly by at The Last Last Lightning Show at Binbrook must have increased the National Dept by 100%.
Pete TrumanWeren’t the airliners carrying the prisoners back from Baghdad during the first Gulf War allegedly barrell rolled around the escorting Tornadoes and F-15’s, refer to Andy Sean Beans SAS book on the subject. Cough.
Pete TrumanHaving said that, army Gazelle just flown over.
Pete TrumanI’ve always found Canberras to be fairly elusive beasts, even in the good old days when they were common in the various roles that they were tasked with, they weren’t seen that much, I think I recall a 4 ship flyby at an airshow in the 60’s, but latterly, very rarely seen, unless you happen to camp out at Marham.
The last time I saw one aloft was at Croyde Bay, Devon, 2 years ago.
How much commonality do they have with the NASA B-57’s, not in terms of wingspan I know, I just wondered if there were any plans to fly the survivors off to the States to act as spares ships or possibly more, I don’t know how many B-57’s are extant, I suppose Davis-Monthan is full of them.
It will be a sad day when they go, blimey, they are even older than me, but still serving.
Doesn’t this weather get you down, can’t wait for the predicted storm this afternoon, would not like to play competitve footie in this, did you hear that the England players lost an average of 10lbs during their match against Paraguay, mind you, on their sort of money, I would be happy to lose 10 stone, and I only weigh 11.
Pete TrumanIt’s been quite uneventful over here so far this summer in comparison to previous years, last weekend we had a P-51 enroute for Biggin, the Storch coming back was most impressive, this weekend all we had was a Moth on Saturday, the usual showing by a Piper Cub and a Jungmann yesterday, there’s not even anything coming in to Stansted at the moment and the 4th AAC haven’t been seen for months.
Plenty of swallows, house martins and swifts though.
Has anyone heard a cuckoo this year, for the first time ever, haven’t heard a thing.
Pete TrumanJust a question, what is the take off and landing run of an Me262 like, does it have a brake parachute and could the DX runway handle it.
Only a bit of wishfull thinking, clearing my head before I take on a SAP rating calculation.
Pete TrumanFurther to a previous post on this thread that I made, I have learnt subsequently that Peter Jackson is not making the Dark Materials Trilogy, ( I don’t know who is, hopefully Ridley Scott ), so that will obviously give him more time to concentrate on DB, the six mock up Lancasters sound interesting, will they be capable of taxiying I wonder, sounds like a complex job.
Pete TrumanNow, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not whingeing about Legends or Duxford, I think that the atmosphere at Legends is fantastic, Iv’e been to every one, apart from last year when I was ill, I always meet up with friends and relatives as I will do so this year.
However it’s when the flying starts that gets me. The Tankbank is unquestionably the best place to go, get to the right spot and the grass take offs come right at you as do the flybys from the right and of course you have the a/c taxiying so close to you.
Now I’ve taken my kids and their mates there a few times and they get bored, but I would never allow them to run around in front of photographers, especially people with camcorders, waving inflatable Spitfires in the air and screaming.
Neither would I stand in front of folks trying to take pictures either.
Last Autumn Airshow it was intolerable, I even had a crowd of teenagers in front of me who had no interest in what was happening and just kept shoving each other about and being a pain, and that doesn’t include the ignorant scumbag who kept standing in front of me with his little digi every time I prepared for a shot, who I eventually pushed down the bank and threatened with decapitation, there’s no need for this, the public have become so selfish.
The best Legends I went to was a few years ago when I was ordered to park right up to the fence next to the Tankbank, great, no stepladders in front and I could sit on the car roof and enjoy the show with no interuptions.
What I’ve tended to do at DX is go in on a Saturday, soak up the atmosphere and film what I can, then go back on a Sunday, chuck me bike in the car, park in the village, then cycle around the perimeter taking videos and pictures from various locations.
I agree with the safety aspect, personally I think that the police should shut off the road opposite the airfield to people as well as cars, when the Firefly came down it cleared one bloke by a few feet, mind you he probably made a few quid by selling his frightening video to Sky, how he kept on filming during that awful interlude is beyond me.
But there are places that are safe, it’s just the famillies that go for a picnic in those low overfly zones that get me, they haven’t got a clue what could happen, I remember once, walking along with me bike and one of the Reds came over the field opposite at about 20 ft over a crowd of kids chucking soil at each other, and boy, did they scream, but why did their parents take them there.
Got to inflate the paddling pool now, see you at the Viscount.
DCK
I don’t know why it is, but they all go to DX, the OW crowds are fantastic, and that is a very small crowd line, the Mildenhall ones used to be, apart from the brain deads who used to take their dogs, why the USAAF used to allow that is beyond me, dogs and fast jets are a bad combination.
Pete TrumanYes I will be more than happy to put up with the pushing and shoving on the Tankbank to put faces to names in front of the Viscount, however with the usual 1 o’clock start it doesn’t leave much time for introductions.
Incidentally, World Cup Final is 19:00 on Sunday so the Red Lion Is Out, I’m more tempted to go on the sunday as that is the only day when the Lanc appears and lands, which tends to be a twitchy experience at DX.
To be honest, I got so peed off with the manners of people at the Autumn airshow, that I would find it more preferable to be a git and ‘freeloader’ and sit in the field opposite, no whining kids, traffic jams, or scumbags standing in front of you with cameras when you are trying take pictures and it’s obvious to them what you’re trying to do yourself. Coupled with that, the overflying is amazing, probably dangerous, the Firefly crash was not fun though, being one of the first on the scene, so I will see how I feel on the ‘Day of Days’
I await the torrent of abuse.
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