What is your most memorable airshow and why [Archive]

Tuba Mirum

8th May 2002, 12:04

Farnborough, when I was quite young - end of the 50s/early 60s.

Solo Lightning takeoff - held level to 250kts or so, then up to 18000 ft in what seemed like no time.

Also the Black Arrows (Hawker Hunters), predecessors to the Red Arrows, I being most impressed by a solo "falling leaf" manoeuvre from altitude.

Then later they started getting F-14s and things in, which were just noisy :( .

Terribly crowded things, air shows today.

ShyTorque

8th May 2002, 12:13

Jet Dragon,

I agree with you, the Lightnings were unforgettable.

I'll bet you never even noticed my Puma display though!:D

Nopax,thanx

8th May 2002, 12:19

Finningley 1977 - Queen's last jubilee! The whole year was pretty good, a different show to go to every weekend (almost got in trouble at work as I was supposed to be working!) But the mass flypasts, the Aussie F-111 lighting up his dumped fuel, and the Labour defence secretary falling asleep next to her maj.....it's got to be Finningley '77! Wasn't it free admission too? My memory fails me now, but a lot of shows were free in them days...ahhh, the nostalgia!!

gyrohead

8th May 2002, 12:36

:D Farnboro '94: 4 pints of ale, 2 G&T's, and a big breasted blonde Norwegian leggy girlie! Oh! and some planes....

Jet Dragon

9th May 2002, 02:03

Was that XW200 Shy T??

:D

innuendo

9th May 2002, 02:13

The one where I almost wrote myself off. We were supposed to go there, land, and spend our time answering questions as a static display. While in the hold for our landing they asked us to do a ten minute show as a fill in for an unserviceable A/C.
Not ever having done any low level practice I did not really appreciate how much altitude you could lose doing a roll. I started to get some idea when we were upside down in front of the crowd. We got away with it (someone looks after young pilots) but it scared the wits out of my nav and myself. Got a good lesson without paying too high a price. It impressed the h**l out of one of the pilots from the real aerobatic team who were watching from the ground. They thought it looked quite impressive, little did they know.

Hen Ddraig

9th May 2002, 20:20

Farnborough many years ago.
Roly Falk rolling a Vulcan prototype along the display line at about 200 ft

Hagbard the Amateur

9th May 2002, 20:47

Barton Airshow NW UK circa 1992

I was on a press pass collecting TV pictures for whoever wanted to buy them.
I stood airside within tens of metres from a low level Harrier hover/look how many ways I can pitch the aircraft from a hover position.
Next I was sprayed with dry grass as Gary Numan taxied past in whichever WWII Japanese single prop he was using that day (he intentionally sprayed into us, I swear)
The day was completed by being given access to the tower terrace and filming the Vulcan droning and banking past at something near to our level.

Magic

THE PIPELINE

9th May 2002, 20:53

Leeming, maybe 92 but i cant be sure.

Nothing special, my first ever air display, but the one thing that stands out is watching the Vulcan take off....and feeling the earth shake.....i remember feeling very impressed, and absolutely gutted when they grounded it. Also remember being frightened by the f-4 phantom, the screeech of its jets scared me.

Catt

9th May 2002, 21:13

Folkstone sea front a couple of years back.

A team of five Tornado's did a fly past at fairly low level (useless at calculating height but it was fairly low!!), turned left and flew out to sea in formation. The weather was overcast, and so viz out at sea was appalling but I fortunately managed to catch a glimpse of the T's flying, still in formation, through a break in the cloud. The formation however didn't look quite right, one aircraft missing. Well my buddies didn't believe me when I informed them they'd lost a Tornado (bloody hard to lose etc :rolleyes: ), until the fifth Tornado that had broken free from the formation ripped (and that is the only way I could ever describe it) straight up the front of the cliffs right in front of us :eek: . Very, very impressive (not so for the little boy - no more than five years old if he was a day - who fell of his perch halfway down the cliff :D)

That was the same show where they had the single Tornado flying wingman to a Spitfire. Poor Spit was going flat out whilst the Tornado had every flap down - again, something I will never forget.

Avalon

9th May 2002, 21:35

The Fighter Meets at North Weald - without doubt - particularly the early ones. The NorthWest Orient brand new 747 doing a very low silent fly-by will for ever stick in my mind........ Its with some sadness though that I remember many of the original organisers have moved on to another world.............

Hagbard the Amateur

9th May 2002, 22:00

Another was arriving at an Angelsey coastal campsite by night and realising by morning we were right next to RAF Valley - a formation of Hawks beats an alarm clock any day of the week :D
We got an airshow every day of our stay - thanks chaps.

Jet Dragon

10th May 2002, 03:46

Would that have been at Rhosneigr Hagbard?

Camped there on many occasions - earliest memories being Hunters and Gnats.

Also many a happy hour spent in the sandhills across the road - remember particularly watching an F15 one night after the Valley Airshow doing a spectacular routine in the evening sunshine culminating in a vertical climb until he was out of sight.

Happy Days

JD

:)

henry crun

10th May 2002, 07:43

Cranfield 1988.

Memorable if only for the fact that it must have been one of the very few occasions when the Red Arrows stuffed up.

They went into cloud at the top of a loop and when they emerged there were aircraft going in all directions.

Hagbard the Amateur

10th May 2002, 09:20

Jet Dragon

Yes indeed - Rhosneigr. Beautiful beach and village. Good campsite too - I've been there twice.

pulse1

10th May 2002, 10:19

I think it was the first IATA show at Boscombe Down. The Russian contingent arrived in the middle of the show, a Su29 in formation with a small airliner (can't remember what). As the airliner passed me on final approach, the Su29 was still formating on his right wing, flying between the runway and the crowd line, gear down. As the runway goes down hill I lost sight of the Su29 behind the crowd but heard the commentator wondering out loud what he was going to do.

As the airliner touched down, the Su29 went vertical from about 20' and went straight into a spectacular, short display. It was claimed that this set a world record for the longest distance flown directly into an air display - about 3000 miles if I remember correctly.

Every display I've been to where the Russians have been displaying have been memorable, including the infamous Mig collision at Fairford.

Another memorable Russian display was at Yeovilton when, after a typically robust Su29 display, we watched the pilot take out of the nosewheel bay a large tarpaulin which he tidied up, and then restuffed into the bay. He also opened a hatch in the top of the wing and took out various plastic bags and a long plastic pipe
which was used as an adaptor to replenish one of the systems.

After he left, I heard London Mil. pleading with him to descend back to FL290 to which he had been cleared.

Jinkster

10th May 2002, 13:29

Well its got to be the local flying school.

Bloomin' amateurs :D :D :D

ShyTorque

10th May 2002, 21:11

Jet Dragon,

Yes it was XW200! Your memory is actually better than mine - I had to dig out my old logbook.:cool:

kaeveritt

10th May 2002, 23:26

Picture the scene.... Florida, USA.

12000ft over NAS Jacksonville, the tailgate of the C130 opens with the moonlight flooding in, 8 skydivers standing there ready to jump into the darkness of the night, with the expectant crowd waiting in anticipation.

The Jumpmaster gives the order to GO..... The skydivers leap into the 130Kt slipstream, illuminated by glow sticks so that the crowd can see them plummeting to earth at 120mph.

They deploy their parachutes at 2000ft and steer their way to the DZ. They can hear the crowd going wild, they are cheering, whistling and still not believing what they are seeing as the 8 skydivers come into land.

Anyway, that is part of the story, the wine, women and song come later!! Apart from all that, Jacksonville, Florida is the best airshow that i have been to. They have everything from F18's to Nimrods, Harriers to R22's. A jet propelled truck that does about 350mph and a Jet Assisted (JATO) C130 that gets to 2000ft in about 2 seconds from take off.

By the way, the skydivers are from the Red Devils Freefall Team (http://www.reddevilsonline.com/) of which i used to be a member for 5 years :cool:

Lu Zuckerman

11th May 2002, 00:02

It was around 1961 at Vandenberg Air Force base in California. A Thor missile had just lifted off to head down range. The pitch program failed to execute and the missile went straight up. The launch control officer did not destruct the missile because the higher it went and was then destructed the debris would fall into the ocean instead of falling on the base property. At about 20 miles or so the missile passed through an ionized layer and the exhaust triggered the formation of what looked like a snowflake but ten miles or so in diameter. The exhaust illuminated this gigantic snowflake and you could see it against the night sky. As the missile flew higher it passed through two more ionized layers and the same snowflake appeared each separated by ten miles or so all illuminated by the rocket exhaust. For whatever reasons the snowflakes started to rotate in opposite directions with two going clockwise and the other counter clockwise and all illuminated by the exhaust. When the missile was blown up the light became even brighter and the rotating snowflakes formed a Moiré pattern, which made the Aurora Borealis look pale by comparison.

Watching missiles being blown up by human hands or because of a mechanical malfunction is both thrilling and painful especially if you were associated with the program.

Sliding member

12th May 2002, 23:42

Blimey, were you on drugs at the time????????:D

I have to say that the displays at Humberside were good, had a sort of informal feel about them, especially the Vulcan in a steep turn which went a bit wide, ended up over the crowd at a few hundred feet with plenty of power on.

poetpilot

13th May 2002, 11:47

Hagbard, I was there too at Barton, when a Harrier was responsible for a danage claim by the local farmer - I believe its jet blast succeeded in blowing out most of his carrot crop.

Other memorable Barton airshow moments were the Junkers Trimotor operating from the very short 06/24 RW, the DC-3 doing a touch n go & the sights and sound of Concorde, Lightnings & Vulcans over the this little airfield on the edge of the Mcr conurbation. Probably never to be repeated.

On a sadder memorable note, the last airshow I ever went to was the one I co-organised at Barton in 96, when we lost the Mosquito & two fine souls on board. As the Mossie had been my favourite a/c since younger days, it hit me very hard & its fair to say that I'm still not over the loss.

treadigraph

13th May 2002, 12:04

Flying Legends at Duxford - nothing raises goosebumps like the sound of all those Merlins, Griffons, Allisons, R-2800s, etc, etc, etc...

Best bits: Spitfire tail chase and Mustang tail chase!

Looking forward to this year's, hope the weather will smile!

John Farley

13th May 2002, 17:14

Farnborough August 1950.

RAF air display (not SBAC that was the following month)

Standard combined ops type airfield assault. Waco Hadrian glider lands, troops take up positions. Finger four of Vampires fly very low up R/W 07, pull up and wingover left back down parallel with R/W 25 in long line astern. All four fire a full load of 3inch RP’s into the objective near the copse on the N side of 25. I can see the smoke and flames and hear the roar from them even now. They must have done some good though because the troops ran to the target and then returned, got back in their glider, which was then snatched back into the air by a passing DC3.

Five years earlier of course people only worried about whose side any aeroplanes belonged to, not what they were doing. I suppose that effect has worn off a bit now.

CyclicRick

13th May 2002, 21:04

1: Filton Airshow(mid 70's), but god knows when it was. The first time I saw, heard and FELT a Vulcan flypast AWESOME!
2: Weston-Super-Mare RAF Locking( late 70's). Sitting on the roof of my parents house (they wouldn't let me go) waving to a lightning pilot who I'm sure waved back as he thundered past, pure beauty
3: I've no idea where it was but it was a village fete somewhere in the south (mid 70's), the Reds were on the program (Gnats!) and turned up exactly to the second, that impressed the hell out of me and the display was it's usual magic
4: Soest Salamanca( Germany), the airfield open day where I was stationed with 653/662 Sqn AAC. Two F-16's in clean configuration. The first one flew past so low and so SLOW with full re-heat on it burned the grass strip a little, I thought he was going to fall out of the sky but he just powered up and went almost vertical accelerating away. The second one came in from the west at a rapid rate of knots and shot past at an incredible speed, I turned to a collegue of mine and said " J***s that was...." and then BOOM-BOOM.... he cracked the sound barrier.
we were gobsmacked!
5: My first Spitfire, a sound and sight I will NEVER forget. There is nothing on earth like the music of a Merlin I know it sounds a bit silly but it made me cry with emotion and I'm a helicopter pilot!
I think the next stage is to touch one then sit in it, dream on boy.... and FLY in one

Samuel

14th May 2002, 05:37

Any Battle of Britain Open Day, particularly at Cottesmore in 1962!
Anything involving a Lightning. Watching a scramble of four Victors 2's. Hearing my first ever Lancaster arrive at night and wondering what the hell it was [an RCAF SAR aircraft].

The best air show in the world of course is not in the UK! It's at Wanaka!

Dr Jekyll

14th May 2002, 18:06

I thought that awesome display at Boscombe was an SU27, it's on my list anyway.

Also Biggin Hill in 1969, watching the Harrier hover, "That's impossible, someone ought to tell 'im".

The F15 at Farnborough in 1974.

BEagle

14th May 2002, 19:39

Farnborough 1966. Large RN formation of Vixens and Buccaneers etc does an impressive mock attack at around 500+ knots - all in perfect synchronisation. Lots of bangs, flashes and smoke - then the whole lot go and do the same thing over HMS Hermes in Portsmouth Harbour. In one of the Vixens' coal-holes is a CCF cadet - me! Only Nigel Anderdon of the FAA could arrange for that sort of an Air Experience flight - the RAF wouldn't even give me a Chipmunk trip!

astir 8

15th May 2002, 07:37

Battle of Britain day, Biggin Hill, early 60's. A formation Lightning display to the North, everyone watching.

Except two of them had sneaked round to the South, came up the valley & popped up over the crowd from behind at about 150 feet on afterburners. It was like being hit on the head with a sledgehammer! Very unforgettable.

Wouldn't be allowed today I suppose, even given enough flyable Lightnings.

pulse1

15th May 2002, 08:32

Beagle has reminded us that the Navy were always good value when they had real carriers and aeroplanes. Afew years later than his experience, it took the same Vixens and F4's to raise our spirits after the tragic crash of the French Navy Atlantique.

At RNAS Yeovilton in 1974(ish), the display started with the Swordfish and, as it taxied in, the commentator had us all concentrating on it and, particularly, the gentle putter of it's engine.

"And now for something different"

It seemed like all of the available RN F4's came sneaking in from behind us at M.999 on reheat. Always an imaginative show designed to entertain the crowd.

Groundgripper

15th May 2002, 18:56

1. Paris Air Show 1965. The Vulcan doing a half loop with half roll off the top - from take-off? Worth it just to see the reactions of the locals most of whom nearly swallowed their Gauloises!:D

2. Same show - Lightning desperately trying to take off with reheat malfunctioning and sparks coming off the back end.:eek:

3. Farnborough 1996(?) watching the Su-37 doing its qualifying flight for the display - lots of very well qualified aviation people standing around giggling and muttering "you can't do that!":confused:

4. Any Southport airshow - most of the participants fly more or less over my house on the way from Blackpool to the display area. So nice on a sunny afternoon, sitting in the garden with binoculars and a cold beer.:cool:

5. Anything involving Merlins - the more the better!:)

Lu Zuckerman

15th May 2002, 21:15

I was a member of the Ohio Air Guard during the 1947 Cleveland Air Races and our hangar had been taken over by the participants of the unlimited class, mostly WW II fighters.

We were getting ready to put on a low level bombing demonstration when the unlimited races were going on. There were two Goodyear F2-Gs in the race along with P-38s, P-63s and a smattering of P-51s and P-39s. One of the F2-G pilots was almost inverted while traversing the pylon just ahead of the grandstand. A P-38 cut a pylon and came dangerously close to the inverted F2-G. The F2-G pilot must have been shook up because he pulled the stick back instead of pushing it forward to gain altitude and he slid upside down on a concrete highway at over 428 MPH killing him instantly. In the same race a P-40 prototype that did not have the big under engine air scoop overheated and crashed in Lake Erie. The pilot jumped and when he landed his knee hit a train rail causing sever injury.

When the race was over there was a near battle between the pilots who believed the P-38 pilot was under the influence having been seen consuming pills just prior to the race. That pilot was and still is a very famous person.

There was one humorous incident. Just prior to our take off our crews were sitting and kneeling in front of the grandstand area. The Cleveland mounted police were putting on a precision riding demo on the hardstand. Naturally the horses did their business on the hardstand and it was all over the place. The next act up was a group of P-80s and as they taxied out to the active runway the jet blast stirred up the road apples on the hardstand and from our vantage point we could see the stuff heading our way. To a man, we jumped over the wooden guardrail and hid behind the bunting. The people had never seen jets before and they were all standing up. When the jets increased their engine speed the dung became airborne and most of it hit the people in the first rows of the grandstand. When it was over we jumped to the other side of the guardrail.

:D

LowNSlow

20th May 2002, 11:24

West Malling, in the cockpit of the Sally B B-17 watching the Vulcan lead the Reds at low level down the centreline. Marvellous. My girlfriend who was standing in the bombbay thought the B-17 was starting engines she was vibrating so much :D

Mildenhall mid nineties when the B1B took off and scooted off into the distance. When everybody was watching something else I could see the smoke from his engines and the wings sweeping back. The other display moved off the display area and the B1 came down the centreline at about 250' doing Mach .999. Car alarms were going off, kids were screaming it was great. One of my mates who had his back to the runway nearly choked on his burger :D

St. Athan yonks ago. Amazed at how quiet the Sea Fury was. Also amazed at the F4 pilot racking his beast around within the confines of the base whilst going at quite a rate of knots.

Wycombe

20th May 2002, 12:03

Been lucky enough to see lots of great stuff over the last 20 Yrs,
but the B1 rolls at RIAT (Cottesmore) last Year had the crowds
(and watching crews) gasping a bit.

For big aircraft, those A330/340 displays at Farnborough take some beating (likewise the Beluga at Paris and the looping AN72 at Fairford!)

As somebody already mentioned, the validation flights of the somersaulting Sukhoi at Farnborough (96 I think) were also pretty special - lots of people rubbing their eyes and making
"did it really do that" comments!!

lamer

20th May 2002, 22:35

most memorable: watching 90 people go up in smoke at rammstein. last airshow i went to.

most enjoyable: 88 reno air races. everything from stearman to u2 all the way to sr71.

regards.

Centaurus

27th May 2002, 11:54

:D Most memorable? Christ - I'll never forget it.

Battle of Britain display 1959 at Townsville, North Queensland in Australia.
Lincoln Mk 31 bomber roaring over the crowd with four Rolls Royce Merlins at full bore - lots of noise, but very little skill by the pilot (self).

The piece de resistance - the Grande Finale (whatever) was a short field landing by the Lincoln between two flags placed strategically either side of the runway about 100 metres from the threshold. The announcer in the tower announced to the hushed crowd that the squadron QFI (self) would demonstrate a spot landing.

I had practiced this the day before in calm winds aiming for 100 knots at the flare, but decided on the day to knock that back by another 5-8 knots to make sure no float.

Came in nice and slow with full flap - saw the CO and his entourage watching and praying his QFI would not stuff this up in front of the Movietone News.

I cut the power just before the threshold and lost the bastard!.. The Lincoln bashed into the under-run in a cloud of red dust and proceeded to bounce thirty feet high over the flags. Had no choice but to firewall the throttles and stagger away with everything hanging out praying that a Merlin would not choose that moment to blow back (an instant engine failure which was not uncommon for the RR Merlin 102's in the tropics.

The announcer, who was one of our Sergeant Pilots - albeit with a BBC accent, had been in the process of saying that the Lincoln was in the capable hands of the squadron QFI. At that point he saw the Lincoln fall out of the sky and involunterily exclaimed over the loudspeaker system - OH Christ Almighty! - he bit the dust that time, Ladies and gentlemen"....

The crowd cheered and the band played on...

Forty three years later I hang my head in shame at the memory...

niknak

29th May 2002, 22:51

At Humberside, can't remember the date, (maybe Sliding Member can help:D ):
The Vulcans very last day of display flying, as expected, the earth moved, he departed, to formate with the Lancaster, a Wellington (the one and only time I've ever seen it flying), and a Spitfire, followed by a low level flypast by all 4 of them.
It's a sight that reduced many of the crowd to tears, and one I'll never forget.

LowNSlow

30th May 2002, 04:50

niknak are you sure it wasn't a Blenheim rather than a Wellington?

I don't think a Wellington has flown in the UK since the 1960's when the RAF Museum's T10 was pensioned off.

niknak

30th May 2002, 10:02

L & S thanks, yes it was the Blenhiem, early signs of senility setting in I'm afraid:D .

wub

30th May 2002, 11:38

Pulse1... Ahhh Boscombe '92! Go to http://www.paulnann.com/images/pn_w1388.jpg

For me the best ever was my first BoB Air Day at St Mawgan in '72. I was responsible for the comms in the commentary box and spent a glorious day watching the show from the tower - and getting paid for it.:cool:

LowNSlow

31st May 2002, 06:41

niknak shame, I was hoping I was wrong and there was a secret Wellington out there somewhere :D

I'm sure the Pprune airshow, sorry, fly-in at Popham (see thread in Private Flying) tomorrow (1st June) will be a memorable event. Wish I could make it. :(
Hope they get the weather for it.

pulse1

31st May 2002, 07:29

wub,

Thanks a lot for posting that photo. As I said, because of the sloping runway and crowd, I never got to see how low he actually got. Awesome!

wub

31st May 2002, 11:27

Pulse1

Sure is awsome. The TU-134 in the background is 9 metres high and Anatoly Kvochur (crashed Mig 29 in Paris) in his Sukhoi doesn't come more that half way up the fin! I have a video of this somewhere.

LowNSlow

7th Jun 2002, 11:08

The Tu-134 may be 9m high but I always bang my head on the door when I get in one.........

wub

7th Jun 2002, 11:23

You get in one?? Are you mad?

:D

Wet Power

17th Jun 2002, 19:34

Finningley early 1980s - anyone remember a scramble of about 6 Vulcans from the end of Finningleys runway - crews on standby to all 6 airborne in less than 5 minutes - in a stream take-off.
Don't think my ears have recovered yet.

Can't forget the Nav banging out of the #2 of a pair of F4s at Bournemouth one Sunday morning as they set off for a display somewhere else - probably August 84. Pilot stuck with it and ended up getting airbourne from the grass on the south side of 26 with full reheat - just missed the Army Air Corps (parked) display team if I remember correctly.

boris

19th Jun 2002, 12:01

Wet Power, yes, I remember if it was the same day, and I think it was, that the Navy showed off a Vixen including several of the most elegant, low-level Derry turns it has ever been my pleasure to witness.:cool:

Shaggy Sheep Driver

19th Jun 2002, 15:42

We used to have a show every year at Woodford and one at Barton. None in the area at all now :~((

But what memories - Lighnings and Phantoms doing transonic flybys, Vulcans shaking the earth, Sukois doing what only they seem able to do. And I remember some pre-show events at Barton - they used to have a 'press day' the Friday before, where many participants turned up (especially the services) and flew somewhat more 'adventurously' than they might on show day! I remebr standing near a Sea King when a Harrier called up for a fly by. "just aim for the Sea King", said the controller. A tiny dot, trailing smoke, rapidly grew bigger as if flashed silently across the field towards me (must have been very close to supersonic). It flew over the Sea King so low that the (stationary) rotors bounced up and down, and very car alarm in the car park went off as well.

In contrast, Brian Lecomber arrived in the Stampe and went straight into the best low level Stampe display I've ever seen. All activity on the airfield stopped - the fencers, tent putter-uppers, line painters, everyone stopped to watch - then burst into sponatneous applause at the finish.

Lovely!!

SSD

Nopax,thanx

20th Jun 2002, 12:32

.....to expand the thread a little, a couple of favourite airshow moments -

Alconbury (about 1984) when the SR-71 made one of it's all too-few flying displays; I was there with a bunch of mates and Mrs. Nopax, and us guys were quite excited by the prospect of the Blackbird doing its' stuff.

At the appointed time, the beast appears over the threshold, loads of cameras are pointed at the sky and we get treated to a low, very fast and slightly banked flyby - absolutely stunning! Lovely day, too, so perfect photos all round.

Of course, that was it, as it was heading back to Mildenhall after a mission. Now, we all looked at each other in the usual way after you've seen something stupendous and deeply satisfying to watch - just a few grins and nods; Mrs. Nopax then announces to the world...

"Nasty 'orrible noisy ugly thing - can't understand what you were all so excited about!"

- women, eh?!?!

Another was one of the last Air Tattoos at Greenham Common; I was just walking in, along with the family again, and the first static display was a line-up of Army aircraft. As we were admiring the hardware, past come a bunch of "spotters" from London (cockney accents) - not enthusiasts, just number collectors....one of 'em, a young lad, was scribbling furiously in his notebook and reading the tail numbers out loud, obviously not having any idea of what each aircraft type was, and not caring either - it went a bit like this.....

"XP***/XW***/XX***" then he reaches the Sioux (Bell 47/OH-13, call it what you will) - looks at the skeletal tailboom, where he thinks the number will be...

"f*** that, it ain't got a number!"

It still makes me chuckle now!!!

canberra

22nd Jun 2002, 13:52

i have a couple. my first prestwick airshow in85. pair of german navy f104s did a superb display. one did a slow flypast with all gear down, his mate did a max reheat flypast at same time, i reckon matey was doing .95 mach. the prestwick displays were very good, the last one in 89 had the famous sea fury with stuck port landing gear pilot bailed out. and also a ba 747 diverted in with smoke in the cargo bay. my second one is a shuttleworth display(the only one ive ever been to) blazing hot day and a small crowd, well i say small probably 6000. shuttleworth is definately how airshows should be!

fradu

23rd Jun 2002, 22:20

Canberra,

I did have some copied amateur video footage showing the 747 coming in on finals into Prestwick, and having the emergency services scream after it upon touchdown. Thankfully nothing transpired with the fire warning.

Sadly I think the tape got chewed up a few years ago.

Mark

treadigraph

24th Jun 2002, 12:12

Agree with Shaggy Sheep Driver that Brian Lecomber's Stampe displays were fantastic - absolutely lyrical. His Extra 230 dsiplays were great as well.

And what about Xavier de Lapperant at North Welad this May? I had a fair idea of what to expect, and was utterly gob-macked - it was so good, to hell with it, I'm going to stump up the cash and go to Farnborough to watch him again.

Used to love the Tiger Club displays at Redhill as well (and once at Croydon! Honest!) which were chuckles from start to finish. Always remember Brendan O'Brien's crazy flying in a Stampe putting the wind up everyone and culminated in a handkerchief pickup with a wingtip that was also a skirt-rip...

Dave T-S

24th Jun 2002, 12:38

Memory fading......either Mildenhall or Lakenheath air show, around 1968, Vulcan (again;)) - took off, as soon as it was 50 feet off the runway stood it on its tail and gave it everything......result? About 400 yards of tarmac vapourised and flying up in huge sheets - and one u/s runway:D

canberra

26th Jun 2002, 16:21

i was in the runway caravan at cranwell on a very wet day when a harrier lifted large portions of the short runway. in fact after he went back to wittering we knocked flying on the head, i quite liked that harrier pilot!!

Offchocks

9th Aug 2002, 09:29

I was at AST in Perth Scotland doing my CPL and I went along to the 1973 Battle of Britain air show at Leuchars. I was a young lad then, just out from Australia and it left me "gobb smacked":)
All those lovely noisy aircraft that went like the clappers, my favorite was the E.E. Lightning. Pure sleek grunt!
I stood only 30ft away from them as they taxied out. What a sight, but unfortunately I doubt with rules these days you would get the same excitement.

notbefore9

9th Aug 2002, 10:10

For me it would have to be Middle Wallop about 1988(ish).

Everything including a low centre line fly past by Concorde, 9 Spitfires all in the air together, a Vulcan with bomb bays open to the mandatory Red Arrows.

The highlight had to be the "sudden" appearrance in the distance of a massed flight of different Army Helicopters that advanced in line to the music of the March of the Valkeries. :eek: .:eek:

And Gary Numan was also there in his whatever.:rolleyes:

NBF9

Descend to What Height?!?

9th Aug 2002, 16:58

Mildenhall 1984/5?
3 F111s "scrambled" From crews sitting outside, to formation take off. Took 7 minutes.
Next up F6 Lightning. Commentry was "this is how a scramble should be!"
Sitting outside, in, start up,taxi, rotate, gear up, hold height, far threshold, stand on tail, go.
2 minutes later comentarry from jockey "I'm now at FL*** and your F111s are bimbling around somewhere below me"
RAF 1: USAF 0 :eek: :D :eek: :D

RIAT 1994. British Airways hosties "looking after us". To Mary and the girls, thankyou! Wish I had "that" type of service on all aircraft I fly !!!!

:D :D

ID90

9th Aug 2002, 20:33

It's a tough choice. As previously mentioned 'The Last Lightning Show' was excellent, as was the RIAT '77' which was combined with the NATO Tiger Meet producing lots of lovely F-104s. The first appearance of the MiG 29s at Farnborough was pretty special, as was my first sight of the A300 fly-by-wire demonstrator. Such a large aircraft/slow pass / high angle of attack, prompted those 'you can't do that thoughts...However, my favourite moment has to be at The Battle of Britain 60th anniversary show at Duxford in September 2000. I was standing on the flightline with two 'BoB' vets when a pair of Hurricanes made a slow pass from left to right. The p/a system was blasting out the key moments of Winston's 'fight them on the beaches' speech. Being the sentimental old fool that I am, and being in the company of these particular two gents with two Merlins and Winnie playing in the background made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We were all 'glued' to the Hurris, and as they passed us - one vet sighed and muttered 'you beauties'. It was a special moment...

Indiana Jones

11th Aug 2002, 19:05

Has to be Northweald Fighter Meet Sponsored by Northwest Airlines who were celebrating their 60th Anniversary, a brand spanking new NW B747 flew past with a DC3 in old NW scheme, then the 12 WW2 fighter formated on the 747, 6 on each wingtip and did a couple of fly pasts.......brilliant!

Then working at Dhahran during the Gulf War was a pretty damn good airshow as well, especially watching the A10 Warthogs coming back from a missions and victory rolling.....