Duxford Battle of Britain show

i missed it
i was intending on visiting the musium this time of year and would have loved to take my little boy to his first airshow, it would have been Mildenhall but it was cancelled

anyway im there next year
the Duxford flight displays are briliant ive seen them over the Coventry airshow and they were low and fast
i also saw the Messerschitt 109 Black 9 doing a display over the RR factory (very sureal a German fighter plane over the English countryside )

09-08-03
Hi Guys. Yes, I was with Oggy at Duxford! I was that soldier. And it was my first ever airshow. And let me tell you guys, we got there between 10 and 11am and I expected to be waiting in a q for ages, but they had the entrance split into at least 4 or 5 lanes so it all flowed smoothly and quickly....and leaving the show? Bear in mind that a lot of people all left at roughly the same time. We got out and onto the motor way almost immediately.
There was a jam on the motorway here, but thta was only for a few miles and the traffic was moving reasonably well until we hit the two/three lanes area and then we just took off. Superb organiastion.
The show itself took my breath away! It is always one thing to see these Warbirds on tv or film, it's quite another to see a mass take off of 6+ Spifires, A Mustang P-51, Thunderbolt, Warhawk and so on and have them disappear only to dive bomb you later!!
Another major plus was that I got to meet several verteran Spifire and Hurricane pilots. The Spitfire Society had a stall there and I got talking with one gentleman ( who reminded me of Peter O'Toole) who is head of the Spitfire Society. They were selling large, signed Squadron Prints ( which I bought) and I also got talking to the helpers of The Grace Spitfire ML 1407, a MK9 trainer! This aircraft served with the Irish Air Corps in the 40's/50's as, I think, no.162. I am currently attempting to cobble together a 1/48 version of this and t has been quite a journey.

But, the real plus was meeting the 6 Battle of Britian pilots who signed my Spitfire poster!! They were really cool, funny gentlemen who proved to a man that while they may be old, they could still bite when they want to. The old teasing bewteen Hurricane pilkots and Spitfire pilots still carries on today!
Got some good video camera footage of the show as I was close to the return taxi run ( after they landed from their display, most of the aircraft invariably drove right past my position). However, there were so many people on foldable chairs and stuff, I couldn't get as close as I like to the flight line.

To quote the Austrian Oak...I'll be back.
ps, Hannants is heaven. It's official.

Liam

U96,
I've met "that crowd" at some shows myself. They make me mad and I let them know it.

What really makes me angry is the people who moan about my friend in his wheelchair, all he wants to do is to be able to see the aircraft!! He is not in anyone's way, yet some selfish "people" push past him as if he was'nt there.
If they did'nt have their legs for a day, they might act differently.

I'll get off my soap box now.

I thought RIAT was superbly organised this year, the security was far more streamlined and no inconvenience at all.
Duxford shows are also about 30%-40% of the attendance of a RIAT show, and tend to start later in the day. Last time I went to Flying Legends there, I drove straight in off the M11 at around 9am. The programme didn't start till 11am, but that meant 2 hours of looking around the museum and traders' stalls.

The thing that *really* irritates me about Duxford is the windbreak and coolbox crowd that stake out their 10m^2 claim on the flightline and whine when people like me stand between them . Unlike RIAT, where that doesn't really bother me, there simply isn't the room at Duxford and it's darned obnoxious when kids behind can't see a thing!

Hi Oggy.

I'm glad you enjoyed the show, I wanted to go myself but family commitments got in the way again.(Has happpened for the last three years in a row now)

I'd be interested to know how the organisation differed from RIAT. Do you mean getting on/off base or the show itself? Just curious, thats all.

Later,

Darren

Hi Oggy, Someday I would dearly love to get to this airshow. Only got to London a couple of times when I was stationed in Italy back in the 70's. (USAF). Anyway I second 72cuda, if you have pics please share.

Bob

Hey Oggy;
have you taken any pix of the show?, and if you have could you share?, Love to see them, did they show all of their A/C as statics or did they keep them under wraps of the Museum, the last time I wasthere in Duxford was back in 91 and they where finishing up on their P-39 in Russian scheme, they where very nice to me when I was asking questions and allowed me to take a few peeks at their current restore projects, plus they where asking me about the FAA's standings on the restored Warbirds (I'm an FAA licensed A&P mechanic nosing around England) and I gave them some of the rules & reg's of the FAA on the Warbirds, it was very interesting on the differances between the American & European laws that drew the same conclusions
Ugly Butt Deadly Effective Hawgs
cuda

sounds like you had a fantastic time!