Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

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LN Strike Eagle
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

You chose a good one for your first stop of the tour. Glad you enjoyed it and I hope the rest of the shows you visit are as enjoyable for you.

I would say that the crowd on Saturday was fairly typical of what you can expect to see at most UK airshows. Probably a few more lenses in your typical airshow crowd though; the audience at Headcorn always seems to be local people. Everyone I chatted to was amazed that I travelled from Essex, let alone you from the other side of the world!

Nice photos, though I should point out that airshow photos should be posted in the airshow photos sub-forum and not in the event threads.
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by Wbirdnut »

LN Strike Eagle wrote:You chose a good one for your first stop of the tour. Glad you enjoyed it and I hope the rest of the shows you visit are as enjoyable for you.

I would say that the crowd on Saturday was fairly typical of what you can expect to see at most UK airshows. Probably a few more lenses in your typical airshow crowd though; the audience at Headcorn always seems to be local people. Everyone I chatted to was amazed that I travelled from Essex, let alone you from the other side of the world!

Nice photos, though I should point out that airshow photos should be posted in the airshow photos sub-forum and not in the event threads.


I'm a newbie sorry, should I move them?

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LN Strike Eagle
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

No, don't worry about it on this occasion. :)

You're welcome to post them again in the correct section though, where they'll probably garner more attention.
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by SuffolkBlue »

It was my first visit to Headcorn yesterday as I was down near Canterbury for the weekend. Managed to spend 30 mins or so in the air warfare museum which wasn't enough time to do it justice, but it's well worth a visit if you're in the area.

The flying display was a bit repetitive at times with a number of aircraft displaying more then once, but for £12 a ticket (£15 weekend ticket), you can't grumble, especially when warbirds are involved. Was excellent seeing the aircraft up close on the ground as well as taxiing and take off / landings, although the flying was very distant at times.

A huge disappointment for me was the traffic management system getting out. I got back to the car when the Harvards & C-47 were taxiing out and it took about 25 minutes to get out of the car park, which was to be expected, so i wasn't too fussed about that.

When I exited the car park and arrived at the crossroad it was not possible to turn right and get back to Headcorn (I guess the road was closed as it passes right under the approach) so the traffic was directed straight on down a narrow country lane. It was flowing nicely so i thought i was out of the woods....but i was sooo wrong! It soon snarled up with traffic coming in the opposite direction and gridlock ensued. I did feel sorry for one guy coming in the opposite direction who had absolutely no chance of getting anywhere fast. It took half an hour to travel a mile until it cleared just outside Headcorn. I might have just caught the traffic at the wrong time and be the small minority that got stuck in it, but I'm surprised that a small country lane diversion road isn't on a one way system while the direct road to Headcorn is closed. Like i say, it was a first time visit so maybe i missed a trick somewhere along the line.

Despite the problems getting away, it was a good show with plenty to see and do on the ground and would recommend it for anyone who has never been before.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by Dan O'Hagan »

Had no problems with the traffic on Saturday - we left it a good two hours after the flying was finished to see what was available in terms of statics in the golden light. Sadly the BBMF were just putting '356 in the hangar as we got to it! By the time we got to the car park, it was as good as empty, drove straight off.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

I think the road was closed for an accident - there were sirens going just as people started to leave and an ambulance was also in attendance.
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by SuffolkBlue »

LN Strike Eagle wrote:I think the road was closed for an accident - there were sirens going just as people started to leave and an ambulance was also in attendance.


If that's the case i'll take back what i said! :smile: Hopefully no one was hurt and it was open again by the time the flying had finished.

I would liked to have stayed for a bit longer after the show but sadly i had other engagements that evening...which i missed anyway after getting stuck at Dartford! :cuppa:

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by lynothehammer »

SuffolkBlue wrote:
LN Strike Eagle wrote:I think the road was closed for an accident - there were sirens going just as people started to leave and an ambulance was also in attendance.


If that's the case i'll take back what i said! :smile: Hopefully no one was hurt and it was open again by the time the flying had finished.

I would liked to have stayed for a bit longer after the show but sadly i had other engagements that evening...which i missed anyway after getting stuck at Dartford! :cuppa:



Yup we decided to leave the airfield at 3.30 (wanted to earn some brownie points with the missus), just getting out of the car park was total chaos and with the accident that didn't help matters either.

Other than that it was a really enjoyable first trip to Headcorn, will definitely go back.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by BDL »

Typical, chose to go to Lords instead and see Kent capitulate.

Nice pics btw.

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Jumbo
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by Jumbo »

Does anyone know what happened to the BBMF hurricane than was scheduled to attend? Or did i just miss it by arriving late?

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by Jakub.Zurek »

Looks like this was a good event. I'll make sure to keep an eye out on this next year.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by UKTopgun »

I went Sun, seems police closed the road at the end of the runway for an accident. Hope it was not a bad one, the closure was still in force 2 hours after they first arrived. Meaning my trip back to Essex was via Ashford, and not to mention the extra hour wasted on the M25 near Dartford, joy! Great show for 12 quid, a bit more variety and it would have been really great, and yes it was all a bit distant, pity really.

Those WW2 paras were very amusing, some landed miles away and I feared the worst when I realised a big cat sanctuary is over the far side of the drop zone!!!

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

We left at 5:40pm on Sunday and didn't get back to Chelmsford until 11pm. Signs said the west tunnel at Dartford was closed and all the routes were jammed. Ended up using the Blackwall tunnel which was just as congested with everyone diverting from Dartford. Hopeless.

LF363 was the Hurricane on the Headcorn schedule posted last week. The BBMF's weekend flying programme had it due to arrive at the same time as MK356 on Saturday, but it didn't show up. I saw nothing on the BBMF twitter feed to say why when I looked and nothing was heard on commentary to say why either.
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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by SuffolkBlue »

LN Strike Eagle wrote:LF363 was the Hurricane on the Headcorn schedule posted last week. The BBMF's weekend flying programme had it due to arrive at the same time as MK356 on Saturday, but it didn't show up. I saw nothing on the BBMF twitter feed to say why when I looked and nothing was heard on commentary to say why either.


I didn't hear anything on the commentary either but it was due to do a flypast over Bury St Edmunds for Armed Forces Day, but cancelled due to tech reasons.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by UKTopgun »

I had never been there before, I noticed what a lovely long crowd line they have there, great backdrop of trees and hedgerows too, rather than clutter and funfairs.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by Oldgeezer »

Sunday was my first ever visit to Headcorn and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Not many participating aircraft but enough and what can you expect at that sort of price? Having said that I reckon the display was well organised and although there were a number of repeats it didn't bother me and I would like to come next year. It's a great place for photographers and it was nice to see a couple of rarer types of aircraft (Prentice, Devon and Jackaroo). Highlights for me were the solo Stampe performance (G-BPLM) and BBMF Spit MK356. I usually whinge about the BBMF - too many underside passes, but this time we got lots of topsides and MK356 is a dream to photograph in its current colours - dunno who the pilots were but thanks anyway. I enjoyed all the other acts too and and wasn't bored the whole time we were there - I felt that we had been given excellent value for our money. Thanks to the organisers - great job.
Leaving was the only problem (and we left early) - my initial feeling was that it was down to poor (or lack of) stewarding but Headcorn village was closed off by police and there are not many alternative routes back to the M25 and what there are, seemed to be single track country lanes (and even that may have been down to my Satnav).

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by UKTopgun »

I took the road to Ashford, about a half hour detour but the safest option, could have tried a country lane but not knowing the area did not want to risk ending up on a single track or something!!

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

Post by grant_w »

Oldgeezer wrote:Sunday was my first ever visit to Headcorn and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Not many participating aircraft but enough and what can you expect at that sort of price? Having said that I reckon the display was well organised and although there were a number of repeats it didn't bother me and I would like to come next year. It's a great place for photographers and it was nice to see a couple of rarer types of aircraft (Prentice, Devon and Jackaroo). Highlights for me were the solo Stampe performance (G-BPLM) and BBMF Spit MK356. I usually whinge about the BBMF - too many underside passes, but this time we got lots of topsides and MK356 is a dream to photograph in its current colours - dunno who the pilots were but thanks anyway. I enjoyed all the other acts too and and wasn't bored the whole time we were there - I felt that we had been given excellent value for our money. Thanks to the organisers - great job.
Leaving was the only problem (and we left early) - my initial feeling was that it was down to poor (or lack of) stewarding but Headcorn village was closed off by police and there are not many alternative routes back to the M25 and what there are, seemed to be single track country lanes (and even that may have been down to my Satnav).


Not down to your sat-nav, unless you go through Headcorn village to head towards Maidstone, the only ways of getting to the M20 and then M25 are small country roads.

I hope they do hold the show again next year, the first time they held it it was an amazing show, the next year they scaled it down and was basically Aero Legends aircraft, but this year they got a few more in again. as long as you arrive by about 9:30 there's no trouble getting in, and I had no problems getting out on Saturday at 5:00.

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Re: Aero Legends Battle of Britain Show - Headcorn

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