Yes, it’s good to get there early, but at Duxford shows you generally don’t need to be there at the crack of dawn as you do with some of the big military shows. If you arrive between 9 and 10 you should be ok. The Spitfire show a few years back was something of a one off – an unprecedented amount of traffic turned up leading to utter chaos on the M11 and surrounding roads. Even the great Johnnie Johnson was stuck in it, and like many of us ended up parking on an embankment somewhere and ‘legging it’ over to the airfield!! Fortunately, nothing quite this dramatic has happened since.
The Flightline Walk is open in the morning, and closes an hour or two before the display. Speaking as one of the much maligned yellow jackets, rest assured that the majority do their best to stay out of pics. I’m generally involved in taking small parties of VIPs (veterans / special guests / friends of the display pilots etc) out onto the flightline to have a closer look. I generally try and time these trips for when the Flightline Walk is less busy – or even after it closes. I know from experience how frustrating it can be when you’re homing in on that picture and then someone suddenly steps into it, yellow jacket or no yellow jacket.
Last November, Tom Cooper, one of the original 222 Squadron pilots that flew OFMC’s Spitfire, passed away. At this Legends on the Sunday I’ll be taking his widow and members of his family out onto the flightline. Some of them have never even seen a Spitfire before, let alone one connected with their relative. That said, we’ll try and keep any disruption to a minimum.
Have a good show – and of course, don’t forget to visit the OFMC Tiger Squadron stand outside Hangar Three 🙂
Steve
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