What is your most memorable airshow and why
What is your most memorable airshow and why
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Gotta be the "Last Lightning Show" at RAF Binbrook in (1987 I think). ****ty day weatherwise but standing out in the rain watching the mass takeoff and vertical climbs into the cloud was absolutely unforgettable - put shivers down my spine.
Ahhh those WERE the days my friend !!
JD
Ahhh those WERE the days my friend !!
JD
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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.
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.
Avoid imitations
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Jet Dragon,
I agree with you, the Lightnings were unforgettable.
I'll bet you never even noticed my Puma display though!
I agree with you, the Lightnings were unforgettable.
I'll bet you never even noticed my Puma display though!
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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!!
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.
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.
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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
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
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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.
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.
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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
), 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 
. 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 )
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.
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
), 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 . 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 )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.
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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.............
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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
We got an airshow every day of our stay - thanks chaps.
We got an airshow every day of our stay - thanks chaps.
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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
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
