Ellie and I went after all, my first airshow in several years. Got there about 8am and drove straight in, no problems. Had a nice morning walking around all the hanger displays and stalls etc, and enjoyed Cossie’s new Cold War building- very nice indeed. Spent a fortune on a lovely leather jacket from the RAF Museum shop. Back to the car for nibbles, and I was amazed at the amount of garden furniture some people were setting up by their cars, and of course by the extent of the windbreaks and tents on the flight line- selfish ******s!
We set ourselves up a little ways back from the flight line, at the right hand end of the runway adjacent to Spit AR213 and Hurricane R4118, so I could watch them start up and taxi out, which I enjoyed immensely. Loved seeing the BBMF, especially of course my beloved Lanc. The cloud base was very low- the Falcons went around a couple of times in the Chinook, and only jumped on the third go, and even then it felt like they were chancing it! The Reds did their ‘flat’ display, but it was still a nice sight, as was everything really- have been reading many comments elsewhere from the ‘pros’ who were bemoaning the gloom etc, but as a family day out, it was still great.
Had no illusions that the Vulcan would be there, but it was nice to hear such a buzz about it over the base, and I bunged a few quid it’s way by buying one of their nice polo shirts.
Getting out wasn’t so good though- we sat in the car for an hour and barely moved! Traffic was okay once we eventually cleared the base, though.
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