Four Hurricanes in formation, Eleven Spitfires in a massed display, the Breitlings, Anna Walker, three varied Hawks.

That’s ‘average’?

I’d really like to see an above average show.

Three hours superb entertainment for half the price that people pay to watch 90 minutes football each week?

Get real.

Moggy

I agree, especially after looking at Saturday’s piccies and yesterday we would have had the treat of a soon to be lost Jaguar display, and, as I’ve said before, you have the museum to look round.
When I arrived on the airfield and looked at the a/c on the flightline, both ancient and modern, it did make me wonder what everyone was moaning about, having looked at the Forum comments for the previous day.
One comment, given the problems of yesterday, it would have been a good idea for some enterprising person down at the LWH to have given us a bit of
a tank driving display, I would have been happy to have put a couple of quid in a bucket for the fuel costs, we did get the spectacle of the 8 wheeled recovery vehicle being chucked round the course at the end of the show, which made me wonder.
Incidentally, during nearly 50 years of airshows, this was my first almost total washout, I remember going to Cottesmore in the early 60’s and things were grim, however the 111 Hunters put on a scintillating display during a thunderstorm, then there was the Last, Last, Lightning Show at Binbrook, but at least the stars of the show managed to do their stuff in dramatic circumstances.
I suspect that the powers that be may have taken note of these comments and circumstances and may give us a good show in October, or is that wishfull thinking, at least the weather is usually OK for that event.

Only 25 mins from Duxford and the weather is grim, won’t be pumping up the bike tyres today. Just a thought, my missus and I were talking about the admission prices last night, the difference between DX and Biggin is that DX is one of the greatest a/c museums in the world and the admission price must be reflected in the access to the museum. If everyone has a grouse about this, go and sit on the Hill for nothing, no car park queus, overhead flying, no step ladders, quite exciting really but not in the spirit of an airshow. I’ve been there a few times when I’ve been skint and felt uncomfortable about the ethics of it, due to a cash flow problem resolved yesterday, I thought I might have to go there again, haven’t been since the Firefly incident and would prefer not to, but I agree, the cost of a family day out would be horrendous.

I looked the Met Office website a few minutes ago and the forecasts for Saturday and Sunday are much the same now.

We much prefer not to have 4 hours driving on a Sunday with work the following day so we’ll stick with Saturday.

Will look at BBC Look East’s lovely and usually accurate weather girl in an hour and let you know, not raining here yet.

Was setting out on site in Herts today and re-routed past Duxford on the way home at lunchtime. Parked up at the Hill and was surprised to see such a lack of activity, only Sally B and what looked like a couple of Spitfires on the grass. According to the weather forecast Sunday looks the best bet, in that case I think that the traffic could be as bad as the last Spitfire show, therefore have decided to park car in Duxford village and cycle in, if anyone on the forum wants to introduce themselves, I shall chain my bright yellow bike to the fence at the top of the Tank Bank and lurk, screaming kids and stepladders permitting, will probably have pocket TV to check on Test Match.

Spitfires and Vulcan, Coningsby, must have been 1986 as my son was a baby, it was a red hot day and the cortina estate overheated, my pal got sunstroke , but the beer was good, Batemans I recall. You must have been well over to the west of the flightline as only one ragged pass was made north to south in that area, near the BBMF hanger, there were also quite a few gate guardians displayed. Spencer Flacks red spitfire should be in there somewhere, this was also the debut of Tornado F2’s in the Queens Birthday flypast, one of which aborted and did an emergency landing, on return they performed an impressive dog fight with the resident Phantom squadron.
Second day at the Test not going too well.

Duke of Brabant’s Dutch B-25 en-route to the Portrush Display

Had excited phone call from my pals sitting on the cliffs at Portrush watching the display, reckoned it was one of the best they had seen. Could clearly hear B-25 flying round.

I suppose my interest started a long while ago. I was born in 1954, a mere nine years after the end of the Second world War. The question that all lads of my age asked their fathers was “what did you do in the War dad?. Well my dear old Dad served under Montgomery in XXX Corp, but would never tell my slightly elder brother or I what he got up to, That question was answered by my Mother not long after he died, The Arnhem fiasco he was not proud of, the injuries sustained while escaping a burning Sherman tank…twice, No, Dad never metioned or spoke of these things.

By coincidence, my father served under Montgomery in XXX Corps, the difference was that he never stopped talking about his experiences. He always used to ridicule the idea that modern troops need counselling, however, I think that considering some of the horrors he experienced, particularly during the Arnhem campaign, that telling the tales were his own form of counselling.
Since he died in January it has left a massive hole in my life. As I often report, we get a lot of flybys here from Duxford a/c, I would be instantly on the phone to tell him what had gone past, but I can’t do this anymore. He always wanted to be in the RAF rather than the Royal Artillery, his cousin Noel won the DFC flying Blenheims, he tried to sign up as a glider pilot but the powers that be decided he was too valuable as an artillery spotter.
He was always an aviation fanatic, even during the war, I have his war diaries which I would like to get into a publishable state but can’t get my head around this yet.
I remember a difference of opinion between him and my ex wife’s late father who fought at Alamein and Italy, he thought that an interest in a/c at the time was pretty pointless to the PBI, however my father said it was a sad B####r who didn’t know who was going to shoot at you.
When I was a kid, we didn’t have much money, but the old man had a tandem, I used to sit on a little seat in the middle with my older brother on the back. He used to take us on tours of airfields round Nottinghamshire, Hucknall was only a few miles away so we witnessed the wonders of the Flying Bedstead, then Langar, a RCAAF base followed by a Shackleton repair centre, then deserted airfields such as Bottesford, he always managed to talk his way in to these places.
Then we had the annual Hucknall and BOB airshows, that started with Newton and ended up going further afield to places like Finningley, travelling there on the back of his moped.
Thats how my interest in aviation started, it was an advantage living only a few miles from Hucknall and seeing all the wierd and wonderful experiments of the 50’s and 60’s, then my brother started making Airfix kits to a very high standard when they first came out and accumulated a lot of literature during this time.
I’m lucky to be living in an area where warbird flybyes are pretty common place, the slightest sound of aero engines and the house empties.
The last airshow my dad went to was the Duxford D-Day show last year, he was treated like a hero, justly so, and even appeared on GMTV, a fitting last show, we all miss him badly.

A film about the Nuremburg raid (94 RAF bombers lost) would be my choice, from the viewpoint of a RAF crew and a Luftwaffe night fighter pilot.One things for sure,as CGI gets even better we should be in for some treats in the future, as long as the script writers stick to the facts.

Wasn’t this to be the original idea for the David Putnam film that became the Memphis Belle. I gather he was inspired by the colour footage of a Lancaster raid unearthed during the 80’s that I’m sure you’ve all seen. Unfortunately the lack of Lancasters and CGI put paid to this, probably something to do with the American market too. Probably a good thing as the ‘special affects’ in Memphis Belle are not too clever.
Changing the subject slightly, a must see film whose title I cannot remember.
Starring James Cagney and made about 1941, it’s about a group of Canadian coastal seaplane pilots who are trained up in the RCAF to become airforce and ferry pilots, the film is shot in glorious quality Technicolor and features Fairy Battles, Hurricanes, Baltimores, etc etc as you’ve never seen them before. Nice scene near the end is where the ferry pilots approaching Scotland are attacked by ‘messerschmits’ actually hurricanes painted black with black crosses and swastikas. I think it was a Canadian propoganda film with Hollwood support to try and get the USA into the war, a must see, will try and find the title.