Is the Farnborough air show open to the public on "trade" days?
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I thought the distant car parks (easy to get in and out of) and the free shuttle buses, were a good piece of organisation, but to be fair this worked only because there were so few visitors.
I have visited very sporadically over the last 30 years but my impression is that the organisers have milked the show mercilessly over that time period, and this has driven the decline, which was slow because the show runs only every 2 years.
In the 1980s the place was heaving, had absolutely crap facilities, toilets with 0.5" of liquid crap on the floor (had to be careful walking in sandals). Back then people tolerated such stuff a lot more but I think most people would have thought twice about going back - especially with kids. So downhill it went.
But I bet the real money is made on selling exhibition space, and that was pretty well sold out. Russia bought a big chunk of it
I have visited very sporadically over the last 30 years but my impression is that the organisers have milked the show mercilessly over that time period, and this has driven the decline, which was slow because the show runs only every 2 years.
In the 1980s the place was heaving, had absolutely crap facilities, toilets with 0.5" of liquid crap on the floor (had to be careful walking in sandals). Back then people tolerated such stuff a lot more but I think most people would have thought twice about going back - especially with kids. So downhill it went.
But I bet the real money is made on selling exhibition space, and that was pretty well sold out. Russia bought a big chunk of it
Well, we went yesterday. I bought an Armani suit specially, but nobody seemed to take us seriously, possibly because we had the smallest baby in Farnborough strapped to the front of it, and milk-stains down the back. All the arms dealers were queueing up to Coochi-Coo him.
Saw disappointingly little of the display stands - by the time we'd looked at half the stuff outside it was time for the flying displays. I did get the impression though that members of the public outnumbered traders. I had figured that the 'public on trade day' special was probably intended to cover otherwise sparse attendance.
Enjoyed the GAPAN stall, some of the space stalls, and the university drones and demonstrators, but somehow managed to come home without any samples of anything and generally got the impression that a lot of the stands were pretty unimaginative. Why sprinkle simulators around if you don't let people have a go on them? Spaceship 2 would be a case in point - the best they could do was to dress up every child who went through in a Richard Branson beard and moustache, before trying to sell them internet packages. There were no cockpits or cabins you could sit in. No simulators to crash. No technical or construction details. They didn't even make the information brochures look like airline tickets.
Enjoyed the flying displays, particularly the Vulcan, A380 and the piston aerobatics. Not so much the fast jets - I had my fingers in baby's ears and there were none left for my own. Besides, there's not so much you can do in a fast jet with a low cloudbase other than sharp turns. Not that it bothered baby who slept through the lot.
Anyway, home - shattered, and to bed where I woke baby with my snoring.
Saw disappointingly little of the display stands - by the time we'd looked at half the stuff outside it was time for the flying displays. I did get the impression though that members of the public outnumbered traders. I had figured that the 'public on trade day' special was probably intended to cover otherwise sparse attendance.
Enjoyed the GAPAN stall, some of the space stalls, and the university drones and demonstrators, but somehow managed to come home without any samples of anything and generally got the impression that a lot of the stands were pretty unimaginative. Why sprinkle simulators around if you don't let people have a go on them? Spaceship 2 would be a case in point - the best they could do was to dress up every child who went through in a Richard Branson beard and moustache, before trying to sell them internet packages. There were no cockpits or cabins you could sit in. No simulators to crash. No technical or construction details. They didn't even make the information brochures look like airline tickets.
Enjoyed the flying displays, particularly the Vulcan, A380 and the piston aerobatics. Not so much the fast jets - I had my fingers in baby's ears and there were none left for my own. Besides, there's not so much you can do in a fast jet with a low cloudbase other than sharp turns. Not that it bothered baby who slept through the lot.
Anyway, home - shattered, and to bed where I woke baby with my snoring.
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I got a free tube of a carbon-loaded conductive grease, which would be brill for lubing aileron and elevator bearings - stops arcing caused by static trying to escape via the bearings, which b*ggers VHF comms.
Got to check its temp range though...
Got to check its temp range though...
Last edited by peterh337; 14th Jul 2012 at 10:48.
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Four years ago (2008) I attended Farnborough on four different days including Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It was a good deal easier for aviation enthusiasts to attend on the Monday to Thursday trade days up to four years ago than it has been this year or two years ago due to changes in the admission arrangements.
My observation is that at the start on the first day of the show 90%+ of visitors are suited or jacketed and tied (tie and jacketing/blazering rather than suiting is actually a much more normal way to be smart for the majority of the mainland Europe contingent than full suiting is) but that this declines with every successive day so that suited or jacketed and tied folk are down to only just over 50% of the audience on Thursday - also there are always some casually dressed guests even on the first day as people in the trade give out free complementary tickets they receive to both their family and plane spotting minded friends. Friday is actually a fake trade day because they always let in loads of non trade people such as groups of local school kids or also this year so called "jubilee ticket holders" (anyone who bought a ticket online before turning up at the gate and these tickets were available online right up to the day itself) and most of the serious suits have actually generally departed by the end of Wednesday or failing that Thursday at the very latest.
I have been busy with other stuff this year and didn't notice that the 787/Dreamliner was only there for the first three days. But since Thursday I could have gone along but really couldn't be bothered due to a combination of the lack of Dreamliner, the utterly atrocious weather and the fact that all the other flying stuff is the same old/same old as has appeared before several times (including A380 and Battle of Britain Historic flight + Barclays stunt flyers etc). Same old, same old in lousy weather where it can't do its thing properly does not really appeal. Also I probably will be going to Fairford next weekend (depending on the weather though as tickets can still be got on the day at various locals stores despite the best efforts of the tattoo to force advance purchase only through its website no later than a week before the event) when half of this same old/same old display fleet will be appearing once again.
My friend who is more of an aviation enthusiast than me did go along on a Jubilee ticket to Farnborough on Friday and reported that the event was severely scaled back in terms of both halls and planes on display on the ground, especially compared to four years ago (the last full scale year before the recession started to bite deeply). I thought about going this morning if it had been a nice sunny day but then big angry black clouds appears in a Farnborough type direction and I decided it wasn't worth it.
I do agree that it is a complete disgrace that companies like Finmecanica bring loads of simulators along but then refuse to let the public proper try them out by not letting anyone without a trade pass have access to them from the Friday onwards. Now they have carried things one step further by simply closing down the majority of the trade stands on the Saturday and Sunday.
My main feeling is that the glory days of the show are in the past and that something radical needs to be done in terms of its format to improve its appeal. A starter would be to make the general public admission tickets for Saturday and Sunday valid for both days (although no doubt Elf and Safety frowns at permitting such spontaneity) rather than only one day to try to contend with bad weather and to keep the trade halls open at the weekend on the condition that the exhibitors will not be invited back again if they do not comply with this requirement.
My observation is that at the start on the first day of the show 90%+ of visitors are suited or jacketed and tied (tie and jacketing/blazering rather than suiting is actually a much more normal way to be smart for the majority of the mainland Europe contingent than full suiting is) but that this declines with every successive day so that suited or jacketed and tied folk are down to only just over 50% of the audience on Thursday - also there are always some casually dressed guests even on the first day as people in the trade give out free complementary tickets they receive to both their family and plane spotting minded friends. Friday is actually a fake trade day because they always let in loads of non trade people such as groups of local school kids or also this year so called "jubilee ticket holders" (anyone who bought a ticket online before turning up at the gate and these tickets were available online right up to the day itself) and most of the serious suits have actually generally departed by the end of Wednesday or failing that Thursday at the very latest.
I have been busy with other stuff this year and didn't notice that the 787/Dreamliner was only there for the first three days. But since Thursday I could have gone along but really couldn't be bothered due to a combination of the lack of Dreamliner, the utterly atrocious weather and the fact that all the other flying stuff is the same old/same old as has appeared before several times (including A380 and Battle of Britain Historic flight + Barclays stunt flyers etc). Same old, same old in lousy weather where it can't do its thing properly does not really appeal. Also I probably will be going to Fairford next weekend (depending on the weather though as tickets can still be got on the day at various locals stores despite the best efforts of the tattoo to force advance purchase only through its website no later than a week before the event) when half of this same old/same old display fleet will be appearing once again.
My friend who is more of an aviation enthusiast than me did go along on a Jubilee ticket to Farnborough on Friday and reported that the event was severely scaled back in terms of both halls and planes on display on the ground, especially compared to four years ago (the last full scale year before the recession started to bite deeply). I thought about going this morning if it had been a nice sunny day but then big angry black clouds appears in a Farnborough type direction and I decided it wasn't worth it.
I do agree that it is a complete disgrace that companies like Finmecanica bring loads of simulators along but then refuse to let the public proper try them out by not letting anyone without a trade pass have access to them from the Friday onwards. Now they have carried things one step further by simply closing down the majority of the trade stands on the Saturday and Sunday.
My main feeling is that the glory days of the show are in the past and that something radical needs to be done in terms of its format to improve its appeal. A starter would be to make the general public admission tickets for Saturday and Sunday valid for both days (although no doubt Elf and Safety frowns at permitting such spontaneity) rather than only one day to try to contend with bad weather and to keep the trade halls open at the weekend on the condition that the exhibitors will not be invited back again if they do not comply with this requirement.
Last edited by Capvermell; 15th Jul 2012 at 12:19.
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I agree, but it's hard to prevent exhibitors just sodding off leaving their stand empty - as many did on Friday. No doubt the staff were "around" claiming pay+expenses for the day while drinking in the bars trying to pull one of the rented birds 
The glory days of the show are very much in the past. It's been milked too hard.
The glory days of the show are very much in the past. It's been milked too hard.
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To be fair to the exhibitors I can see why they leave. I was in the Aviator hotel two years ago. £500 a night. Put your staff in a few days early to prep and there really is no sense in paying another few tens of thousands to keep them there for days which will generate zero business at the other end.
And even if you do have a technical background, a lot of the stands are specialised enough that you'd have to be pretty hard core to be interested in them as an amateur. I can enjoy a discussion about turbine blades, and like to delude myself that the people on the stands might even enjoy telling me about them. But aviation finance? Corporate jet logistics? Stands with nothing on them other than the (unfamiliar) name of the company. If you needed to be there, you already would have been.
Last edited by abgd; 15th Jul 2012 at 23:08.
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I went Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (sent by employer), doing research into a new aeroplane and two new helicopters, it was no-where near the show it used to be, and sadly just as you are getting down to the nitty gritty of whether the Scruggs Super Corporate Penis Extender Liner really will carry 30 pax 9 000 miles in four hours some b###er gets airborne in a pointy nosed weapons platform and you can't hear yourself think.
Best freebie:Walking through one of the halls with Francis Frogbound of these pages we were stopped by two young ladies offering free entry to an event, Despite uniforms FF and I aren't exactly pictures of virile manhood, turned out they were offering free entry to a club called Tantric Blue (Colnebrook By Pass SL3 0EH if your'e interested) normal entry £ 30! I gather it is a gentlemens establishment.
Worst rip-off sausage and mash and coke for two also £ 30!
Best freebie:Walking through one of the halls with Francis Frogbound of these pages we were stopped by two young ladies offering free entry to an event, Despite uniforms FF and I aren't exactly pictures of virile manhood, turned out they were offering free entry to a club called Tantric Blue (Colnebrook By Pass SL3 0EH if your'e interested) normal entry £ 30! I gather it is a gentlemens establishment.
Worst rip-off sausage and mash and coke for two also £ 30!
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they were offering free entry to a club called Tantric Blue (Colnebrook By Pass SL3 0EH if your'e interested) normal entry £ 30! I gather it is a gentlemens establishment.
That kind of thing is absolutely standard corporate hospitality in the defence business - especially with Muslim customers
Many years ago I was a sub-sub-contractor on a piece of military hardware for the Egyptian Navy. Upon delivery, all contractors were required to be "around" in case of problems. All went well and a huge dinner was laid on for a dozen uniformed Egyptians in a discrete restaurant in Godalming. £500 bottles of vintage port all around (for the customers only, not us lot). Afterwards they were shipped off to an upmarket brothel down the road, to sample more Western hospitality
All built into the contract price of course.
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Peter, I'm sorry but as this is a rumour site - I was told that the rumour was that the girls were very selective and had indeed the tickets to two clubs, one the Tantric Club and the other was called the Blue Oyster club, they selected the people for each establishment according to how they were dressed
I did find a link on the Internet to one of the places:
I did find a link on the Internet to one of the places:
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Peter;
I wish I knew! Last time I was in caught such an establishment I ended up negotiating access to home via Relate!
Would Godalming allow anything other than an upmarket brothel?
GEP;
I guarantee FF and I were on the cheap list
SND
I wish I knew! Last time I was in caught such an establishment I ended up negotiating access to home via Relate!
Would Godalming allow anything other than an upmarket brothel?
GEP;
I guarantee FF and I were on the cheap list
SND
Last edited by Sir Niall Dementia; 18th Jul 2012 at 09:42.
