Fairford Air Tattoo

[Tonybolony]

Just got back from a weekend away on a campsite in Fairford, to see the Air Display.
I've been to the same site for the last 3 years, and it's just fantastic.
I'm not really interested in much of the newer stuff- for me it's the Spitfire/Hurricane, and sadly for the last year of it's flying life- the Vulcan XH558.
I've been to air displays on and off for 20 years+, and the Vulcan has always impressed me, but although I was expecting a final flourish from it, I just felt that the crew were almost wrapping it in cotton-wool, and not giving it WOT as we were hoping
It was great to see it again, especially as it finished it's display being flanked by the Red Arrows.
Hard to believe that this, the last one flying, will be permanently grounded at the end of this season- especially as the plane that it directly superceded (Lancaster) is still flying.
It's sad that the authorities are allowing such an iconic (sorry for the cliche) crowd-pleasing piece of history to become just a memory

[Kieron20V]

Used to work in the hangar next door to where she sleeps at Doncaster. You're right about them wrapping it in cotton wool, essentially the reason it's not flying next year is there are no spare engines available anymore and no facilities available to overhaul them. It's only been able to fly the last few years because of various spare that have cropped up, from concord I've been told. Even these have had their usable life expectancy halved due to their age and lack of documentation. The engines currently fitted are the last available and so to try to form some sort of guarantee that they will last the season they aren't pushing them anywhere near their capabilities. It flies pretty much empty anyway so there's plenty of power in reserve anyway, but I think something in the order of 80% full thrust being what the crews are capped to.

Still an amazing sight to behold, looks like it's doing 500mph when it's stood still.

[newsh]

I've seen it fly at Bruntingthorpe, it was absolutely awesome, totally gutted that I accidentally erased the video from my phone..

[K Simmonds]

Just got back from the same event, went along for the day with Charlie and Tristan, I really enjoyed the show, some interesting aircraft were flying, better than last year IMO.

I agree, it's a great shame that the Vulcan is being grounded at the end of this season

The Spitfire's and Hurricanes were awesome as were the two Apache's.

[ColonialNomad]

I played a gig standing under the wing of one at Duxford. If I reached up, I could just about touch the underside of the wing. Mind boggling how something so monstrous could hang in the air in the way it does.

[merlin's S4]

I was there too yesterday and was a great show again! I've seen the Vulcan a few times over the last 4 or 5 years and it really is a personal highlight for me. I would agree that they certainly weren't giving it full beans yesterday but still great to see her flying one last time! I can't see the show being quite the same without the Vulcan there. They'll have to get the Lancaster fixed and flying again if I am to return next year!

[bertman]

Vulcan is my favorite,took this last year and thought it was quite fitting.
What a brilliant aircraft.

[Tonybolony]

Nice photo. Bertman

The air displays just won't be the same without her.

Back in the late 80's/early 90's when our local show was St Athan, we always stayed at a Campsite across the road from the peripheral fence of the airbase, alongside the main runway, and planes like the Vulcan, Lancaster, Spit/Hurricane used to fly down the crowdline, then turn above the campsite, and you could genuinely see the pilots looking down on us (occasionally waving).Those were the days when the pilots weren't afraid to make some serious noise. Sad that it'll never happen again!

All down to spineless bureaucratic do-gooders

[cardcrash]

I think it's worth mentioning the surprising performance the of the Airbus A400M, I was really quite amazed at it's agility given it's mammoth size.

The Vulcan was of course a delight, not seen one fly since I was a child, nor have I seen so many Spitfires and Hurricanes all fly at once - fantastic!

The Chinook never fails to impress with it's remarkable ability to stop on a dime with a handbrake turn.

And I have to say I'm a big fan of the Typhoon Eurofighter, the things that thing can do are quite breathtaking. Watching it climb vertically the way it does and it's manoeuvrability are shocking.

Loved it!

[spink]

I saw it twice last year and twice this in the same places (weston and Scarborough),something definitely lacking this year.A Chinook stole the show at weston (imo)

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