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Old 10th Dec 2013, 07:11
  #19 (permalink)  
Diablo Rouge
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Great Britain
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The RAF have in the last two years:

Deleted King Air - Hawk - Tornado role demo from the air display circuit.

In addition to the Tutor grounding and therefore removal from the circuit.

Not replaced any display with a new 'act', not even a flypast by new AT types.

The closure of RAF Leuchars has seen sponsored events reduced to just two, with nothing north of the border. There is no appetite for static aircraft participation, and assumption based on what could be seen at Waddington and Cosford v reality.

Measure this against the post war (WWII) era where nearly every airbase (30+) had a Battle of Britain At-home day and you can see with clarity how much value the RAF place on public interaction. The Queens Birthday flypast is all very nice, and it always gets TV coverage, but it is no substitute from little johny staring through the rails at a Typhoon and having a pilot giving a few minutes of his time to talk.

It appears that QCS is a spent force with regard to town shows and events such as BMT / Air Displays these days. FWIW, the Navy Wessex 'papa tango' that did the school circuits many years ago was instrumental in influencing my own career choice. "I could do that" thought I, and some years later: I did!
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