Let me get this right....had this sort of unmitigated disaster happened in civvie street, the '
PR guru' responsible would no doubt have his P45 by now, non? So, what do we give him.....a front line station. Lord knows what next year's Summer Ball will be like.....all Burberry and K-Swiss trainers, no doubt.
As it happens, I was one of the hordes parked by the side of the road. Watched the tail end of the role demo...should be just fine when it's strung together as a set piece, rather than as an adjunct to some dross on the jumbotron. Popped to Homebase for the duty bank holiday shop. Back on the verge by 1600 in time for the Red Arrows. Mini bus driver was truly agog, even though it was the flat display (I assume, considerng they went IMC half way up the opening loop?).
I was also at the Abingdon Air Fayre (bloody hell, I'm really not a spotter!) 3 weeks ago and it's a lovely little show. £8 each for Mrs Driver and I and the wee ones are free, as is the parking. Suitable number of helos plus a Dak to crawl over plus a mixed display in the afternoon. As ever, a decent recruiting team on the ground was missing, though the Army were out in force as were the RAuxAF recruiters. It strikes me that there are probably enough aircrew, plus a smattering of other trades - but let's face it, we do recruit from the top down - willing to give up one or two weekend days a year to pop along to their local airshow. In flying suit, suitably briefed and tooled up with gizzits/info they would at least give the public a focal point on the day. We are at the stage where few front line force elements can commit suitably manned statics to each and every show, but a handful of willing volunteers should not be hard to find. Throw in a free ticket for the wife and kids and I'm sure the organisers would be inundated. Still, what do I know...