Thanks Wyvernfan. They did make a fly-past before landing but, errr, I had not regularly checked the camera settings and must have accidentally changed them and the resulting pics are not good enough to use. Bit of a rookie mistake.
The RAF Scampton airshow is replacing the Waddington airshow which was original suspended whilst the runway was being resurfaced, however, when the runway was finished it was claimed that the operational demand was such that RAF Waddington could no longer support any further airshows. The Scampton show has been organised by the same team as RIAT, which runs like a carefully oiled machine.
Scampton is about the same distance north of Lincoln as Waddington is south and both lie on the A15. Unsurprisingly the layout of the showground was like a scaled down RIAT.
The only active runway now at Scampton is 04/22 and unsurprisingly 22 gets most use. The runway is fitted with lowerable over-run barriers at both ends. The A15 has been re-routed around the north eastern end of the runway as the result of a runway extension. For the show the part of the A15 close to Scampton was closed to through traffic for most of the operational days over the weekend. Those with enclosure tickets were able to park on the actual airfield whilst those with general tickets parked at the show ground just up the road with a free shuttle bus. No separate fee was made for parking.
The local councils are very keen to retain an airshow and have also put forward plans for an RAF Scampton Museum at Scampton. They see this as generating income for the area. The Scampton Airshow visitor feedback sought several pieces of information on how much we had spent in the area.
We were unable to make the Thursday fly-in day, however, we understand that there was very little activity so maybe that worked out well for us. Friday was very busy with aircraft either arriving or practicing continuously from about 9am to 5pm. Unfortunately runway 22 threshold is down a dip so regrettably from most areas of the PAV the actual touch down could not be seen. The PAV did extend further along towards the threshold but became quite narrow. We were early enough to get a place anywhere we wanted but at the time did not realise the problem. Later this narrow area became very congested to the extent that it looked like it would be difficult to get in and out for refreshments and the necessary.
Moving on to the first day of the show, Saturday. The show was opened with what has now become a bit of a tradition, the Reds escorting “something” usually “heavy”. This day we were treated to a Sentinal.
This was followed by another heavy, an E-3D Sentry making a single pass.
To finish off the heavy jets later in the show one of the Boeing727-SS2F operated by Oil Spill Response Limited put on a spraying display. This display has now become a regular feature at airshows and we are treated to a demonstration of dispersant spraying, with water substituted of course, and a lively climb out.
Pictures are actually from the Sunday display.
The first actual display was put on by the BAE Systems Avro 19 – Anson. Have seen this aeroplane on static many times but this is the first time I have seen it in the air.
The billed second Strikemaster wasn’t able to make it so the Strikemaster was accompanied by a Jet Provest. Shouldn’t think many people noticed the difference. They made a good attempted at putting on a display without actually doing anything that could be called aerobatic.
Next we have the RAF Falcons who jump out of perfectly good aeroplanes. A mixture of the two days, the wind was much stronger on Sunday.
Controlled chaos…
And out of chaos comes……
The interesting thing is that the jump plane is leased from a Canadian company.
Then we have the Pitts Special doing its usual amazing stuff.
A fast jet follows and then, sadly, things start going a little wrong.
Finishing the prop arrivals, two heavies from DX.
Fortunately the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron was able to help boost the British historic jet aircraft participation by coming with 2 Vampires. I see these will also be at DX next weekend.
That brings us to the end of the fly-ins on Friday, there were also fast jet arrivals and practice so, as I said before, there was almost continuous activity from 9am to about 5pm and we saw most historic fly-ins but, disappointingly, not the Pembroke.
Thanks, Steve, I thought that that would almost certainly be the case.
As I said a lot of activity on Friday and well worth the fiver a head admission.
Continuing with some more prop arrivals.
And these two owned by BAE Systems and kept with the Shuttleworth collection.
The DH60 Cirrus Moth, G-EBLV was built in 1925 and is the earliest flying Moth in the world. The history does not stop there as this machine was flown by no less than Alan Cobham to deliver it to the Lancashire Aero Club which at that time was based at the new Avro airfield at Woodford. I had been doing some research about Woodfood and Avro and remembered coming across a newsreal film of the inaugeration of the Lanchashire Aero Club at Woodford in 1925. At the time I thought the pilot that featured in the report was Bill Thorn, the Avro test pilot who died at the controlls with Roy Chadwich in the Tudor ll in 1947, but in fact it is Alan Cobham and they do look very similar. The film shows Alan Cobham getting out of an aeroplane, almost certainly G-EBLV, and later commensing a take off in G-EBLV. I wonder was this the delivery occasion?
The second aeroplane owned by BAE Systems and residing at Shuttleworth is the 1932 Blackburn B2 and is one of two surviving but the only one airworthy, the other is at the Yorkshire Air Museum.
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