Flying into Duxford on Air Show Day

[cptcollins]

Hello all,

I went to Duxford yesterday (Sat 07JUL) to watch the truely spectacular Flying Legends air show. On arrival i glanced across the airfield to see a swarm of private light aircraft parked up and I kicked myself for not researching and flying in myself instead of sitting in miles of traffic.

How much is it to fly into Duxford (in a PA28) on an air show day?

Do Duxford issue you with a PPR number and airfield slot time?

Did anyone pull their finger out earlier than I did and fly into Duxford this weekend?

Best Regards

Simon

[Comanche250]

You have to ring up and get the AIC which they e-mail to you, you then book a slot @ 3 minute intervals. When I last flew in I paied for entry which is standard and it was I think £20 on top of that for the a/c landing fee. I cant remember exactly as I didnt pay it ;) but it was something like that!

If you do fly in dont do what some kind pilot did to me and appear 200ft below me on base unannounced and cut straight in front of me stealing my slot and then not bother to vacate the runway quick enough for me to touch down!! :rolleyes:

Its well worth it though, great fun and extremely well organised!

C250

[cptcollins]

Thanks 250,

Sounds nice and easy. Do you remember if you had to file a FPL or not?

[Comanche250]

Nope, no flight plan required unless you are flying in from abroad or iom etc. nothing to stop you from filing one though if you so wish.

C250

[bonniejack]

I drove there yesterday as well and listened in to the RTduring the morning. Loads of respect for the information service. Very busy but the controller remained very calm even when pilots RTF procedures less than ideal. There were a lot of go arounds due to spacing it seemed or slow to vacate pilots. After the awful drive down I swore I would fly in next time.

[Comanche250]

The AFIS guys in the tower there on show days are second to none! Couldnt have been more helpful. The one time I flew in, after my second go around due to late vacations people cutting in etc, the guys were very apologetic (not that it was their fault) but still, and as for getting all the aircraft out at the end of the day, that was just awe-inspiring!

C250

[High Winger]

This year I was very fortunate to get a landing slot due to a cancellation. It appears the world and his wife arrived at the same time as me and we orbited for 10-15 minutes waiting for the go ahead to join downwind. I must say that the guy in the tower was very slick and patient.

The show, as usual, was excellent and the weather stayed dry and sunny for the most part.

If I had to make a criticism it would be the scrum at the protakabin to get on one of the minibuses ferrying pilots back to their aircraft at the end of the show. I wonder if it could have been more orderly had departure slots been allotted on arrival, giving those who had furthest to travel preference for an early departure.

[Cusco]

I fly in every year: Today the organisation was the best its been for years: My slot was 11.33L : I arrived on time and landed sans probleme: last year I had to go- around twice, first time when the Classic wings Rapide took off from the grass alongside as I was crossing the threshold(simultaneous grass/hard movements are prohibited) the second time I was carved up by someone on a tight base:.
Getting a slot is simplicity itself - there's always a Yellow AIC every year on the website: you have to have read this when you phone up for a slot: they'll ask you which entry gate you want and if you 'um and er' they'll invite you to go away and read it and ring back.This year the AIC extended to 9 pages.
The departure problems are caused by two main things:
People who have a long way to travel can ask for and are given when they arrive a red stamped 'Boarding pass' which gets them away quickly. Today a
number of these peeps held up the show as one of their group had gone missing.

The other problem in recent years is that they board the Charted DC3s and DC6s full of spotters from Holland etc through the same tiny gate as leaving private pilots so there will be dozens on non-English speaking Dutchmen and Belgians all not knowing wtf to do milling around and this causes delays. This year was better - I only queued for one hour.........

Still, it was worth the wait if only to look down on the jammed M11, solid with departing road traffic............

There are still a coupla Duxford shows this year: dates on their website or in the Flying mags.
Costs:

Landing Fee for a PA28 GBP20.00

Entry to Airshow on the day
Adult GBP29.95
Friends of Duxford GBP 19.95
Small reduction (forget how much ) for over 60s
Slight reduction if you buy tickets in advance by post.

Go for it:

Tips:
Take your own seats or a blanket (unless you join FoD-see below)
Take a hat and suncream (and umbrella if you don't join FoD)
Take your Icom if you want to out-geek the spotters
Remember you can't get back to your a/c till the display is over.
Better still, join the Friends of Duxford and get free admission into their enclosure with its own loos and refreshments tent.
Get on the IWM/Duxford mailing list: you'll get advanced reminder of all the airshows

Safe flying

Cusco;););)

[BackPacker]

I literally just got back from Duxford. (Our aircraft developed a tech problem so unfortunately we had to stay on Sunday, and could only depart noon-ish today.)

Very good show. Very professionally organized and despite the usual show business, the crew at EGSU were stars at trying to help us out with our tech problem.

Get a slot, fly in at slot time, read the briefing documents and you should have no problems whatsoever. Bear in mind though that departure after the show means that all of the pilots and crew of the 100+ private planes there need to be bussed over (using two small minivans) to their plane. It took over two hours to get all the people across and the planes away. If you do need to fly a considerable distance once the show is over (which was six-ish both days), make sure you get a priority boarding pass, and still allow at least an hour to get to the plane.

If you decide to stay overnight, make sure you don't leave your luggage in the plane. At 6 you are competing with all the crews wanting to go home, for a place on the minibus.

Also, when departing on Sunday morning, make sure you get a confirmation that you're allowed to. Today they decided at the last possible moment - no departures after 9am. We managed to get an exception made for us but I can sort of agree with their reasoning: the air at that point in time was already thick with arrivals. (As it transpired, the aircraft failed the runup checks so we had to stay for the Sunday show, get into a hotel again, and could only get an engineer to sort the engine out today.)

[Cusco]

Backpacker:

Sorry to hear your a/c went tech: Was it a Mag Drop?

Reason I ask is that our Arrer fouls its plugs comprehensively during the 20 minute crawl at low revs to the head of the queue:

I always do a quick mag check when I am No 2 to the hold and b**ger me if, despite aggressive leaning during the slow crawl on the ground I still got the plug fouling signs.

Fortunately I managed to burn it off at highrevs/fully leaned. and we got away OK.

great day though.

Cusco;)

[BackPacker]

DA-40 TDI doesn't do mags. Instead, it's got two ECUs, and one of the sensors for the backup ECU failed. Officially a no-go item.

Problem is, none of the Spitfire, Mustang, Lancaster or any of the other engineers at Duxford have the correct laptop, connector and program to diagnose such a problem. Mallets and spanners, yes. RS-232 to USB connector no. Eventually we traced down a licensed mechanic from Coventry, who flew to Duxford and diagnosed/cleared the problem for us.

[Cusco]

Blimey: serious stuff.

Steam powered Arrers for me............

Cusco.:ouch:

[BackPacker]

Well, yes and no. On the one hand, those steam powered planes can literally be fixed with some bale twine and duct tape. On the other hand... We flew in three club aircraft. The fuel bill (one way) for the Archer and the Warrior came in at about 150 UKP each for a little over 100 liters of avgas. Fuel bill for the DA-40 TDI... 30 UKP (50 liters Jet-A). Same distance, speed and POB.

Obviously in this particular case the difference was more than matched by the cost of flying an engineer in, his labour bill, additional hotel, taxi and meal costs. But it's not always like that, fortunately.

And we got to see the show a second time, no charge!

[stopbar]

Hi Backpacker
Glad you got home today. Sorry we could not do more to help you on the Sunday, glad you enjoyed the second show!!
Regards
One of the EGSU Tower Crew

[BackPacker]

You guys did an incredible job. Not just for us, but for all the people flying in. Thanks again!