Anyone going?

Never been to an air show before but always fancied one. After seeing the two Lancasters last week my appetite has been well and truly whetted, add to that the chance of seeing a Spitfire.

Is it worth buying the official tickets (seems to be quite a bit on for the kids) or am I better off viewing elsewhere and dodging the traffic?

I went a few years back. if the weather’s good, grand, but if you get what we got, a freezing gale howling (with some rain)in off the Irish Sea, not much fun.

I thought it worth buying the tickets to get closer than a good long walk (see bad weather above) from the main viewing area. there’s a good chance of seeing more than just a spitfire…

a few more here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhooper_drum/sets/72157607150089081/

then my camera died (little thing. next time I go it’ll be full-on DSLR).
NB do not buy AA or AAA batteries from any of the stalls at an airshow, they’ve probably had them since the Lancs were flying on active duty 😉

There are other planes than the Spitfire, really?!

Would love to see the Vulcan too but that’s Saturday only and can only make the Sunday. Great pic, looks like they come in nice and low.

I gave up trying to take pics years ago, I just don’t have the timing. Tried for years watching the WRC in Wales and just ended up with 100’s of blurred shots of my thumb or wrist strap.

hassle free, pay and park on the beach. plenty of static displays. model aircraft displays. helicopters come nice and close and you don’t get the effect and noise unless you are on the beach front.

That year we got a full on joint services demo, including an AWACS and a couple of Hawks playing The Enemy. Lots of big bangs out on the beach followed by troops landing from a chinook and some coming in by boat.

Planning on going on Saturday.
Two Lancasters plus the Vulcan will be the main draw for me. 🙂

can you just park out of town and cycle in along th ebeach road?

How will they police you getting on the beach exactly?
what exactly would i get for my money

Ta

Ooh. Forgot it was on this weekend.

Being 10 miles away, I often get to see one or two of the planes from my back garden….

(Like bluearsedfly I went to Salmesbury to see the Lancasters, so my appetite is also whetted.)

We’re going. For less then £8 each (in advance), it seems very rude not to pay really. Even if you decide to park elsewhere on the day.

What do you actually get for the £7.32 though? £36.60 is enough to make me want to use the tickets if I pay for them.

Only worry is going down Marine Drive, can be a ballache to get in/out of at the best of times.

Get to flying legends at Duxford next year, saw something daft like 20 Spitfires flying in formation last time.

what he said if it is just £8 to get on beach then what is the point?
The pier access comes with the dear ticket that much i worked out

Whats the £8 for? Nice way to exclude families on low incomes. I’d probably go just for the afternoon Sat.

Whats the £8 for?

I know. It’s not like organising these things, staffing or arranging for the aircraft to come in costs anything. In fact I believe that aircraft fuel is cheaper than water at the moment.

The pilot/planes are paid by the organisers to attend?

How on earth do you think airshows work hora? Booking something like the Vulcan for even a few fly pasts costs thousands. They’re not just a money making racket designed to “exclude” those less fortunate folk.

Fwiw, A ticket to RIAT would set you back around £45 each

I would imagine that they would at least get expenses. Also there are the stewards to pay for etc. Do the RAF provide extremely expensive hardware FOC? I would imagine Sefton council will also require a cut.

£8 for a full afternoon’s entertainment is not bad value for money compared to lots of other stuff.

The pilot/planes are paid by the organisers to attend?

No, all them clouds up there are made of £10 notes, they just fly through a few of them with their cockpit canopy open and start grabbing.

the vulcan , undoubtedly star of the show, flies at a unbeliveable cost owned by a consortium and based at doncaster over and above appearance fees and memrobilia sales they need to raise 400k pa just to get a through a year then the winter service this year is 200k.. no matter how much money is raised its engines are at maximum life and the airframe is knocking on so next year will be its last year no more extensions nana see it in the next twelve months or never see another in the skies again.. then its scrap metal..

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/

I’m getting the train out there tomorrow then walking over to Marine Drive, got my ticket sorted. Aiming to get there about lunchtime, get the Red Arrows and the BBMF between 2pm – 3pm then I might wander into town and come back for the Vulcan at 4.45pm.

We’ll be watching some of the aircraft (including the two Lancs) coming and going from Blackpool Airport tomorrow, and going to the show on Sunday. I think £8 is cheap, most airshows will cost you way more than that!

Booked/downloaded tickets last night, going Sunday. Dreading parking.

Really looking forward to it just wish the Vulcan was there Sunday too.

Yeah, I’m going on Sunday too. Really, really looking forward to seeing the Lancs. Can’t believe someone is moaning about paying £7 odd for a ticket.

park in ainsdale or freshfield and get the train in, bout 10 to 15 mins
and no hassle.

Duncan-ex formbyite

Just looking at the map and ainsdale looks a good bet, anywhere decent to park near to the station?

Ta.

as above park at freshfeild station or ainsdale free parking at both or local roads then a nice walk to site, new cycle route from crosby to southport to try as well which goes alongside airfield in places.

anywhere that you can its a good area so its not bad at all.

any station from formby up really

if you get off at birkdale then walk along to the coast this is as close as you can get without paying theres a hilly bit to sit on iirc you cant get on the beach there we used to watch from here but last time we paid the £7 and thought it was well worth it to get that bit closer prob go for a ride up tommorrow just to see the vulcan saw it at fairford a few years ago saw it take off and land its awsome then go sunday for the full ahow forecast looks good for sunday you can also go behind speke hall by the airport and watch them take off

If you need to drive to formby you may as well just drive to Southport.

Worth remembering the trains are only every 30 mins on a Sunday also.

a few i took at fairford

vulcan by robb d, on Flickr

vulcan by robb d, on Flickr
vulcan by robb d, on Flickr[img]https://

Weather has been shit all day. Red Arrows did their flat display cos the cloud base was down at 1000ft. Jet Provost misjudged a loop in the low cloud and ended up overflying the beach very low, his display ended abruptly, I suspect cos he was told off for it…

Typhoon was good and then the two Lancasters – they had to move the timings around due to the weather. Vulcan cancelled and will now fly tomorrow instead.

Forecast for tomorrow is much better. Also tomorrow, the Lancasters are doing a Derwent Res flyby at 4.45pm if any Peaks locals fancy a ride out there.

i had a ride up to see the vulcan and had a cracking speck on the beach just down from the pier surprised it was open its usally blocked off would have been righ underneath it aah well its going to be there tommorrow

For the weather conditions I thought it was a good display – although the Jet Provost looked like it almost went very wrong!
Shame about the Vulcan, good news that they’re hoping to try again tomorrow.

I went today, hoping for another epic day like last year when we parked on the beach and all the action was above us.
I took my dad, recently recovering from a stroke, and hit the outskirts of southport just after 11. By 2pm we were still in the car, in the mother of all jams, on marine drive, hoping that disabled parking would be available.
So disappointed with how things panned out today, with the weather, traffic and parking and the Vulcan cancelling.
But we did see the provost make the error, it looked very low, very much above the crowd, and pointing the wrong way.
As always, the typhoon makes my hair stand on end.
I won’t risk it again, not for the best part of £40 for six of us. They had as good a view for free, in KFC.

I got all giddy after seeing the Vulcan had been postponed until tomorrow but after reading your post rockhopper I feel genuinely guilty, sorry to hear things didn’t work out 🙁

We were going to leave home around 10am for the hour journey but I think we will leave around 9am in light of what you have been through today.

Read on various sites now the Provost had a pretty hairy moment.

Whoops, double post.

Gutted the Vulcan didn’t show especially after it took us 4 and half hours to get there. Should take about an hour for me. Knew it was going to be busy, just nothing as bad as that.
Still, despite the traffic with the screaming kids and poor weather thought it was a really good show but then I’m easily pleased when aircraft like those are flying.
Typhoon was awesome.
Never tire of seeing the Red Arrows. Always expecting them to hit one another. 😯
Lynx was fantastic. A helicopter just shouldn’t be able manoeuvre like that.
Would have loved to have seen the Merlin a bit closer but we were still trying to shepherd the kids down the front. Looked as though it was going to land on the pier. 🙂
Good day out when we finally got there. Just ‘kin exhausted.

Four and a half hours! 😯

Knew it would be bad but that is unreal.

Was there yesterday, enjoyed the show but certainly wouldn’t go again unless they sort the traffic out, didn’t see a single bod directing traffic and they simply weren’t efficient enough at greeting cars parked which caused massive congestion. Arrived at Southport just before 10 and wasn’t parked before the show started at 1pm, piss poor. Was right under the provost when the perceived error occurred, there were a few sharp intakes of breath around us (not me though grrr)?