Commentators
In another thread and in reply to a comment I made on a question about commentators, Redsnail wrote:
'The main purpose of the commentator is to excite the crowd. Not every one who goes to a show knows why they should go ooh ahh at aircraft. The enthusiast is already excited .............'
I wanted to reply, but in the meantime, CamelPilot has been doing some tidying and has closed the thread.
Soooooo how about a new one, thought I, as I do feel the issue is worth airing.
The first and foremost job that a commentator has is to control the crowd in the event of an accident. As airshow organisers, what we want is a cool calm laying on of hands and a quiet benign audience. That way, the emergency services have direct and simple access to the site. Consider the opposite effect of mass panic and the whole spectator enclosure trying to exit at the same time.
John Blake was a master of the technique. His method was legendary, I think all he said at Old Warden following the Slingsby crash was: "...I think he's gone in...", but he said it in such a way as to calm the crowd. The emergency services arrived with no incident and the display continued shortly afterwards.
All the Old Warden commentators go through refresher training with the pilots during pre-season work-up - it's an essential part of the safety process. But what we don't do is tell hem what to say, except, perhaps, to be quiet from time to time when interesing engines are flying past. The content of their commentary is up to them, althouh we do provide some printed notes.
As with the pilots, if the commentators were all the same, it would eventually get very boring, and as said in the other thread, for every complaint we get for a commentator, we get a letter of praise......
Over to you.