No Waddington show - what happens now?
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Angleterre
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RIAT make a lot of use of RAF Cosford staff: Permanent staff & students who get joed with two airshows in as many weeks.
ATC Cadets have their limitations and cannot be expected to be the voice of the organiser when faced with an irate car driver who whilst trying to get off-site has not moved in an hour. Equally the new-age familes who set up a squatters campsite on the crowdline are a bit much for a young person to deal with. I dont wish to undermine the Cadets; they do a first class job, but quite understandably, only when the going is good. Phase one students and UAS students are little better placed, but thankfully there is usually a gorrilla with chevrons nearby to advise the public on site etiquette.
I did car park management at Finningley once as said 'gorrilla' and created a naughty square (cul-de-sac) in which certain drivers were directed; it guaranteed a marshall manafactured delay and kept team spirits high. The marshallers of all ranks and organisations get more than their fair share of abuse from the tossers in our society.
ATC Cadets have their limitations and cannot be expected to be the voice of the organiser when faced with an irate car driver who whilst trying to get off-site has not moved in an hour. Equally the new-age familes who set up a squatters campsite on the crowdline are a bit much for a young person to deal with. I dont wish to undermine the Cadets; they do a first class job, but quite understandably, only when the going is good. Phase one students and UAS students are little better placed, but thankfully there is usually a gorrilla with chevrons nearby to advise the public on site etiquette.
I did car park management at Finningley once as said 'gorrilla' and created a naughty square (cul-de-sac) in which certain drivers were directed; it guaranteed a marshall manafactured delay and kept team spirits high. The marshallers of all ranks and organisations get more than their fair share of abuse from the tossers in our society.
What I did notice at Waddington this year was the parking, was it the Japanese Army that had been hired or were they Ghurkhas? I don't mean to get the two confused but they certainly seemed to be quite well organised as was the carparking. The soft Khaki peaked caps had me thinking of Bridge on the river Kwai or Too Late the Hero! One more point here about R.A.F. airshows today and yesterday, this was another indication of how so few R.A.F. personnel are actually employed in any visible role. Back in they olden days it would be all R.A.F. personnel in No. 1 dress uniform doing everything. For quite a few years now everything seems to have slid down the scale of the standard which set the R.A.F. at home day apart from the indistinguishable commercial out door event look of now. What with all R.A.F. personnel that are seen least ways, dressed what some would describe as appropriately I'm sure, in camouflage or flying suits incongruously topped off with hi-vis tabs.
As an old ex-National Serviceman and family friend once said to me when examining my boots while I was in the A.T.C. turning to my father he said, "see this Jim, you don't hear the sound of marching boots any longer eh!"
FB
As an old ex-National Serviceman and family friend once said to me when examining my boots while I was in the A.T.C. turning to my father he said, "see this Jim, you don't hear the sound of marching boots any longer eh!"
FB
