Effect of new CAA rules on small displays

[broadstairs]

Yesterday I went to Manston which had an event at the two Museums to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the airfield and a Spitfire display was scheduled. For those that know Manston the the Museum compound is not large and the site owners had allowed parking on the northern grass between the Museum compounds and the road which separates the old northern grass gliding field from the main airport area,. I went to the car to watch the display having been told the flying would be over the old Manston runway area, however security then told everyone in the car parking area to move back into the Museum compound as the new CAA rules required it, so we would have been so far away from a small prop driven aircraft which would have been difficult to see. The other point here was that the road between the museums and the airfield was NOT being closed.

This seemed totally ridiculous and I'm not sure how much this was really the CAA rules or the event organisers being ultra careful but had the display happened it would have been far too far away.
Sadly due to adverse weather between Duxford and Manston the Spitfire had to turn back and which is why we never got the display.

I also spoke with my son who went to Dover Castle yesterday to see the WWII event which was scheduled to have a (different) Spitfire display which did take place however he felt that the positioning of the display was ridiculous as it was probably a mile of two up the coast from the Castle and if he had been on his usual cliff-top walk he would have been right under the display area. Once again some changes at least being blamed on the CAA seem to be unrealistic and not actually removing potential safety issues.

Stuart