The rights and wrongs of the MA/TVOC/CAA sign-off are well discussed here, and I am not going to add to that.
I didn't go to Waddo, and I'm bloody glad that I didn't, given the reports here and elsewhere. I probably won't go again unless there is concrete evidence of improvement in the coming years.
My beef is with the
PR. OK - a monumental all-time cock-up has occurred, and yes, you have an airfield full of expectant
paying customers. A bit (well, quite a lot) of quick thinking is clearly called for. What do you do?
The answer is 'SOMETHING'.
Not 'NOTHING'.
As had been alluded to already, there would seem to have been nothing to stop a ground run, or two, to give the punters SOMETHING. Why was this not considered/done? By the sound of it, the schedule was hardly bursting, so finding a slot could not have been difficult and the wx was hardly unsuitable. Did they decide that they could save a bob or two on the fuel?
The punters could have had the noise, the howl, the ground-shaking reverberation, the barn-door aero-braking. I.e. SOMETHING.
A piss-poor show. By any standard.