The Air Tatto at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire

Never been before, me and my brother love a bit of ‘air porn’, this one is not too far away….

what other ones are there to look out for?

anybody been to the Fairford one before?

Best one I ever went to was at RAF Mildenhall when the US Airforce still put it on. I doubt that it’s still happening.

Eastbourne is good.

Farnborough was always the biggy when I worked in the industry.

Farnborough was always fun, especially on an industry ticket, colud always watch it from teh window if teh weather was pants.

Eastbourne used to be excellent – you would usually get 2 tornados, a harrier, a jaguar, 2 F-16’s, a Chinook, the Memorial Flight, a Nimrod and a clutch of prop planes (old and new) and ‘copters. Mowadays its a shadow of its former self 🙁

Fairford was fantastic when I went in the 90’s – not sure about now though. Check the program I guess?

Farnbourgh was expensive and to that good last time I went.
Shoreham is ok – but it.s more old fashioned than modern.

Only been to Fairford and always thought it very good

We went to Fairford last year – camped on the Friday night to avoid the traffic on Saturday morning. Rumblings round the campsite told us it was cancelled as the field was waterlogged. Waste of time and money really.

I went about 5 years ago though and had a great time.

Fairford is the best – especially if you like Military stuff. They always have a theme and the static display is huge so be prepared for a long long walk.

RIAT Fairford is best for noisy military stuff and big mixed formation flypasts. If warbirds are your thing then Flying Legends at Duxford is a must. Both are fairly expensive for entry.

Gone are the days of an RAF or USAFE display pretty much every weekend from May to September. Mildenhall Air Fetes are a distant memory. Only Waddington, Leuchars and Cosford are left of RAF organized shows, plus the Royal Navy usually do shows at Yeovilton and Culdrose.

The big shift in air shows in the last ten years or so has been to the free access seaside resort shows eg Eastbourne, Bournemouth, Dawlish.

Up North to Sunderland. And its FREE. Good general air show over the sea with plenty of high viewing places. Should you go on the beach then take your swimming gear as the tide usually comes in during the show.

Fairford is probably the best still, though it definitely used to be better in he 90’s with huge line ups of hercs and KC135’s. think all the 9/11 business has put paid to a lot of that though. still it attracts some interesting visitors like the Indian Air force a few years ago.

as othrs said Mildehall was good, but those days are long gone i think.

i think Waddington is a good show, especially as it attracts a few international visitors aswell.

Sunderland is very good, biased cos I live here, it’s free, diferent for both days it’s on, and allegedly, as the planes are over the sea, they get lower/closer than they do over land. You can admire our classy ladies sitting about in their bras as well if it’s a particularly warm day 🙂

We had one of military Land Rovers nicked when we did the Sunderland Airshow a few years back and to be honest we should have seen it coming as the locals seemed interested in trying to make off with anything that wasn’t nailed down. The RAF Waddington airshow is probably one of the best to go to, what with RIAT proving to be a bit of a farce over the last few years.

I went to Fairford a number of times in the nineties and early noughties, as the firm I worked for did print work for the artist who do promotional designs for the RIAT, so I got free tickets :0) I would really recommend it, there’s always loads to see, and I used to park a couple of miles away and ride my bike in, sailing past all the virtually stationary cars with a smile on my face. As the static line is a mile or so long, a bike makes it much easier to get from one end to the other. Two memorable years were when they had an SR71 Blackbird on static display, an F 117A, and the year the B2 Spirit stealth bomber did a flypast then landed. A truly surreal sight that thing whistling overhead at 500ft.
Oh, and I believe the Vulcan is flying this year. That is a plane that MUST be seen and heard. If you’ve never seen a Vulcan, I can assure you the noise is something you will never, ever forget. There is nothing else that sounds anything like it, an awesome experience.

You can admire our classy ladies sitting about in their bras as well if it’s a particularly warm day!!!!

Classy…. Sunderland….mackems???? EH? WTF??

RIAT at RAF Fairford has to be up there. Especially the hangar party (although better a few years ago) 😉

cheers all, fairford it is, we’ll take the motorbikes, skip the traffic 😉

When is Fairford?

sootyandjim – Member

We had one of military Land Rovers nicked when we did the Sunderland Airshow a few years back and to be honest we should have seen it coming

Some air force, can’t even fight off a few chavs, is that why you had to be on airshow duties instead of fighting the baddies? 🙂

Finningley, back in the day…I had a broken leg. The Sparrows signed my plaster in red ink and in formation. I was the coolest kid in the world for a while!

Vulcans on full, off the end of the runway, straight up..

Oh man, I miss those days. Low fly bys, noise, properly cool planes!

Fairford is good, but I usually get to spend a few days at Farnborough, which is superb if you can get on the inside!

wasnt a plane to be seen at last years sunnyland airshow, just fog! and the bottom of a pint glass (or several)

Went to RIAT,Fairford for 7 consecutive years in the 90’s,& on one year did Waddington & Mildenhall too.Good times!
Remember in the early 90’s holidaying down in Norfolk,& taking a day trip down to the museum at Duxford,& on that Sunday there were a few airshows going on around the uk,upshot was that a lot of the planes displaying at the shows flew out of/returned to Duxford during the day.
So got an unexpected extra airshow into the bargain!

Elvington airshow (near York) is a good one, but I have heard that this year it has been cancelled 🙁 ? Will check that out later.

Sunderland one is usually good (last Sat/Sun in July).

Fairford is 11/12th July

After the 2007 show elvington went to every 2 years; there wasn’t one last year so fingers crossed for this year…

Planning on going to Waddingotn. Southport was good last year but freezing cold & howling a gale off the sea

Some air force, can’t even fight off a few chavs, is that why you had to be on airshow duties instead of fighting the baddies?

Thats ‘Royal’ Air Force, thankyouverymuch and the theft was hardy our fault considering it was stolen from a police station car park!

‘Airshow duties’ BTW were considered a treat for those of us who deployed a lot and I was there rather than on some bone loggy exercise at Otterburn.

Oh and yes, that is a bite.

:p

Waddington, Fairford & Yeovilton will be good this year.

Yeovil might be worth a go this year as they’re celebrating 100 years of naval aviation, and have a good list of aircraft turning up as well – helped by the fact there will already be loads in the country due to close proximity to Fairford & Waddington shows.

<thread hijack>
wahiboy – how are you getting on with your motorcycling adventures?