steve

you sure know how to make a point :diablo:

NIGHT OF THE DEMON

I bet very few of you out there have heard of this film ,or seen it on TV. It is a true classic anglo American production, made when life was less complicated than it is now. Another one was the original production of The House on Haunted Hill, that had some scary moments, and also not forgetting The Haunting,which once again went for the imagination. I think Horror films are similiar to Pornography, some Horror films utilise your imagination while others leave nothing to the imagination. I can’t watch the latter anymore ,they are too extreme in the Visual sense. Is there anybody out there who disagrees with my view on this. 😮

Night of the Demon

For me , Night of the Demon really scared me when I first saw it on TV. Its filmed in Black an White which is just perfect for this film. By todays standards its a little dated, however there was no Gory violence and there are some really scary moments. Wont tell you what they are, let you find out yourself. The demon is well presented with some interesting special effects. Basically the atmosphere in the film is creepy and I will always remember a scene which made me jump , including a cold shivery sensation to boot. So for me Night of the Demon shocks, not bad for a film from the 60,s. Its great when you can use that imagination in your head, which this film used to its advantage. Its about time modern films reflected this style again, its long overdue.

Lakenheath Airshows

On the subject of Lakenheath, I can remember one particular show for the following reasons.
I found that the best place to spend the day was at the far right hand end near some large buildings, can’t remember what they were though. Managed to get a good view of the aircraft preparing to take off. One particular one was the F16 which seemed to spend a heck of a long time with engine running , awaiting take off for its display. I spent just as long gawping at it and listening to that lovely distinctive F16 jet sound. The weather that day was short heavy Thundery showers, and I noticed that the F16’s air intake was sucking up rain water from the ground. Now how many of you out there can say they have seen that, well I have ,so there. 😀
Equally memorable was watching 5 Phantoms ( think it was 5 ) slowly rolling past us ,really close with canopy’s open and the Pilots waving at us, as we waved back at them. 😀 Then eventually watching them thundering along the Runway and doing a missing man display.
Finally, you have to hand it to the Americans, that they do it with style. Their Uniform looks great, and that includes those lovely looking USAF girls. Without any doubt, those USAF Airshow days in Suffolk I will remember as HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY DAYS. Thanks to the UNITED STATES AIR FORCE TO EUROPE, you made my day. Its a pity that in a few years time , the Cold War would end. Things dont always change for the better. 🙁

The one that will always stick in my mind is probaby my first. This was back in the days when you could literally stand at the runway edge, and aeroplanes actually flew OVER you!

A lightning came down the runway at what seemed like 15 foot off the ground, pulled back and went vertical. As he passed there was a faint whistle – then came the ROAR!

As a young lad that was the best magic I had ever seen!

The other thing that sticks in my addled mind is seeing the Vulcan. Even as a kid I thought it was a very scary bird to see in the sky – I was very glad he was on our side! When those bomb doors opened… shudder. I remember being absolutely amazed that something so large could fly so slow and yet still pull the most amazing turns. Fan-bloody-tastic!
wv838

In recent years, the Jaguar has been a regular at the Southport air show. Now most aircraft come down the coast from Blackpool and you’ll see the crowd craning to see them come in. The Jaguar pilot has other ideas… I’ve had a lot of fun in recent years watching the crowd gawping to see him come down the coast – only to have him come from inland – behind them. Of course he does this on full re-heat and it’s rather amusing to see several thousand people all jump at once as he appears overhead 🙂

No matter how many times I see _any_ aircraft take off, I still think “wow!”.

Roy.

Roy

I know exactly what you mean about the Lightning, its a shame we dont see them anymore.Unfortunately Buntingford is a bit far for me to go and see the only Lightnings left in G.B.I think the Government should finance a scheme to make the Lightning airworthy again, after all it protected us from the Russian bombers.It should be up there with the Lancaster ,Hurricane and Spitfire.We should not forget the Vulcan either, it played an important part in the cold war.When I saw the Vulcan climbing into the sky after take off, it always gave me the impression of a huge Moth with those huge Delta wings and light and dark grey camoflague.An unforgetable sight, which I hope will return to the airshow scene, hopefully next year. Sadly the RAF is not as large as it used to be, as I said in one of my earlier posts, the ending of the cold war has had far reaching implications. The downsizing of air power being one of them. Without stating the obvious, the RAF has served us well. Lets not forget that.

Hi all–

A few from the lefthand side of the pond! 😀

In no particular order…Hanging about Mount Hope on arrival days back in the late 70s and early 80s. Rotol haircut from Jerry Billing in Spit MK923 on the Thursday before the ’82 show. Sandwich lunch interrupted by a Mustang flying between two of the hangars at rooftop height and Reno speed, at ninety degrees to the runways and flightline, same year. Trios or quartets of Voodoos roaring by, with the “whamwham” of reheat being selected…

…Geneseo, 1991. Seven-plane formation of five Forts, a Lib and a Lanc, with four Mustangs weaving about high up as “top cover”. Martial band version of “Amazing Grace” in the background on the PA as twenty Wrights, four Pratts and four Merlins roared by in mighty chorus, with four more Merlins whistling far overhead. How comes it that a guy born twenty years after the end of World War II chokes up at the mere memory of this…?

…Batavia, 1994-96. Probably the three best Warbird shows I’ll ever see. Pas de deux aerobatic demo of F7F and F-14 including a joinup with the Tomcat doing a low pass alongside the Tigercat as the latter was taking off. B-25s and a C-141 doing passes in a sudden violent rainstorm. Standing next to a taxiway, completely compassed about by active Warbirds. P-38 and two Corsairs starting up behind; Mustangs taxiing alongside; PBY taxiing in front; F8F taking off; B-17s doing passes…what beautiful overload.

…London (Ontario), 1988. Phantom 30th anniversary. Lineup of twenty-six F-4s in the static; four more (from fairly-nearby Selfridge AFB) flying over to open the show. Not likely ever to see thirty Phantoms in the same place again!

…Trenton, 1992. Spent the whole weekend there with one of the vendors (model-decal maker Howard McLean–who now runs CWH’s youth programs). Wonderfully complete access to a military-base show on arrival day. Ultra-tight break for landing by an RF-4 whose pilot seemed to have forgotten he was not flying a 16. Close look at an F-117A being towed out of 424 Sqn’s hangar where it had spent the night. First MiGs of any sort seen in the air–two Ukrainian AF MiG-29s!

…Geneseo, 1986. Flew down aboard CWH’s Fairchild 24R (with Keith Houston, who now flies their Firefly). Whole weekend at that magical grass-field show. P-47G, P-51A, et cetera, in the soft evening light. Only ever air-to-air sortie (sort of) in the Fairchild with three PTs, being photographed from an L-5 for a magazine. Probably everybody in the Fairchilds had cameras too.

…Mt.Hope, 1996. Magnificently reckless-looking F-4 demo by a Luftwaffe major (“Rolf” something…I forget the surname), who seemed to think the fence at the front of the crowd was the actual showline…yee-haw! Also saw a B-2 for the first time, sailing ghostlike overhead at that show.

…Not really airshows, but similar memories. September 24, 1988, Mt.Hope; the public debut of the completed and flying CWH Lancaster. The museum thought maybe a couple thousand people might turn out. I had worked there recently at the time and could’ve told them otherwise. On top of that it was a gorgeous day. Around twenty thousand showed up, turning the roads around the airport into an ersatz parking lot/grandstand for those who couldn’t get in. “VRA” flying by under a cobalt sky with Spit and Hurricane escorts; hardly a dry eye anywhere. They’d assembled a representative Lanc crew from Bomber Command vets who’d worked on “VRA”, and I particularly remember one of them, Roy Freckleton, whom I’d talked with many times, and how he looked like he might explode from sheer pride and delight on that marvelous day. I’ve always seen that day as CWH’s zenith…

…Mt.Hope again, February, 1985. Dropping by in the dead of winter to see what might be new at CWH. That day what was new was a pristine Mosquito that hadn’t been there before. I about passed out from the shock. Next morning went back up to see G-MOSI depart for Dayton with George Aird at the stick, on her last flight. Mr Aird did three passes. The last one, diagonally across the hangar line, took the Mossie out of sight…then the propwash blew a great cloud of snow off the roof of Hgr#3. Unforgettable.

Thanx for starting such a nostalgic thread!

Cheers

Steve T

That’s quite something Steve, thanks for Posting it. To be perfectly honest due to the increased Health and Safety at our Airshows in G.B. its becoming harder to experience the noise and power of those second world war planes. One requires a telescope of the Astronomical type to see them, well, I guess you know what I mean.Its quite sad really, I think the youngsters of today would really enjoy seeing the Spitfire etc flying a little bit lower and closer. Experiencing the noise and power of those Piston engines. Fortunately we can still hear and feel the power of the jet engine, which is the reason why I still go to Airshows.

I’ll start off with a Canadian Starfighter at Mildenhall, early 80’s. At this particular display, there seemed to be a bit of rivalry between the German and Canadian Starfighter teams, each one flying a 3 ship formation and trying to be as bold as you could get.
The Canadians leader, rather unusually was flying without tip tanks, they were the last to display.
We were standing back from the front of the crowdline when the Canadian leader came hammering over the top of us in full reheat running parallel to the crowd line from the direction of the hangars, it was so low, that at the time, I only had my old Zenith-E with a 50mm lens but it fills the frame, I wish I had a way of publishing my slides on here so you could see it.

Second one, the performance by the Blue Angels at Finningley during the 90’s.
We were standing up at the end where the b##### noisy funfair was, but you got a good view of a/c preparing to take off, and anyway, that was where the Blue Angels were parked up, so the noise was worth it.
One of their routines was to attract your attention to the hanging in the air, slow flying routine while another one hammered overhead at almost mach speed.
He decided to do this behind the crowd, but I think he forgot about the big wheel. What the poor sods on the top of the big wheel felt as the F-18 cleared it by what seemed just a few feet to us must have been a good case for counselling.

West Malling, 1980’s. There was a dog fight between Stephen Grey in Moose, Ray Hannah in MH434 and various Pilatii.
At one point, Stephen Grey was running low along the front of the crowdline when Ray flew underneath him and over the crowd, it was so low that me and my mate actually ducked and sat on the ground, twitching with fear.

Wethersfield, 1980’s, RAF Phantom performance, they lost it doing a tight turn, it came ossillating over the crowd and we were quite frightened, I gather from a previous thread that they were killed a few weeks after at another airshow.
At the same airshow, the half size Fw 190 continuously flew low over the crowd line during his routine.

During the 50’s and 60’s it didn’t seem to matter where you flew, Lightnings would appear at high speed and low level from behind the crowd etc etc.
I recall watching a display by the Black Arrows at Cottesmore in the early 60’s during a thunderstorm, I was cowering behind a hangar door while they flew their formations where they could at low level, whether it was over or in front of the crowd, it didn’t seem to matter.
Thinking about it, most solo a/c in the 50’s and 60’s tended to arrive behind the crowd in order to give that element of surprise.
What larks Pip.

Absolutely marvelous Pete, yes its a pity we can’t see those slides. I did see the Black Arrows once ,doing aerobatics at Denham Airshow, however I was not actually at the show. I saw them from my home, when I was a wee lad . I can still see those Hawker Hunters in ( I think a diamond nine formation )climing and rolling over the top. I think they were Hunters, hope thats correct. 😀

Airshow Commentator

Is there anyone out there who can remember the Airshow commentator at the IAT at greenham Common in the 70’s and 80’s. He was also at Mildenhall and possibly Lakenheath, not sure about Alconbury. I will never forget his most distinctive voice, and he seemed too know a lot about all the aircraft at the shows. His style of commentary certainly was entertaining to listen too, he knew how too present technical info while those e.g. Starfighters would fly a few miles out to enable them too turn for another pass. Then as the black Afterburner smoke became visible, usually to the right hand end of the runway, he would continue his Tech speak right up to the Planes deafening return. Incidentally when I saw that smoke, I for some unknown reason felt a bit nervous, hoping it would pass safely without crashing, it usually did, I mean pass safely without crashing. 😀 On a few occasions, I pointed my Binoculars at the Control Tower,and did see him. He did indeed make those Airshows memorable.