FD,
Sorry to have missed you on Friday. The pprune "crowd" met at 3pm at the Pilot stand (all four of us), perhaps the beer tent would have been better !
I always thought the marshalling was done pretty well by the cadets in previous years, but this year neither the cadets, nor the older marshallers seemed to have been briefed at all. The AIC said display a letter "S" if you need to be parked south side after landing, and we waved and pointed at this to each marshaller but ended up being marshalled further and further North into the North side and directed to park there. Fortunately it was very quiet Friday morning and so a radio call to Kemble grass sorted out a follow-me van and we eventually managed to get to the Europa line-up.
I also couldn't understand why both aircraft wanting to park "South Side" and aircraft wanting to go to the Sales Area were both told to display the same letter "S".
Rally seemed very quiet and there seemed to be many traders missing, with empty stalls, and one trader told me he had reduced the size of his stall this year because of the prices.
Did I enjoy it? .... Yes.
Will I go next year? ..... Probably, but next year might be my last visit unless things reverse.
I don't like being negative without offering a solution, but I'm afraid I don't know enough detail of the rally finances to offer one.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who made it all possible.