I’ve been going to Duxford airshows for about 25 years now, and I love the place. The M11 end is great for pre-show activity, and the tank bank is the place to be on airshow days. It’s always busy at Legends, and on days like last Sunday where there’s a massive crowd, but more often than not I’ve found it quite easy to find a space a few rows back, which I much prefer to being squashed along the fence or surrounded at the top of the hill. Each to their own I suppose!

Looking into sun for a fair bit of the day has never bothered me, you just deal with it. It’s hardly the IWM’s fault…

As for last weekend, the IWM made it quite clear that there were c.2,000 spaces left in the Meadow car park, and warned that there would be heavy traffic. My friends and I were staying 20 minutes up the M11 and were up at 6am, arriving at the Meadow about 90 minutes later. Shortly after, the car park was full and they were turning people away. Not ideal, but quite an extraordinary situation for Duxford. I bailed during the Reds on Sunday and drove straight out, no snags.

Normally I drive straight in between 8am and 10am and, after a post-show wander, drive straight out around 6.30-7pm. Until this weekend, it’s been about a decade since I experienced really bad traffic chaos at Duxford.

See linked below a report from East Kirkby’s terrific ‘Three Lancasters’ event last Sunday. Anyone with tickets to the second event is in for a real treat.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/09/09/aviation-event-review-three-lancasters-at-east-kirkby/

Some photos of the Lancs at Dunsfold, alongside the BBMF fighters, here: http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/09/03/airshow-review-dunsfold-wings-wheels-2014/

Might be nice to see their T-33 painted as a Manston aircraft, but it ain’t going to happen!

It was repainted in either 2012/13 in the scheme below. I’m sure I read that the markings have some connection with Manston; whether it was based there for a time, or visited, I don’t know. Perhaps someone who knows their stuff from that era could clarify?

They have recently painted the Jaguar up in arctic camo’ too.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/08/11/d-day-70-pt-27-the-normandy-trail-commemorations-06-080614/

I thought the attached article may be of interest to some here – it’s an account of my visit to Normandy over the weekend of 6-8 June 2014, one of the most important trips I’ll ever make. My friends and I took an overnight ferry from Portsmouth on 5 June, arriving at Sword Beach at 0630 on the 6th, just as the British forces would have done 70 years earlier. We spent the weekend in the American sector, and the words/images linked above reflect on our travels around Utah and several French towns, as well as numerous parachute drops and a flight in the Breitling DC-3 Dakota.

Please do have a read!

Some more of Darren’s lovely photographs can be found at the link below, with a little potted history (by no means comprehensive – that comes later!) of the aircraft.

Well done, Shuttleworth!:D

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/08/01/aviation-news-the-shuttleworth-collections-de-havilland-dh-88-comet-g-acss-returns-to-flight/

Excellent images and a sound perspective on Flying Legends 2014 in this review by Huw Hopkins, who posts here from time to time! Proof, I think, that you don’t have to be outside to get dynamic photographs at Duxford…

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/07/21/airshow-review-flying-legends-2014/