Duxford - End of Flying Legends airshows

[Less Hair]

How about combining it with Fairford? Or have some BoB day on the finishing weekend at F'boro? You'd have all the crowd features like security, food and lavs in place already?

[treadigraph]

PPRuNe and Flyer are both sites I use regularly which switch easily between PC and mobile format - I read/contribute to both forums on both systems. Before my employers crashed I was building a new company website which also adapted well to both environments, so I really couldn't understand why Flypast's web developers made such a pigs ear of things...

Anyway - back to Leg Ends and hoping that 2021 will happen - which potentially airworthy type would you most like to see performing at the show apart from the regulars?

Whilst I'd love to see a Tigercat back in the UK (dreaming), the thought of a flying Tempest is mouth watering!

[GeeRam]

Well, I won't be going now after just seeing the date clash...!!
TFC have massively cocked up here, by moving it to a airfield location that close to Northampton and then choosing a date that clashes with the British GP at Silverstone, with Northampton being a major Park n Ride location for Silverstone. The traffic impact in that area from the GP will make accessing Sywell a disaster.
My route to get to Sywell would involve going up the A43 right past Silverstone, so, that's me out.

Oh well.

[treadigraph]

Oh that would be a bugger. I'd probably route up M11 and A14 - I imagine traffic would be pretty bad that route as well.

They usually have coincided haven't they? I seem to remember hearing that Schumacher had broken his leg while I was at Legends. Either that or with RIAT...

[WHBM]

The attractive thing about Duxford was it was also a well-developed national museum, with all the facilities, plus the huge interest in the hangars, the American museum, etc, which enabled the whole family to make a day of it. Sywell may try hard but doesn't really come up to that.

I suppose the only hope is that the proposed new ideas for Duxford don't live up to it financially (quite possible), the new whizz-bang know-nothing management are embarrassed, and get replaced.

[POBJOY]

Lost but not forgotten

Originally Posted by treadigraph

The Flypast debacle has happened over the last 13 months. I "resigned my membership" when it became obvious they weren't listening to objections to the dreadful changes they had made. Still lurk occasionally... Not that I was a particularly knowledgeable contributor to the fun there...

Ah' We had that amazing 'Bromley Spitfire' thread that ran for quite a time and produced a hoard of info that had never surfaced, not to mention the infamous 'stumps' issue, with the 'matchsticks' re-enactment.

[treadigraph]

Oh yes, the Bromley Spitfire, I had a colleague who witnessed the approach over his home and, as small boys will, ran to the cricket pitch to view the crash site! He wrote it up to fill some space in Fighter Log...

[GeeRam]

Originally Posted by POBJOY

Ah' We had that amazing 'Bromley Spitfire' thread that ran for quite a time and produced a hoard of info that had never surfaced, not to mention the infamous 'stumps' issue, with the 'matchsticks' re-enactment.

The best thread on the old defunct Flypast Forum was the infamous Douglas Bader and the Stork Hotel, Liverpool thread, that was just brilliant fun.

[DHfan]

Yes, the old boy got most indignant when nobody believed him, and even more so when several contributors started taking the pee as well.

[GeeRam]

In other possible more encouraging news regarding Legends at Sywell, I've just seen that Autosport on Thursday last week, published the 'Estimated' F1 race schedule for 2021, and it lists the British GP being the week after legends now on 17-18th July........although everything on the Silverstone and official British GP websites still has the date as being 10-11th July....although Silverstone are notoriously slow at website updates.

So, it looks like a wait and see and keep fingers crossed on this date clash situation.......especially as I've heard that the proximity to Silverstone means that Sywell get a lots of GA traffic in and out over the GP weekend, so maybe the timing of the TFC announcement was awaiting GP date confirmation....?

[Quemerford]

Originally Posted by DHfan

Yes, the old boy got most indignant when nobody believed him, and even more so when several contributors started taking the pee as well.

I do miss it. That kind of gentle humour combined with tolerant helpfulness (depending on the initial approach) seemed to strike a nice balance most of the time. I do recall having a colourful exchange with a chap who recalled a crash in Southampton during the war and insisted that he had date, type and casualties 100% correct. I think we unravelled it in the end, with only 'Southampton' being the only thing he'd got correct. Wouldn't have minded but he got quite p!ssy about being presented with irrefutable facts.

Sigh.

[DHfan]

It's not really fair to praise it here, but I suppose the fact that it's effectively defunct helps. At it's best it was amazing. 16 or 17 years ago I asked, separately, about details of a Canberra crash in Southeast Hertfordshire in the middle 50s and which air show I'd been to at Bassingbourn in the late 50s and both were answered within a few hours.

[Nige321]

There's several off-the-shelf packages available that seamlessly run forums on desktop and mobile - Pprune runs on one.
The big mistake Key made was to try and write their own, presumably to save a few bob in licence fees.
I'm quite sure that sving has been long superseded by loss of income...

There was a lot of useful info on Flypast, an experience I always thought spoilt by some over zealous moderators...

[ex egbe]

Originally Posted by c52

Coventry would seem suitable to me unless it's too close to BHX. There's already a museum on site and it's a reasonable day trip for enthusiasts from almost anywhere in England.

Unfortunately i fear CVT is out, as all of the south side of the airfeild is now under warehouses, and the noth side is slowly being swallowed up by JLR. although it would be awsome to see it there, there just isnt the infrastructure anymore.

[Quemerford]

What about Duxford? That would be perfect for a warbird show.

[treadigraph]

Couple of posts from Richard Grace over on Flypast that certainly reassures me that if it can't be Duxford then Sywell is a good alternative to try.

[GeeRam]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Couple of posts from Richard Grace over on Flypast that certainly reassures me that if it can't be Duxford then Sywell is a good alternative to try.

I think there really is not many other options to try, so they'll have to give it a go at Sywell. Most options were talked about on this thread and others on the subject elsewhere, and it was clear that there really was not many other locations that could be suitable. I think this was what IWM were banking on and pushed TFC for more expecting them to buckle because of the lack of alternatives. It was quite sobering to tot up all the lost venues that were in use only 30+ years ago that would now not be available. Showed that the best days of the UK airshow are long behind us.
However, TFC being fixated on keeping its traditional date slot, I simply think is a non-starter given the proximity of Sywell to the British GP. They really need to move the Legends date ahead or behind enough to move it away from that 1st,2nd, 3rd weekends of the month that the British GP usually falls on.

[DHfan]

The provisional 2021 F1 calendar has been released and currently the British GP is the weekend after Legends.
With all the complaining about them probably being the same weekend, I note that Legends next is still planned to be two days as usual. What's the problem with Saturday, the GP's on Sunday? I know there would be more than normal traffic for practice and qualifying but nowhere near as much as on Sunday.

[DHfan]

Originally Posted by Nige321

There's several off-the-shelf packages available that seamlessly run forums on desktop and mobile - Pprune runs on one.
The big mistake Key made was to try and write their own, presumably to save a few bob in licence fees.
I'm quite sure that sving has been long superseded by loss of income...

There was a lot of useful info on Flypast, an experience I always thought spoilt by some over zealous moderators...

It seems it was probably nothing to do with saving money and more to get an integrated (awful) website.
According to a post I've found on the Secret Projects forum, Key migrated their whole site to Drupal which is apparently a content management system and not designed for forums. As somebody posted there - one of those things that sounded like a good idea,

[NutLoose]

It’s going to Sywell, only fly in that ointment is it’s close to Silverstone and normally on the same weekend.