I totally agree it could be made profitable, there are sometimes's the occasional thing that comes across as a way that things could be done, the Tristar, Herc ,VC 10 retirement photo day at Brize and the two Lancasters at Waddington enclosure come across as what can be done by a few for the many :p

Nutty, I am sure you are aware that the air shows were usually hugely profitable and a tick in the station commanders promotion rec. The aim was to convert as much of the take to the RAFBF while minimising the bill paid to HM Treasury. Creative accounting was applied and in my established case he flatly refused to pay the Reds for their smoke or Binbrook for MT and T&S.

air shows were usually hugely profitable

Were they ever in some cases.

1976 B of B At Home Day RAF Finningley.

A week prior to the event the St Leger horse race was run at Doncaster.

SRO's requested volunteers to go the the Races, in Best Blue, to sell FY At Home Day advance tickets.

Step forward one (enterprising) SAC from Air Traffic known by one and all as 'Scouse' (as he hailed from Liverpool).

Scouse was horse racing mad. He and the bookie in Auckley village were on first name terms but deadly rivals.

A day at the Races, indeed the running of the St Leger, free entry, free food (OK, buttie box from the Airmans Mess), a Grand Day out thinks Scouse. However, one rather large black cloud hovered over Scouse. A not too wise investment in a runner in the 2.30 at Newmarket (that didn't come up to snuff) had left Scouse broke, brassic, flat, skint (you get the picture).

Scouse, as most Liverpudlians, had the sellers gift of the gab. FY B of B tickets flew from his fingers and pound notes flew into them.

Temptation, temptation.

I am reliably informed he put the whole of his takings (or rather the FY B of B takings that he had custody of) on a horse in the Big Race.

The horse came in at 6 to 1.

FY's profitability that year was nothing compared to the profitability of one SAC Scouse H""""".

Perhaps, as we live in a country that legislates that the name of Guy Gibsons dog should no longer be "acceptable", a country that is driven by anti British rhetoric, not least from a governing party that thinly veils its grovelling deference to the modern equivalent of the third Reich. An air display, celebrating our nations brave stand against Germanic attempts at domination, would obviously not be P fricking C. I'm afraid I don't care anymore, May 7 demonstrated that sheople rather than common sense will drive our politics in the future. So be it, hope they enjoy their experience. B of B, does the average Somali migrant give a toss ?

Smudge

Bit deep there, Smudge, old love.

As for 'not be P fricking C' you may have a point.

Not that long ago *, RNEFTS at Topcliffe had an intake of German Navy students. Linton on Ouse (the parent unit) had a long existing right to march (bayonets fixed) through York.

Come B of B day march through York, "Fall in the Hermans" was the order. The Germans marched with the RN and RAF Contingents.

As Claus (the senior student declared) "But ve vere in ze battle too".


* Bugger, 1983 was a long time ago. Smudge, your PC point makes more sense.

But, it seems, someone's Military are getting support.

British aid billions 'subsidising' third world defence budgets - Telegraph

Did cosford last year still a good show but the traffic control was cr*p 4 hours to cover the last 3 miles dont know who set it up but they needed shooting

1st BoB @Home day was at Lindholme in 1954, we even had a Sunderland fly past and some visiting a/c with those newfangled jet engines :ok:

St Athans was another good one

Unfortunately, thou art wrong !.

It was run with the same level of arcane incompetence that applied to AOC's when the whole Station paraded, not just a token gesture of a guard of honour.

The Air Day was the same, countless hours wasted, mass manpower deployed and, erm, why has the factory production rate dropped ?

Taxydual..... your mate had a precedent.

Some years earlier, 69 to be precise, somebody had the less than inspired idea to send my entry from Halton to the Biggin Hill event to sell programmes.

Selling to the grateful, and innocent, public was easy. Alas however, apprentices were not exactly overpaid and the No1 uniform had very little space for, erm, change.

I can neither confirm nor deny "The Shoulder of Mutton" and "The Two Brewers" ( as was) benefitted later from this excursion.

Dysonsphere,

Sure you don't mean in 2013? That year was awful but last year was a lot better.

My next trick is Impossible.
 

By the the time I was on the last station where I was involved in a BoB "At Home" Day (Thornaby, '52 [or '53?]), they were referred to as: "Butchering the Air Force to make a Public Holiday" !

There was a germ of truth in this. Some budding Einstein had worked out that, taking into account all the pilots killed on, or practising for, all the post-war Air Shows and "At Home" Days, the total was nearing the number killed in the Battle itself.

This was probably a gross exaggeration, but still food for thought. At Thornaby, just before I arrived at the end of September '51, a Sgt-Pilot demonstrated a slow-roll in a Harvard a bit too low, writing off himself and Harvard. Or so they told me.

And it took us all next week to clear up all the rubbish on the airfield ! :(

D.