Red Bull Air Race - London

[Twitcher]

I searched for info unsuccessfully....
Tickets are not cheap to be an official spectator, so where is the best place to be able to watch the event without having to pay for entry, in London? There must be some suitable view points on either side of the river?

[ThreadBaron]

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[Jamie-Southend]

Threadbaron

You sharing those PM`s? :)

[20Legend]

park in zone 2 and jump on the tube?

[ELondonPax]

According to the official web page, the race will be centred around the Dome, sorry I’ll say that again, the O2.

There are lots of places where you can get free / public access to the riverside in that area, and should have an excellent view of the action.


On the south bank of the river:
There is a public footpath on the riverbank all the way from Greenwich (Cutty Sark) to the Thames Barrier, passing right in front of the dome/O2. Nearest stations are Cutty Sark (DLR), North Greenwich (Jubilee) or Westcombe Park (Network Rail). Some of this footpath goes through surprisingly industrial areas, and the smell from the molasses refinery can be a bit iffy.

On the north bank of the river.
• Access to the river is more limited, but there are some places where you can get to the river, and get a good view.
• On the Isle of Dogs, there is public access by the entrance the West India Docks. Nearest station South Quay (DLR)
• There is public access in front of the Jamestown Quay development . Nearest station East India (DLR)
• There is a public footpath (which has the advantage of a little extra height because you’ll be standing up on a bridge) alongside the Lower Lea Crossing. Nearest station East India (DLR)
• There is a small patch of riverside access in Lyle Park. Nearest station West Silvertown (DLR)

[130.4]

To whet your appetite, here's a picture I took this lunchtime:

http://web2k.co.uk/?im=1185540192


This was taken from the north side of the Thames, looking east. The backdrop will be much better if you position yourself a little further to the east, and look westwards. That area is where you have to buy a ticket to watch.

[WALSue]

Looks good - just hope the weather holds out!
I was at Interlaken so looking forward to this weekend

[130.4]

In terms of the weather, Saturday looks much more promising than Sunday.

Here's a short video clip I took, showing a knife-edge followed by a half-Cuban, then camera panning towards the Dome/O2. Warning: this file is a bit big at 13MB.

http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=186963

[WHBM]

Living in the Borough of Newham we applied for the free tickets for locals, and they all came through nicely on time.

I saw them operating out of London City yesterday (Thursday 26th) morning. Are they going to be based there for the contest ? They were all gone by the evening.

London City is obviously closed Saturday afternoon, but wonder how they are going to integrate things on Sunday afternoon.

[130.4]

I saw them operating out of London City yesterday (Thursday 26th) morning. Are they going to be based there for the contest ? They were all gone by the evening.

In another thread on the same subject (but in the Private Flying forum) it was mentioned they were going to use a temporary runway at a disused dock near the airport. Today (Friday), from a distance, I saw on of them appearing to land somewhere just north of LCY. Looking at a map, all I can see in that area are some playing fields - surely it's not there?

[moku]

The location of the temporary runway is immediately north of the dock that is on the north side of the LCY Rwy. It's between the glass office building and the University housing to the east. (Pringle buildings ;)) Looks like a very short runway.

M.

[zznot]

Great picture...looks pretty close to the action - exactly where were you and do you think it'll be accessible tomorrow (ie without having to go to a pay-2-view area).

Re winds etc - Apparently they've had gusts of up to 30 kts in the last few days and still carried on. I too got caught up in the Longleat thing last year..(7 hours to get there and over 5 back)..seems a lotta people want to moan but surely safety had to come first. The hilly terrain and trees were the main issue. No trees/hills on the Thames fortunately so unless extremely low cloud and poor vis I reckon it'll still go ahead...we may be stood there in the rain but surely we're used to that by now??!!

[WALSue]

I've noticed they've included a brolly now on the air race merch list :)
Sunday looks to be wet but less windy so I assume (hope!) that the race will continue it will just won't be too nice for those of us watching.