Fairford show(not steam)

Mike, What was the theme this year, used to go to everyone until every airforce had Tornado's, F16's and F15's then it got boring. When you've seen one F16 you've seen thousands :-))

Martin P

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60th D.Day anniversary(aviation involvement) Entente cordiale agreement!! Static display quite varied Flying excellent,good selection of aircraft and the routine by Boeing's C.t.p. in the latest F16 development was breathtaking. ;-) I will put some pics up and give you the link off group Mike.H.

Thanks

entrance fee did not stop around 90,000 people

three and made a strangers day when I gave him

case in an Army engineering display.

Funny, didn't see you there:) £35 quid to get in then £7.50 for the programme, not a cheap day out! The Dutch F16 was awesome, thought the B52 could have done a bit more though. Nice run out for the B2A Spirit......:) Anthony

entrance fee did not stop around 90,000 people

three and made a strangers day when I gave him

case in an Army engineering display.

I saw the posters around here as we only live about 20 miles away from Fairford. I looked at the web site and was all set to go until I saw the price. Even allowing for the little ones being free, it would be an expensive day out for the family, especially so as she isn't into anything machine related and the boys are too young yet. It's good to hear your various comments though. Thanks for that. Next year I may go but probably on my own. One advantage of living quite close is that some of the aircraft pass over us on the way there or back. We had 4 Hercules in low level formation over on Sunday morning. A great sight.

John

Maybe I'm getting tight in my old age, but £35 entrance fee is just too much to even consider, and then having to pay extra for a programme is verging on highway robbery.

We've stopped going to Duxford for exactly the same reason, it is just a money generator for the organisers and I don't feel that I want to play their game.

When you look back to the 1980's and what the entrance fee was then, or even the 1990's, it is a huge jump in costs for the public which is nearly always not matched by what is on show. The only thing that matches the gate price increases are the on-site vendor's prices which I find to be out of order.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

====================================================== I quite agree regards to the admission price.Fortunately the whole day cost me only time,free ticket,driven up and back,free lunch/drinks. It is also nice when you know someone flying and to see them doing the business(lead pilot in Hercules formation) My particular love is the Harrier and the Pegasus engine.never fails to impress the crowds. I spent quite a few years on that project and I just happen to have an early hydro/mech.fuel system sitting in my garage just waiting for an engine to go underneath it!!! While on the subject of admission prices I will be a visitor to Fairford steam,anyone know the gate price ? Fairford ITA pics on

Mike.H.

I have to agree about the price, even though this year it was my fault that I did not book in advance for £29.95. There is nearly 8hrs of flying though and any profit is for a good cause, but is any event cheap(good value) nowadays? Anyway put some pics on webshots. There are more to come when I get the 'proper' pics back from Boots!

I live in a neighbouring village to Fairford (far enough away to not be bothered by it - near by to enjoy the view) and enjoyed a great free air display, with the Wing's FM commentary. With regard to ticket prices I started off thinking it was outragous, but by the end of the weekend began to see that the sheer number of planes and top display teams could justify at least some of it.

The formatation of herc's, as John says, was special.

Apart from that it was well organised this year. Our village is on the route used for VIP's and the coaches, and the only hiccup was when one of the rail link busses ripped it's fuel tank out and dropped 40 gal of desiel on the road, which stopped us getting back into the village without a 10 mile detour!

For value for money I always think the Goodwood festival of speed and revival meeting are excellent. Every year I come away thinking that 25-

35 quid was cheap for what I have enjoyed.

Jon

Anthony, Youve got my interest, who is flying F4 with RAF serial No's ans how long has 74 Squadron been flying Tornado's i.e the Tiger markings.

Martin P

F4 Phantom was German Air Force, ( McDonnell Douglas F - 4F Phantom II JG - 71 ) See the colour of the back of the seat:) As for the Tornado in Tiger markings, again German Air Force, see flag on tail.

74 Sqn. at Valley is quite local to me and they fly Hawks, have I made a c*ck up on the descriptions?(the few I have done!)

HTH Anthony

Anthony,

Look at the tail of F4 behind german F4 it has XV 408 on fuselage and Raf markings on tail.

Put stronger glasses on and can see german flag on tornado

Martin P

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Is there anyone still flying English Electric Lightnings?

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Anthony , its been a busy week at work and home, so I've just had a chanc to take a quick look at your pics. Thanks for posting them, I can see I'm going to have to save up and go next year, it looks a great day!

Regards, Arthur G

There are some at Cranfield but the Civil Aviation Authority will not grant permit to fly because they are ex military and were not built for civil use. Fast taxi runs could be as good as it gets.

Martin P

Hell you don't need glasses! I knew the Phantom I took a picture of was German, so assumed you were talking about that one! But as you pointed out XV408 is there in the background, so I had a little search........

'XV408 served with 6, 19, 23 and 29 Sqns. After retirement, she was displayed on the parade ground within RAF Halton (and therefore completely out of sight from outside the station). She was mounted on blocks and made a good background to graduation photos. Sadly though she lost her overall blue scheme and was put in an anonymous grey scheme, lacking even squadron markings. In 2003, the aircraft was moved to RAF Fairford for inclusion in the '100 years of flight' static display, but has not returned to Halton as she has been replaced there by a Tornado. She now lies abandoned in a corner of the airfield at Fairford, and is likely to be scrapped in the near future.' Stolen from:

So the buggers are putting it on static display with the usable German planes, nice way to keep the numbers up!

Anthony

As Martin says fast taxis are all you can get in this country. According to second website they do fly in S.Africa.

HTH Anthony