Hi “Bump”,

Yes, Kenley is a great airfield but it is very difficult as a site to manage (quite a few adjoining ownership interests) plus you have all the usual necessary H&S issues to resolve (traffic management & emergency services access) etc. We initially did well to progress these, with plenty of enthusiasm – but the issues just kept coming. We very nearly went for the 2013 “Empire” show but with the remaining issues still unresolved we would have left ourselves very open to potential legal issues should an accident or incident occur during the event and we just didn’t fancy the odd’s.

Also the site is split between Croydon and Tandridge Councils, so you’ve got additional complications there when trying to arrange certain permissions. It just went on and on! I can’t see that Kenley will be allowed to be used in future for any airshows and if the defence cuts keep coming, the MoD may even decide to sell off the site? If this were to happen, it would only benefit Joe Public though, as it would probably end up being used as public open space due to its proximity to the rest of Kenley Common.

Anyway, all the best.

RAF Kenley airshow

Sorry to sound negative PBY but as Kenley airfield is still owned by the MOD why did you not ask them first before going through all that planning effort?

Yep, we did. We had local permission from the RAF Sq Leader who ran the Cadets Gliding School during 2012-13, plus permission from the MoD land agents who run all military airfields. This post was changed in late 2013 and the gliding school was run now by a Ft Lt (but he was also supportive of the event), so we continued with the planning. At this point we had no negetive feedback but were just dealing with the usual issues of corporate sponsorship, site & traffic management etc. All aircraft bookings had also been made.

The issue was that during 2014, the CO of all RAF gliding schools changed and the new postholder adopted a negetive attitude towards the event (risk management) and it was he who pulled the plug on us in October. As Corporate Members of BADA (British Air Display Association), we even asked them to intercede on our behalf but, alas, even they could not over-turn the decision. Evidently we are just one of several civilan run airshows at UK military airfields that have been similarily affected by this new risk-adverse viewpoint.

As we were trying to raise funds for the RAF Benevolent Fund, we had to inform them of the decision and they also thought it reflected poorly on the “RAF family” – plus they’re now out maybe £10K in funds?

Well I’m surmising a bit. Could have been Typhoons or something else maybe? But def military.