Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

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RodMcKenzie
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by RodMcKenzie »

Left King's Lynn at 8am Sunday, had a brilliant run up the A17, didn't hit the queue until we reached the airfield boundary, but things seemed very slow at the gate - took us best part of an hour to actually get parked, so we missed the E3 but were in position for the arrival of the second C17 and the RC135 flyover, both of which I was anxious to film.

The T-Birds were the unquestioned highlight of the flying (although I found the first half of their routine much more compelling than the second), with the wonderful Bronco not far behind - Team Viper and the Vampire duo were also very worthy. I passed on a fair chunk of the afternoon session in order to see the Manhattan Dolls in hangar 5, who were brilliant as usual :love: .

Thin as it was, the static had some interesting stuff, but why oh why is it so spread out these days? The so-called 'large aircraft park' had huge open spaces, while the Nimrods and the Andover (my personal highlight) were positioned miles away. What was the old fighter line is now a complete joke - a string of light aircraft interspersed with the odd trainer and plastic replica. Why not park the Lightning & Phantom up there so it at least looks like a military airshow?

Overall, a pretty good day - helped by the weather - and you can't fault the attendance from Joe Public. But that doesn't disguise the fact that this show is continuing to decline both in terms of the quality & quantity of the participants...
Destiny, Harmony, Melody, Rhapsody & Symphony

Scrappydoo
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Scrappydoo »

Was Waddington a good show or not ? I don't know as I never got in....

As someone fairly local who has attended many of the past shows, we were told on the official airshow website and on local radio "Do NOT arrive early as you will be moved on and sent away" so we did as we have always done and arrived from the Metheringham side, which leads onto the A15, at around 9am. Normally we filter onto the A15 and they direct us to the Barn car park and traffic continues to filter in all morning etc.

This year we came to a grinding halt before the A15 and after 30 minutes we were on the A15 but were then told to go past the barn entrance and continue on the A15, which we did. We then moved one car at a time for the next hour and a half. We reached the WAVE, still we went on and then after over two hours sat in traffic we started seeing a queue forming in the OTHER direction coming towards us.

As we sat there we spoke to other motorists who were coming in from the Lincoln end (Bracebridge Heath) who had been told to turn around and come to the barn!!! They also had been sat for 2-3 hours and had no idea what was happening.

I then got out and went and spoke to a Police Officer who was stood with the mass of gathered 'Traffic Management Contractors', all of whom were just gathered in a huddle opposite the WAVE watching the flying rather than doing the job that some idiot had obviously thought they were capable of doing.

As I stood waiting to speak to the Police Officer, I was listening to the radio conversation he was having and it went along the lines of "Both car parks are at a standstill, keep turning them round and hope that they get the message...."!

I asked him where we were meant to be heading and what was happening and his reply was "Look mate, the car parks are chokka, there are seven mile tailbacks in every direction. They want you to head to Bracebridge heath but it's full. I doubt you're gonna get in, this is one massive foul-up on someones part..."

And that was that. I got back in the car and when we finally reached the lights at Lincoln, we headed home as I'm not wasting money to watch a bit of a display.
I then got a call in the afternoon from a friend who said they let him in at the barn just before lunch.....

If they are unable to organise the traffic, or at least organise the muppets who they employed to manage the traffic, then they should make the show 'ticket only'!

Finningley Boy
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Finningley Boy »

Richard E wrote:
Finningley Boy wrote:The Thunderbirds commwntator could have done with sore throat as far as I was concerned. She must have learnt her art as a Kinder Garten assistant. Otherwise if the Storm Spuggies ideally need 90 minutes to go through their display sequence from start to finish, I'd be interested to hear what they though of the relatively tight scheduling for everyone else? Their display this year wasn't as good as the ones they gave at Upper Heyford and Bentwaters in 1991. All to do with the amount of cloud I suppose.

FB :biggrin:



Apologies for taking this off-topic. Having never been to an air display in the States is the style of Thunderbird's commentary, and that for the F22 at last year's RIAT, typical?

Unfortunately, whenever the U.S. Military provide their own commentator it is always done in the same Orwellian mind control style. What is particularly worrying is that the U.S.A.F. and U.S.N. PR people must obviously believe that this kind of parodying type of ultra-hype works anywhere at all. If American audiences find this style of commentary uplifting, as is obviously intended, then it makes this one Non-American soul think perhaps too deeply about that nation's public psyche.

FB :biggrin:
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wraith_uk
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by wraith_uk »

Decided to drive up from Birmingham for the Sunday show and I'm so glad I did. Great air show topped off with great weather. Well done to all the team who organised the weekend - already looking forward to 2012!

stuart n
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by stuart n »

jon93 wrote:Did anyone else notice quite a strong gust of wind when the vulcan was throttling up on its slow pass (this was on the saturday), chairs and umbrellas went everywhere, could have just been a coincidence.


Oddly enough I just thought about that. Think it was a freak gust but it was quite strong! The holder of a portable chair got blown about 100 feet in the air where i was standing along with umbrellas and hats. Shows why they asked for windbreaks, tents and the likes not to be put up on the airfield, even if nobody paid attention to the request :roll:

stuart n
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by stuart n »

Russ wrote:
Bad:

- Commentator moaning about the "noisy" Belgian F-16 display. Honestly, grow up!


Hope he pulls his socks up for RIAT :whistle:

Howza
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Howza »

We joined the queue a few miles south of RAF Waddington on the A15 at around 10am on Sunday morning.

Queued for over an hour, moving at almost walking pace...
Once we turned left in to the airfield, the queue split into six? lanes, each with a ticket booth...

*NO* distinction between people with advance tickets and those paying on the day. We had advanced tickets but waited behind people paying with credit cards...OK, it's cheaper to buy in advance, if we had our own lane, might that be a way of speeding things up for all?

*NO* seperation of coaches from normal vehicles.
Then the six lanes merged back from six to two and then to ONE....WTF???

Traffic path *right* next to a live RAF Squirrel helicopter and large yellow Leyland fuel bowser. Health and Safety?
That *should not* have happened.

From here it was a snaking crawl of traffic, trying to avoid pedestrians. At this point we were offered the chance to buy programmes? WTF?
NO! I want to get parked. Don't slow down the traffic even more! Past the catering areas and onto a metalled road to the parking. Again pedestrians everywhere. Traffic should not be mixed with pedestrians like this.

Once in the displays were great - Reds, Vulcan, Thunderbirds. All great.

I ended up leaving around 15:00 post the Tornado ground attack simulator pair as I could not face a big queue on the way out. I've been to big events in the US and seen how efficiently traffic management can be done. Why do we have this parochial attitude to traffic management at UK events?

Why is a multi hour wait in and/or out a feature of UK shows as ten thousand vehicles try to enter/leave a show through a "hole in a hedge"?

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Ian G
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Ian G »

stuart n wrote:
jon93 wrote:Did anyone else notice quite a strong gust of wind when the vulcan was throttling up on its slow pass (this was on the saturday), chairs and umbrellas went everywhere, could have just been a coincidence.


Oddly enough I just thought about that. Think it was a freak gust but it was quite strong! The holder of a portable chair got blown about 100 feet in the air where i was standing along with umbrellas and hats. Shows why they asked for windbreaks, tents and the likes not to be put up on the airfield, even if nobody paid attention to the request :roll:


Yes they did keep on about windbreaks a lot which was good . . . yet it was largely ignored from where I was, there were quite a few large tents which were put up about 2m from the crowd line at some points and they were there all day despite the people patrolling the line.

Finningley Boy wrote:
Richard E wrote:
Finningley Boy wrote:The Thunderbirds commwntator could have done with sore throat as far as I was concerned. She must have learnt her art as a Kinder Garten assistant. Otherwise if the Storm Spuggies ideally need 90 minutes to go through their display sequence from start to finish, I'd be interested to hear what they though of the relatively tight scheduling for everyone else? Their display this year wasn't as good as the ones they gave at Upper Heyford and Bentwaters in 1991. All to do with the amount of cloud I suppose.

FB :biggrin:



Apologies for taking this off-topic. Having never been to an air display in the States is the style of Thunderbird's commentary, and that for the F22 at last year's RIAT, typical?

Unfortunately, whenever the U.S. Military provide their own commentator it is always done in the same Orwellian mind control style. What is particularly worrying is that the U.S.A.F. and U.S.N. PR people must obviously believe that this kind of parodying type of ultra-hype works anywhere at all. If American audiences find this style of commentary uplifting, as is obviously intended, then it makes this one Non-American soul think perhaps too deeply about that nation's public psyche.

FB :biggrin:


Orwellian mind control style? Come on, it's a bit of a larf!! We all know how patriotic the US are, I am sure that if you were American you'd love it! :tongue: It is a bit over the top yes but the US are good at bigging themselves up and they're proud of their National display team, I wouldn't want them to change their commentary just because they're coming to Europe, it's part of the whole display. How would red 10 fare with the RAF style commentary/British sense of humour over in the States? The only thing I'd say to the Thunderbirds commentary team is stop using stupid intonation when they're talking and introducing the crew PURRRRLEASE!!
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Screechy
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Screechy »

Strange show with a disjointed feel to the flying display due to too many gaps. Saturday displays by the Vulcan and the BBMF were far superior to the Sunday versions. No problem getting to or from the show as I freeloaded it on the perimeter and also got there EARLY... not through being a cheapskate but I'm not keen on looking into the sun for the majority of an airshow, the poor static lineup and the greater variety of shots I get out there. The traffic on Saturday was unbelievable on the A15 coming from the Sleaford direction as it remained solid until midday, Sunday was better on that score. The Norwegian pair looked very good in the late sun on Saturday. Tornado and BBMF were outstanding from halfway down the A15 on Saturday.. tons of topsides with the sun glinting etc very nice, infact best BBMF routine I've ever seen and much better than the Sunday performance.

The Thunderbirds were the Thunderbirds, just a shame the weather didn't quite play ball as there was a lot of haze about. Certainly don't miss the lack of commentary outside. Was nice to meet a whole load of UKAR'rs on both days.

Most amused by the guy who spent most of his time photographing a pretty young female standing not too far away from me, he must have come away with quite a collection there!

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Chef_uk
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Chef_uk »

Posting this here but I will also be emailing it to the airshow office as I feel quite strongly about it as such some will have already been covered before the weekend but I’m still going to include it.

Thursday Morning Park and View
Every year it has been advertised as being open at 8am. Every year the gates open even earlier than that as common sense prevails and that by not doing so the backlog of cars using the A15 would quickly become a logistical nightmare. The reason we were given why they would not open until 9am was medical cover was not present.
Once in we find runway 02 is in use yet the wind was nowhere near the limit of what is accepted for a tail wind landing on runway 20.
Finally we were explicitly told by the police not to turn up before 9am on Friday as they would not open the gates until then.
Q.1) Why was medical cover not in site at the advertised time of opening?
Q.2) Why was runway 02 used when clearly aircraft were asking if they could land on 20 and take off from 20?

Friday Morning Park and View
After listening to the police I set off slightly later to arrive just before 9am. As such I’m a little earlier and drive past the Harmston junction at 8:35am. I travel a further 500 yards and hit gridlock. We’re moving 5 car lengths every 5 minutes or so, so slow in fact a lot of us turn our car engines off between movements. 9:15am and I am now up to the landing lights. A further 15 minutes and I can turn in to the park and view. 1 hour to travel less than a mile to access a park and view.
From the outside fence on the A15 the police were asking people to come down from their step ladders yet ignored the 20+ cars transiting along the A15 who parked up on the verge for hours to watch the Aircraft.
Finally 02 was in use again in very little wind but the caravan was parked in its usual place as if runway 20 would be in use.
Q.3) Why was only one crash gate open for traffic from both sides? Last year both were open, one each.
Q.4) Why were the police only interested in policing those who were wanting to and using the Park and View facility yet completely ignored other vehicles?
Q.5) Again why was 02 used when clearly wind was of little concern?

Saturday Airshow Day
After the debacle of the previous 2 days to ease traffic congestion. I, like a few others, turned up earlier than was told to. To be honest what were you expecting? Coming up from the South on the A15, I had to stop off in BraceBridge Heath first at my in-laws before coming in to the airshow. From BraceBridge Heath I came along the A607 up in to Waddington and to my shock I see the TX gate is not open to the public this year. What a stupendous idea that turned out to be. Im so glad I was coming to park up at 7:05am as it was obvious the new routes this year were never going to work. I travel through the village and Manchester road is backed up yet the signs for public car parking is over towards Harmston so this confused me slightly. I make my way through the traffic lights and head out towards the Barn Farm field parking with no traffic going Southbound on the A607. Northbound however is gridlocked as they head up to Manchester Road. I arrive at 7:05am and see a row of cars have already parked up and the people who came in them, standing in a queue by the gate. I do the same and am extremely happy that I have missed any sign of congestion coming in to the airshow and parked early.
As I wait in the queue on foot only a handful of cars turn off in to our field to park while the rest stay on the A607. Others in our queue say its because they don’t like to walk from the field all the way up the taxiway to the show but to me by parking up first then walking up inside solves every problem with congestion on the roads. This system works fine for RAF Fairford at RIAT so why is RAF Waddington so keen to have their parking on base yet forcefully tell people not to turn up before 8am on their radio show?
Last year’s routes and parking went like a breeze and was the best system to date. Why were they changed?

Sunday Airshow Day
We were lucky enough to have a red route pass for Sunday. The route given showed the TX Gate would be our entrance. After hearing on the radio Saturday night that there would be changes to the parking, I knew our TX gate route would be compromised as it would now be used for General Admission. As we arrive to the TX road, its clearly marked, left lane for general admission, right lane Red Route Only so consideration for Red Route users were clearly given. The police on the other hand directing the traffic, did so making no attempt to adhere to this policy and as such the red route only lane had cars coming from the north along the A607. They realised they were in the wrong lane and so indicated to move over and stopped before reaching the guard barriers. Doing so caused yet more congestion especially for the Red Route users.

As I am writing this, its quite clear a lot of my grievances have been caused by the way traffic management was implemented. How much of this is down to the Airshow team I do not know. What I do know though is there are far better ways of how to manage 100,000+ visitors to an airshow. Like I said before, RIAT have all their visitors parked up and queuing on foot and then open the gates. Once in, visitors then walk through table turnstyles to either pay, or have their tickets actioned. This system could easily be implemented at RAF Waddington. You have 4 parking zones. The taxiway for the East and South from the A15 using the South crash gate. The Barn Farm for traffic from the West. And the TX gate with parking on the playing field for Traffic from the North.
You let everyone in and park from 7am but then queue on foot until 8am. Pay tables are then added using the metal barriers as a filing system for everyone to use. These are situated where the parking zones meet the airbase with the exception of the South & East carpark that has its turnstyle between where the Thunderbirds were parked and the carpark.
All this does away with the kiosks that you use from your car which holds up everyone else and so on.

I felt strongly to write this letter as the RAF Waddington Airshow is held very closely to my heart. I’ve never missed one and as a local who worked at RAF Waddington for 10 year, hates to read and hear how so many people received such an appalling service upon arriving to the airshow. The hard work throughout the entire year by the Airshow team is severely let down by the implementation of parking. If your hands are tied behind your back and that it is completely up to the Lincolnshire Police then I fear the RAF Waddington Airshow has reached its peak long before it is due and it will be such a shame for that to happen due to the “expertise” by others and not yourselves.

LarryElite
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by LarryElite »

Go Chef! Go Chef! :yahoo:

Abingdonman
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Abingdonman »

All these traffic problems ,I dont know....do what I did in 1976,I got the train to Lincoln,asked for the right direction,and walked the 4 miles or so in nice weather!! no problem( :sweat: )
because of bus queue's,I even walked back in pouring rain(the weather can change quickly in Lincolnshire!)boy...was I a nutcase to do that!( :sick: ).....but it was a great day out! :grin:

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DamienB
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by DamienB »

0/10 Chef. Far too long and waffly and you ask for them to implement a system that people absolutely bloody hate at RIAT.

pb643
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by pb643 »

DamienB wrote:a system that people absolutely bloody hate at RIAT.


Too right. The debacle of getting into RIAT is the single factor that will stop me going in the future.

Phil

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gazm1
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by gazm1 »

Travelled down from Wigan early doors and only queued to get into the farm entrance for about 30 mins, got onto the airfield before 8.30am

Static display was a bit bare but nice to see the KDC-10 and the C-17 up close. Flying display was hit and miss with the highlights being the Vulcan & Reds (obviously) as well as the F-16

Never seen the T'Birds before and was really looking forward to them. Have to say I was disappointed and quite annoyed at being moved from the car for their display (my beer was warm and flat by the time I got back) even though the MOD plod where quite amused by it all as well (having only been informed of the need for 'evacuation' on Friday night). Fair play to the Flt Lt who we spoke to and told us they would be crap anyway :lmao:

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DerekF
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by DerekF »

It's a good rant Chef but if you want people to take it seriously, drop the sarcasm and make it half the length.

Reading about the traffic I can't believe how lucky we were. We joined the queue on the A15 on Saturday around 8.15 after cutting through from the A607 and were parked up before 9am.

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bigsav
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by bigsav »

Big Sav’s take on the weekend

Having read all the posts to date I still find it comforting that my decision to ‘make a weekend’ of it has paid off – thanks in part to the favourable weather and securing time off work.

Without a shadow of doubt this was the most pleasant of weekends spent at Waddington for me, I arrived from South Yorkshire on Thursday lunchtime and proceeded to the Barn Farm campsite. I was pitched up and sat with a drink approx 13:30 in time for numerous practice displays and arrivals, made even more enjoyable as that end of the runway was in use (**my thoughts were with those that had paid for entry to the P&V**).

We had the Thunderbirds fly right over the site on numerous occasions during their display and felt this was more of a show of their power than being right at the front as they recovered in position for their next manoeuvre – the cross over was literally over our heads and was great to see – although me, like most maybe can suggest they didn’t seem comfortable will their timing, practising that move three maybe four times on the Thursday.

Friday saw the early arrivals of the Typhoons and Tornadoes, again right overhead – from the campsite you can get right up to the fence just as they touchdown – mind you, there is no real benefit from a photography perspective as the fence is 15 foot high. A further practice from the Thunderbirds added to the day once more, as too the late arrival of the Netherlands KDC-10 and Sally B.

BBQ Friday night with the family and all was set up perfect for the Saturday.

On the Saturday morning I was completely oblivious to the chaos around the airfield – I and my two young boys had breakfast around 9:00 and proceeded to walk in the pedestrian entrance at Barn Farm approx 09:30 – no queue to get in – we watched the Sentry take off and then proceeded up to the static area, generally lighter than previous years but I am not personally a big critic on the static as I am there more for the flying. I thought the area was relatively quite at that time, probably the highlight for me was the F-16 Tiger scheme. I then walked up the strip to the Vulcan area – a lot busier but again had no real problems moving around, there was a pleasant atmosphere from those on foot, but as some have already commented there seemed to be some fairly disgruntled drivers who had been moved onto the airfield when clearly the area was full.

First time I had walked to the far end where the Netherlands KDC-10 and others were parked and again found this extremely pleasant and comfortable look round, as I had seen a lot of the practice displays on Thursday and Friday the early Saturday flying display was less of a priority.

The one criticism I may have was at the very far end (Vulcan) the cars were parked near enough right up to the fence making it difficult to get round the encampments of people ‘guarding their territory’, I can appreciate people taking the pleasure of sitting round their cars and enjoying the day but those who thought it acceptable to block access to the fence were slightly ignorant of others but hey ho, I wasn’t going to let detract from the overall enjoyment.

I worked my way down the main strip once more stopping to watch the Role Demo and then made may way to the grassed area to the rear of the Thunderbirds, there was plenty of room and again I must profess the atmosphere was very enjoyable and relaxed.

I headed back to the campsite after the Vulcan displayed and it appeared to have been the decision of quite a few as queues began to form for the exits, I casually strolled back to the campsite to watch the remainder of the show with a cold beer….lovely.

Highlights from the flying display were the Vulcan and Red Arrows, having seen the Thunderbirds display FOUR times during my stay, their power was awesome but the efficiency and seamless flying of the Reds will always have them coming out on top in my opinion.

Sunday, as always, I watched the show from the campsite, packed up and headed home after the Thunderbirds, absolutely no problems getting out and was home in just over an hour.

For me, as I think I said last year this is the most enjoyable way to experience the Waddington Airshow and I don’t think this will change while ever there is a show on……………

Without having to experience the problems with parking I can say I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend – well done to SilentFlight and co – and good luck for 2012, I seem to remember you already have sights on the A-10, now that would be a coup.
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Scrappydoo
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Scrappydoo »

I noticed that they had closed off some of the side roads this year and sent us further away before turning back towards the A15.
Every year we arrive at the A15 between 8.30 and 9am and just join the flow, turn off, get parked and go in, so what happened this year ?
Did anyone who turned up early get moved on ? Speaking to three others today, they were all moved off the grass verge by the Police (cars totally on verge, not on the road) while thye were waiting for the gates to open.
As I mentioned earlier, even the Police said someone had dropped a B*llock this year.

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JJC
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by JJC »

Based on the flying display, another brilliant show, especially with that vaccum that everyone calls Zeltweg sucking up seemingly everything and the Czechs cancelling which was just plain wrong on their part. :wat: :smile:

However the traffic was horrendous and really needs some thinking about IMHO :wat:

The Thunderbirds were exceptional (first time i've seen them and certainly hoping it wasn't the last!) :clap:

Other highlights for me were: Vulcan, Tonka Demo, Apache, Vampire duo and last but certainly not least, the Belgian F-16 demo.
''Time to dive into the fireworks!''

zoomer
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by zoomer »

All in all, given the current operational situation for the RAF and other nations I suppose the turnout wasnt bad. Lightest static I've seen though, and although departures today was good when it was happening, there was a lot of comments along the lines of 'what else is left to come?'...

I hope next year the aircraft attendance can be improved, but as for the traffic management - well I wont say more as its been said already. However it seems it may have taken until departures day but it seems they finally got the guy responsible for the various traffic problems...

Image

Zoomer Phil

LarryElite
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by LarryElite »

zoomer wrote:All in all, given the current operational situation for the RAF and other nations I suppose the turnout wasnt bad. Lightest static I've seen though, and although departures today was good when it was happening, there was a lot of comments along the lines of 'what else is left to come?'...

I hope next year the aircraft attendance can be improved, but as for the traffic management - well I wont say more as its been said already. However it seems it may have taken until departures day but it seems they finally got the guy responsible for the various traffic problems...

Image

Zoomer Phil

:lol: :clap:

Sundowner
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Sundowner »

Just my personal view, getting in on Friday was a complete farce even though we turned up at just after 9 the traffic was queing on the wrong side of the road nearly back to Bracebridge Heath, even the poor truck driver in front of us didnt know what was going on so he just sat there wondering if he "dare" go down the proper side of the road or not.
Saturday; well we must have been lucky as again we came through Bracebridge Heath at about 7.50 joined a "shortish" que and was on base by just gone 8, I must admit I think a seperate lane [or two] for advance ticket holders would help things along a bit.
Static was a bit sparse but I suppose its a sign of the times so as I only get to a couple of shows a year [if I'm lucky] I'm not going to whine about it too much, same goes for the flying, I'm just grateful for what I get.
The one thing that did send the missus into a fit of rage though was the price of the programme.......£7 !!!!!!!, blimey, I did'nt know she knew such words, she only wanted it for the display timings :whistle: .

But overall we enjoyed our weekend and will do it all over again next year.

FGR2
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by FGR2 »

I went Sunday and enjoyed the show :clap:

Rumbled up the A607 and straight into Barn Farm "holding field" at 7:10 with no problems. About 7:30 I went straight in, paid and parked up within less than 10 minutes. Must have been about 2 rows from the front of the parking field.

Static I thought was o.k, nice to get one last look at a pair of Nimrods together and the line of Typhoons was good aswell. Shame the RAF couldn't have managed more than one though, when Italy and Germany had managed to bring two. The Dutch KDC-10 was a nice addition too, always surprises me how huge they are.

The only criticism I have of the static is that it can be rather random, with civvy light aircraft dotted between military jets. A little bit confusing why they were there.
The Thunderbirds I thought were good in the first half but a bit off in the second once the main formation had formed up, with big gaps whilst they repositioned. The first part of the display I thought was very good. :clap:

Getting out, no problem at all on to the A15 and heading south with no holdups whatsoever.

All in all I really enjoyed the show, (the last time I went was 2006), hopefully next year will see a larger selection of military hardware from overseas (and hopefully if the Libya & Afghanistan situation calms down and more isn't slashed from the military as a result) more from the RAF. A couple of extra Typhoons, VC-10, C-17 and C-130 would certainly bolster the static nicely. Here's hoping that these are more available next year.

JohnF
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by JohnF »

Couldn't believe the traffic problems on both arrivals days and the unhelpful local copper who moved everyone off the grass verge Thursday morning. Where was he during the Thunderbirds practice when everyone was parking on the verges to watch.

I only attended the show on Saturday and had no problems with traffic. Arrived at 07:30, on base by 07:45 and taking photos of the Nimrod R1's at 8:00. I took full advantage of the lovely evening sunshine so didn't leave until just after 8pm. Only minor problem was when the parking attendants wanted everyone to reverse into their parking space but common sense soon prevailed!

Shame the aircraft weren't landing the A15 end but it did allow for some great taxi shots from over the hedge, especially the head on taxi shot of the Thunderbirds as they departed today. Thankfully someone had already trimmed the hedge so I was ok with my 3 step ladder!

As for the static, great parking spot for the Nimrod's allowed you to get some excellent photos with uncluttered backgrounds.

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A380FWWOW
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by A380FWWOW »

Well I have been reading this with interest and considering if i should respond or not, but I just cant keep quiet anymore!

There are a few points / issues im picking up so here goes;

1) Slow Arrivals Day -- Well sadly this really is controlled by the Airforces / Nations / Companies who are sending aircraft to the show, they dispatch the aircraft when they are ready to be sent, when any tasking has been done, this is really out of the control of the Airshow organiser, I'm sure they would appreciate everything arriving early also!

2) Lack of static Participants -- I really dont know if people have noticed many Air Forces are participating in two conflicts at this moment in time, resources are very thinly stretched and everybody is making tremendous cutbacks in defence spending at the same time, the days of the Cold War when everybody has loads of available aircraft have long gone, lets enjoy what turns up, there were some very interesting aircraft in the static, stars of which included; 5 Typhoons from 3 nations, the Andover from the ETPS, Dutch kDC-10 and the Belgian Tiger F-16

3) Traffic Issues -- It appears that there were traffic issues on Saturday, these started before 0630 hrs when the roads into the base that were clearly marked for RAF personnel only were blocked by Visitors trying to get on base early and there were numerous cars doing U-turns when being truned away from the base, those of us working has issues getting in due to this. Sadly it appears that there was also an accident between a vehicle and a cyclist this would also have had an impact on the heavy traffic on the roads. Sadly once there is congestion its very difficult to clear it.

Personally I though it was a very entertaining show with some great participants and think the show organisers did a great job.

I will add that these are my own personal thought and are in no way linked to the organisers, im off my soap box now and getting my coat on the way out! :surrender:
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