Waddington 07

[bentley61]

hi
is anyone going to waddington airshow as i am doing litter picking with the Air Training Corps and may be able to get better close ups in the static park.i'll also be there both days from friday to sunday.
pm me if you are going and might want close ups.
 

[nev]

I'll be there - could be a bit damp though    

[bentley61]

will be but its worth seen as the century wings stand will be there.
plus i'll be stayin for free!
 

[Mossie]

I'd like to go on Saturday, but with the floods we've had & the weather that's forecast for the weekend, I'll have to give it a miss.  We've had to cancel a family gathering for Sunday, so if the weather passes over I might be able to go then....

[Martin H]

ideal weather for flying boats eh. lets hope the met office are wrong about the weekend forcast

[Mossie]

I think I'd have left the house to sink had the Vulcan been there!  Maybe it could display if they put floats on it?  Now there's an idea for Rad...... :dum:  

[Radish]

A Vulcan on floats would be interesting, but one with a seaplane hull would be stunning. Loading the bombs underwater might be technically different though  

[Mossie]

Yeah, wonder how they managed it on the Seamaster?  Now a Victor with a planing hull & high mounted wings would be a nice Seamaster clone!  Is Rat listening in???  These need to be built!!!  Then follow it up with a seaborne Valiant.....

[Jamatari]

Well i'll be there tomorrow if i can get a jetski  

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Have enjoyed the pics, Chris - sorry you had a lousy day. Particularly liked 41 sqn.
 

[Mossie]

Sorry to hear it was a washout Chris, same thing happened to me last year at the Red Bull Air Races at Longleat.  Thanks for sharing the pics!  Nice to see those Indian Air Force Flankers & Il-76 & good to see the Harrier GR.3 again!  Apart from Greg, I'm probably alone here in admiring the two Thales UAV's, especially the odd looking one with all those RBF tags!
 

[Howard of Effingham]

all in all the saturday of waddngton and i was there with the RRHT gang from coventry, was wet but good.

the falklands war 25th anniversary drumhead service in hangar three was very good
and very, very moving indeed. star guest was baroness thatcher. she is very frail
now but kept on going that was impressive. she toured all of the falklands stuff and
on my departure at 1730hrs was last seen with her minders and party near the nose
of XM607. i am surprised that she was not in a wheelchair or something like that.

in the static such as i looked the seven ship line up of 25 sqn's   F3 was
very, very impressive. they are apparently on exercise later this week with the IAF Su30's
that turned up. incidentially a short convseration with an IAF flt/lt or sqn ldr seems
to indicate that the IAF will be a fairford so lets hope the weather is better. phoenix54 will at last get to see them!  

the Su-30 was impressive when it took off. less noisy than a tiffie in reheat but good to see all the same.
there were LOADS of IAF guys there and they looked good and very professional.

the lads from 29 sqn were in good form too. the tiffie is apparently doing well at the mo and 3 sqn have now taken their place on the  QRA roster a few weeks earlier than planned. their first shift on such being about a week ago.

25 sqn are disbanding next year for good according to the chappie i spoke with.
but he says that 43 and 111 sqns are to be retained for at least the next 4 or 5
years and may have anti-radar duties [as 11 sqn were for a short while] added to their combat roles. 25 have the old 111 sqn black finned jet on their roster. it has the code of FX but is in yellow and not the sqn colors of black and silver which was a disappointment for the guy i spoke with. he was on 11 sqn when they took on the
anti radar role.

F-15E's. the bird marked for the 48th OG cdr has had a further change in markings
now that there is a sqn of HH-60's based at lakenheath in that a green stripe has
been added to the red, yellow and blue stripes already on the tail. the green stripe
being for the HH-60's. the F-15 WSO i spoke with did not know if the HH-60's had
all been marked with the green stripe or not.

and  :salute: to the KLu F-16 groundcrew who were operating their sales
stand from the air-intake of one of their sqn's F-16AM's after removing the blank of course. indeed the air and ground crew in the static parks are to be thanked for
braving the worst of the weather on the saturday as i appreciated the chat with this
guy and the A-10A pilot from the 52nd FW at spangdahlem who flew in with another
chap in 78-108 and 81-951. both looked very smart indeed.

the give aways were very good indeed and the poster and chats with the thales team in hangar three were the tops. and of note as a TA to me was chatting with the
lady from raytheon about there science program in schools called 'professor bonkers', they gave away lots. i could not get a hat but did get a pen on a necklace with a built in bubble blower and on the 51 sqn stand one of those coins you can buy instead of using a £1 coin, it has in full color enamel on one face
'royal air force' and the other an representation of the new aircrew brevet awarded
to rear crew in the RAF. cheers guys.

0/10 for the weather and 10/10 for the enjoyment factor. the 90th anniversary   from 13 sqn was very
impressive in the flying display and was about the best of the fast jets but the
fighter like aerobatics from the 5 sqn sentinel R1 win the award. many were very impressed by that bird!  B)

trevor

[phoenix54]

i could not get a hat but did get a pen on a necklace with a built in bubble blower

OOHHH HELL!!! There goes the next S.I.G. meet, Trev with a bubble blower!  

 phoenix