Originally, we decided on Sunday as my wife was due at an all day conference for her work. But on checking the weather forecast, Saturday looked do-able and Sunday look truly horrible- solid rain with severe weather warnings. So I had a quick chat with Martin and we decided to make it Saturday instead.
I packed the lunch and we packed up the ‘camp’ – chairs, binos, lunch, airband scanner – all of life’s little essentials! On the road from just north of Cheltenham at 0830 – we hit traffic just crossing the bridge from Cirencester – from my previous experience, this didn’t bode well! So it transpired! We crept along slower than someone would walk and finally parked up at 10:45. I don’t understand how two years ago it flowed so smoothly and this year it was such a cock-up – you would have thought that if they got it right once, they could just copy the traffic flow for following years – and no, it wasn’t particularly because all of Sunday’s crowd had made it Saturday – the crowds there looked like a regular sized RIAT crowd to me. Almost make me wish I had decided to fly-in, but then I thought about the £250-odd landing fee – no, I can’t bring myself to pay that!
While queuing, the airshow had started and I glimpsed what I though at first might have been a Hunter, or was it a Mig 17? No, I eventually decided it was an F86 Sabre – I was fuming at missing this! We also saw a Chinook in the distance doing amazing things.
We eventually parked up and pitched camp. We watched the American display team in F16’s, the Thunderbirds. A lot fewer aircraft than the Red Arrows and a good display. I didn’t think it quite as good as the Red Arrows, but the impressive manouver they did was a formation ‘all-aircraft-as-one’ flick roll – wow, that was impressive!
We wandered around the static park. Martin of course noticed an unusual RCAF aircraft and wandered over to speak to the guys. This was ¼ of the total strength of the RCAF navigation training wing who had flown in from Winnipeg. They were purely here for the airshow and were flying back at the end – seemed a bit mean to me – why not give them a few days in the UK to do some navigation training in Europe and to see some sights?
Loads of Hercules around, but the winner had to be the Greek Air Force Hercules, complete with appropriate tail art. I think the Greek writing translates roughly as ‘big plane – small willy!’.
Saw the F117 and some lovely vintage aircraft, including a Chance Vought F8 Crusader, various C47 Dakotas, Mustangs and the lovely F86 Sabre.
The weather improved to be about the best day for 7 or 8 weeks as the Red Arrows managed their ‘full height’ display – probably for the first time this year. They really are excellent, with a lot going on.
The four ship Spitfire flight was great and even better was the formation flypast of the Red Arrows with three spitfires.
The B1B and F15 shook the ground by liberal use of afterburners.
Personally, I think the best individual display should go to the beautifully painted F16 of the Belgian Air Force – that silver, black and gold scheme is a real head-turner.
We left just gone 16:00 to beat the traffic. A really good day and got my ‘spotter’ fix for the next year or so. I also got the required ‘airshow sunburn’ on my face and now look like a Racoon!
