Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

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iaint
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Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by iaint »

As the title suggests, feel free to add your thoughts and comments/feedback on this years show...

Overall it seemed like a successful day for the organising team, huge attendance and great weather.

Static was the thinnest I have seen in the few years I have been going to the show, I do fully understand air forces have operational commitments at the moment and the clash of shows, but I actually struggled to see any aircraft when looking north up the taxiway after the Nimrods!! :shock:
The Tornado on the taxiway static was well camouflaged behind our old friends as an ice cream was very close, almost on top of it, and also being behind the Reds and Typhoon motion rides.
It was good to see the Typhoons lined up on Alpha, as well as the Bryza, but not too much else of note up there (can't forget the Austers in their usual postion there)

Getting into the show however was a disaster, for me and family anyway. Arrived at the A607 and through to Boothby Graffoe just before 0815ish. Freely moving and going well. However it all went the way of the pear :sad: and we then strangely got directed East along the road to the A15 (Never been directed that way before, why this year?). This tiny stretch of road then took 1hr to snail along, then after joining the A15, we took well over another hour or more to get up to the north entrance, by this time display had started and we reached the fence and WAVE as the Hawk was displaying. Apalling Traffic Management then proceeded to pass us north past the A15 entrance and we had to follow the road around and back on ourselves onto and south past the main gate. Eventually we parked the car - 4hours after first reaching the A607, guess where..... Barn Farm!! :mad: :mad: I don't know who thought traffic should have gone from A607 to the A15, but what a disgrace and poor thinking!

I do realise it was a very busy and successful day in the attendance, but if we hadn't have been rerouted (there was no way the car parks were full by that inital time), I think we could have been parked for 9-9.30 in the same car park as we eventully found ourselves 4 hours later.

Maybe the Traffic Management lot need sorting out or explaining the reason for redirection that early...

By the sounds of it Waddington will be losing the custom of my wife and our kids (granted they're free) for the forseeable future... I however will try to attend due to it being an airshow and my aviation 'obsession' :love:

The day did improve and we did enjoy it after that debacle, although when we arrived the T'birds went up, closing the bottom half of the airfield for all pedestrians (was this an American request -Mod Plod claimed it was hunting for suspicious packages - or safety related due to the curved flightpath of the team??)

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by LarryElite »

I wouldnt say today was a great success but i still enjoyed it. Like you say the static was very thin. Literally one or maybe two fighter jet downs the whole main line of static which was disappointing.
Flying wise wasnt bad but the thunderbirds had the major cringe factor :sick: Some of the guff that woman was coming out with was just silly. Maybe a bit to much tame displaying going on aswell ie. Tucano, King Air, Tutor, Jord Falcons but the other stuff made up for it. Vulcan and Reds were great and enjoyed the role demo.

MAJOR annoyance was the dire traffic managment. Arrived outside the A15 (near WAVE) entrance at about 7.30 to a seen of carnage. Cars queueing everywhere, both lanes blocked, police trying to move people on (they were apologetic though because even they could see it was better for people to queue on the verge than start turning around causing chaos etc) and then those people turning around a pulling in somewhere else. Two fire engines on blues got stuck for a few mins because people couldnt move anywhere. Was an absolute joke. At the end of the day when it gets to that situation they need to open the gates because frankly it was stupid. Surely it is better to filter cars in slowly as they arrive than have a 2 hour constant mass at 8 oclock. Deffo needs sorting out cause it was just danagerous.

Apart from that it was a good day . Just hope Waddington get a better particpation next yeat and hopefully cut down on some of the civvie stuff.
Roll on 2012! :yahoo:

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iaint
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by iaint »

I think I was really calling it a success for the sheer volume of people, the attendance is afterall the real teller for the organisers success.... Otherwise it was average for us die-hard enthusiasts

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by LarryElite »

iaint wrote:The day did improve and we did enjoy it after that debacle, although when we arrived the T'birds went up, closing the bottom half of the airfield for all pedestrians (was this an American request -Mod Plod claimed it was hunting for suspicious packages - or safety related due to the curved flightpath of the team??)

Iain


Was a Tbird requirement because of their display area or something. Was announced on the PA.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by bbhimp »

They also had that section closed off for the GR4 role demo too though so not too sure why this all happened this year. Watched the thunderbirds team go through there pre flight whatever u want to call it lol and omg i think i have seen it all now and there commentator she was doing my head in lol. We did though have a very nice family day out and i think my best bits was the GR4 role demo the BBMF the reds and of course the best by far the Vulcan.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Danny »

I think it was something to do with that four way crossover they did towards the end of the display. They usually do that over the centre point, but had to do it over the car park instead because they weren't permitted to flyover the crowd except on arrival.
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by MarkL »

I have to work today and tomorrow and can't get to Waddo this year.

A good day at work < a bad day at Waddington.

Hope you enjoy the weekend guys.

Mark
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by barnybullet »

I must have been to a different airshow. I came through lincoln at just before 8 and first time i stopped was at the ticket booth in the playing field car park. Same coming home from setting off 20 minutes later was flying through lincoln.

That was the worst static I have seen in my 31 years of attending airshows there was nothing there!!! where did all the budget go if there was none left!!! It looked like there was less than half the normal amount of aircraft.

Then with so little aircraft they still put them with simulators right next to them and then dont even have enough rope/cones/barriers to go around them!. Some had gaps in the barriers so people just wandered through them. Some had full reels of bunting covering gaps and as for the KC10 was it see how close round the wheels we can make the barrier!!

The flying was better with a few good displays. However I have heard of lazy lunch at RIAT but a full lunch break was taking it to a new level!!

On a positive note I didnt see one dodgy purfume stall that seem to be every other stall at RIAT (although the chair i bought did break after 5 minutes!!)

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by boff180 »

A freeloaders view from outside, although I paid for arrivals....

I witnessed the worst traffic I have ever seen today. The traffic jam on the a15 did not end until 1pm! An absolute joke, the police were fast tracking coaches in on the wrong side of the road at one stage!

Flying wise, Sally B and the Tornado Role Demo took the awards from me... Nothing like a 4 engined bomber coming at you 150ft head on! Made the lads in the fire service area duck!

The thunderbirds were as lackluster as per usual, although the Bronco display was great, rolls the lot! There were noticable large gaps in proceedings, the largest being approx 20min after the Thunderbirds as the belgians arrived.

I still cannot justify going inside on show days at waddo, and after the really slow arrivals, i am debating attending them next year to.

Undoubtably the show will go on without us enthusiasts based on todays attendance.... But will the police allow it after that farce with the traffic on all three days so far?

Andy

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by paulb1973 »

My 14th Waddington show; I travelled up from Coventry, so used the M69, M1, A46 (got to wait until 2012 before the new dual carriageway section of the A46 opens) A17 & A607. Was going well until I reached just south of the base - reached the Harmston area quite early (7.30am) but it still took an hour to park the car within the airfield. There were ticket booths positioned at each entrance (gone are the days of military and RAF personnel taking cash and issuing tickets in person it seems). At the Harmston/Barn Farm End it was a case of 7 lanes of cars down to 1 lane leading to inevitable delays.

The car was positioned alongside the runway well down towards the south end of the airfield, suggesting Waddington was already well-filled as early as 8.30am. No diversions on the A15 for me thank goodness, although my alternative route [avoiding the A607] in previous years was the A17, B1429 (via Cranwell) then the A15, followed by a trip across the runway or an entrance at the north end. Luckily I didn't choose that route today.

I thought the USAF Thunderbirds were a little more spectacular compared to their last UK display (2007 at Fairford I think, which I thought was a bit drab). The first 4-ship take-off was fantastically noisy and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. The organisers had given them a 60-minute segment, which is long in anyone's book - but they managed to fit everything in within about 45-50 mins, causing the display to run a bit early seemingly leading to a few gaps.

Pity about the Red Arrows 'gap' - a Air Ambulance movement apparently, not much you can do about that. Despite the overall good weather, the cloud it appeared, prevented the Arrows from doing their full height display - so no 'heart in the sky for the ladies'. The static did indeed look rather threadbare, very little on the straight section behind the control tower. The Vulcan on Saturday was piloted by Kev Rumens, who really seems to throw it about, first time I 've come across him, in the hot seat.

I awaited until 6pm before leaving the airfield - by that time the runway crossing point had been opened and I just drove straight out! made up for the delays in the morning. Despite all that, I like the Waddington atmosphere and had an excellent day out.
Last edited by paulb1973 on Sat 02 Jul 2011, 10:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Ashthorpe87 »

Hi all. Comments about the traffic management are concerning me. I'm on a campsite in brant broughton. Anybody have any advice on when to set off and which route to take. Was going to head south onto a17 although I am thinking about heading north on the lanes to come onto a607 at harmston? Any thoughts??

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Danny »

We arrived at about 8:00 and took a left off the A15 coming from the south onto the B1178. Only queued for about 30 minutes getting into the car park after crossing the runway.

Overall, the static was thin on the ground - but the flying display was very enjoyable. The Thunderbirds were excellent, shame we didn't get to see the high show though. I also thought the Chinook was very impressive and the Vulcan display was one of the better ones, with some rather tasty wingovers! :drool:
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by IanOlder »

iaint wrote:Getting into the show however was a disaster, for me and family anyway. Arrived at the A607 and through to Boothby Graffoe just before 0815ish. Freely moving and going well. However it all went the way of the pear :sad: and we then strangely got directed East along the road to the A15 (Never been directed that way before, why this year?). This tiny stretch of road then took 1hr to snail along, then after joining the A15, we took well over another hour or more to get up to the north entrance, by this time display had started and we reached the fence and WAVE as the Hawk was displaying. Apalling Traffic Management then proceeded to pass us north past the A15 entrance and we had to follow the road around and back on ourselves onto and south past the main gate. Eventually we parked the car - 4hours after first reaching the A607


Sounds very much like my experience, I must have been one of the last to get in from the A15 but the traffic was dire. Airshow FM were reading a press release stating it was due to "overwhelming attendance" and everything possible was being done to ease traffic flow. And suggesting that people going on Sunday time their journey's to arrive at 8am as the gates won't be opening earlier. Recipe for the same fiasco tomorrow.

I had low expectations for the static but even this was surpassed. Some decent subjects were, as usual, poorly placed (for anyone with a camera) and to add to that both Nimrod R1's & the Sentinal have a mix ground clutter parked next to them. The German and Italian Typhoons are in a good spot but for some reason there's a walkway, and therefore cones, behind them. Couldn't really photograph what little else there was on static.

Most of the flying was better, enjoyed the Vulcan, Red's and particularly the Chinook that always puts on an eneregtic display for a big helo. Main reason for going was to see the Thunderbirds, I know its not fashionable to admit it but I thought they were pretty good. Maybe not the best team in the world but a decent display overall.
Even though I was still in the car, the home team opening the show with a single E3 flyby wasn't very inspiring and the much anticipated RC flyby was indeed just that.

My first visit since '08 I think, won't be rushing back unless its to view from outside.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by klingklang »

Travelled down from lancs arrived on the base after 10 mins of waiting . Was on base for 9:00am and with minimum of fuss. Followed red route rightly or wrongly
Static was thin on the ground as previously mentioned by others.
Thunderbirds I enjoyed despite the Disney story of tales of thunderbirds etc etc. The female commentator I didn't mind and was not as bad as the commentator at Riat last year during the raptor demo .
Vulan best display since her return to the skies noise was fantastic. The Reds a class act as normal and display halted by air ambulance.
The Belgian f16 again a great demo . Thoroughly enjoyed the show wish I was going tomorrow .
Hope next yr to do both days .

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by paulb1973 »

Danny wrote:We arrived at about 8:00 and took a left off the A15 coming from the south onto the B1178. Only queued for about 30 minutes getting into the car park after crossing the runway.

Overall, the static was thin on the ground - but the flying display was very enjoyable. The Thunderbirds were excellent, shame we didn't get to see the high show though. I also thought the Chinook was very impressive and the Vulcan display was one of the better ones, with some rather tasty wingovers! :drool:



I couldn't work out if we saw the full height Thunderbirds display or the rolling one - had thought it was the full height display whilst watching it. The Red Arrows managed to bring along with them, a dark patch of cloud thus precluding their full display. The normal tip for Waddington is to arrive early - but it seems someone advised all the good people of Lincs to arrive early on Saturday. The obvious thing to do would be to open the airfield up early - but they seem content to wait until 8am. The organisers have mentioned off-base parking for earlybird arrivers - but that huge field outside the base at the Barn Farm end was still empty around 8.30am. Presumably that was filled-up by cars arriving later.

Nice to here Sean Maffett again commentating the Vulcan display - with Mike Whitehouse & Angie Hollins also behind the mic, we had the old Air Tattoo commentary team back together again, albeit briefly.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by SilentFlight »

[quote="paulb1973"].

I thought the USAF Thunderbirds were a little more spectacular compared to their last UK display (2007 at Fairford I think, which I thought was a bit drab). The first 4-ship take-off was fantastically noisy and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. The organisers had given them a 60-minute segment, which is long in anyone's book - but they managed to fit everything in within about 45-50 mins, causing the display to run a bit early seemingly leading to a few gaps.


The hour long segment is not down to us, it s the minimum they would accept, in fairness we managaed to cut them down from their 'required' 90 mins slot! During the T-Birds bit the airfield and its control is handed over to the team and only released back when they have concluded their movements. The 02 end was cleared of people as a legal requirement of their display due to crowd overflight rules.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Domvickery »

I had a great day, it started off on a bad note with the traffic management (last year I set off at the same time & was on base within 2.5hrs after leaving brum) I didnt get onto base this year until nearly 11.30.

My other gripe is with people using step ladders, one chap had a pair and he was 1 person from the fence, I lost so many shots, on a non selfish note there were also alot of children near me that couldnt see either maybe it should be brought in as a rule like RIAT to have ladders etc so far from the fence?

As for displays I thought the T-birds were fantastic, I've seen them twice before today and a few times on live airshow feeds and they left alot to be desired but today they blew me away, my ears are still ringing after that take off!

XH558s display was the best ive seen yet and I was particularly impressed with the Bronco, I hope to see it again a few times this year
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Richard E »

Positives: very spirited display by the Vulcan, first time I've seen her perform a rolling overshoot. Highlights of the static were the Andover (good catch organisers) and the German and Italian Typhoons but I did come away with the impression that our forces really are that over stretched.

Negatives: has to be the shambles getting in, almost two hours of stationary or very slow moving queuing on the A607. Did anyone else notice that the traffic control was being managed by just two contractors (?) in high-vis jackets this year rather than the police, hopefully this won't be seen as pointing fingers but I did wonder whether this contribued to the delays?

Domvickery wrote:My other gripe is with people using step ladders, one chap had a pair and he was 1 person from the fence, I lost so many shots, on a non selfish note there were also alot of children near me that couldnt see either maybe it should be brought in as a rule like RIAT to have ladders etc so far from the fence?


Had a similiar problem with a couple of people standing on chairs in the Key Publishing Enclosure: OK - you might be having a problem seeing because people in front of you are standing up but how do you expect the people behind you to be able to see?

Here's hoping for a better journey to Yeovilton next week.
Last edited by Richard E on Sun 03 Jul 2011, 7:42 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by rogerdodger »

Seems to be that Thursday/Friday traffic fiasco was an omen of things to come over the weekend :mad: :wall:
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by grant_w »

I drove up from Grantham on the A607, left there at 7:00, hit the traffic about a mile away at about 7:35ish, stop-start for a bit, then instead of being sent into the farm as usual I was sent across to the opposite side of the airfield and entered by the flying display helicopters, this was a result as we drove straight in that gate, crossed the runway back to where we would have come in if we had waited in the other queue. Then the pay-booths. This was the hold-up. Once everyone had paid or shown their tickets, all 6 lanes had to squeeze into 1, for no apparent reason. This seemed to be the only thing holding everything up. I was still parked just before 8:00 so I can't really complain, just seemed like an unnecessary hold-up when it was going to be ridiculously busy and there wasn't any need for it.

Can't complain about anything about the rest of the day, walked round the static after the flying, got back to the car at about 7:00, drove straight out. Home to Kent by 9:45

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by craig.mason »

We set off at 6.30 am to go to the show we had a half hour stop at the friendly farmer in newark and then we hit the traffic we were stuck on these roads A17/A607 for a good 1/2 hours we did not get into the show until 11.30 to top it all the coach driver got lost he turned off down manchester road in waddington and ended up parked at the end of the road in a car park on high dike so i missed the tornado role demo and station flypast .
and which bright spark decided to park the vulcan there? as the police had to move everybody out of the way move the barriers then had to put the barriers back to tow it onto the runway and had to do this again after she had displayed to move her back to behind the barriers
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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Richard E »

grant_w wrote:Then the pay-booths. This was the hold-up. Once everyone had paid or shown their tickets, all 6 lanes had to squeeze into 1, for no apparent reason.

Can't complain about anything about the rest of the day, walked round the static after the flying, got back to the car at about 7:00, drove straight out. Home to Kent by 9:45


An interesting observation which is probably correct. I was directed to a pay-booth on the left hand side of my car which would have been easier, and slightly quicker, if I'd had a passenger sitting there. In previous years didn't the service personnel collect/sell the tickets on foot which allowed them simply to walk down a queue of cars that were being held in a queue at the same time ?

You're right about getting out though.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by yellerbelly »

Took my wife for the first time and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Set off at 7.00am from Derby and arrived at the south end of the base (A15) at 8.30, queued for 30 mins and were parked by the control tower at 9.00am. We left after the Belgian F16 and got out easily to be home by 6.15pm. Static was definetly the poorest I've ever seen, but enjoyed the thunderbirds, reds and vulcan of course. Glad we didn't go today as I think it's going to be too hot with little shade. Now for RIAT.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by DerekF »

Not sure what happened about getting in. We left Cheshire at 6am and ended going down the A1 to Newark following the signs. We were in the SilverWings enclosure so we had to get to the A15 entrance. We got held up on the A607 and the A15 a little but were parked up by 8.45 or so. Sounds like we were lucky.
Getting out was very easy. we left at 5.30 and were home by 7.45pm.

I thought the flying display was excellent with the Thunderbirds putting on a fast, loud and impressive show. The Vulcan "howl" was easily upstaged by the last fast pass of the solo team Viper Hunter - that's how to display old aeroplanes. :clap: With only one fast jet solo display, it looked a bit thin and impressive as the Black cats are, I don't think they have the "wow" factor to close the show.

The static display was interesting if sparse. It it necessary to have it spread out so far? It was a long walk from one to the other with little in between. Filling out the static display with light aircraft is also disappointing.

The Silver Wings experience was, once again, excellent. Thanks to all involved.

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Re: Waddington 2011... Thoughts and comments

Post by Ian G »

A bit mixed for me. As I've put in another thread, getting in for me too was a complete mare, almost 2 hours to get in after being directed off by police on the A607. I was caught trying to get in to the North end on the A15 and it wasn't until almost 10 that we got in. Why oh why do they use those stupid booths? The amount of people who had come in one car straining to pass tickets and money through the passenger window if the booth was on the passenger side! However, I think the wait and diversion from expecting to enter through Barn Farm paid dividends as we were right near the static area and fairly near to the crowd line which meant less walking! Plus, when we decided to leave, I thought we'd be stuck in queues for ages - nope, probably took less than 10 minutes to exit! I did indeed see the two traffic patrol blokes, many people were ignoring them and they looked quite frustrated, especially when one of them almost got run over and did what I can only describe as a highland jig to get out of the way. They did announce on the radio that they had got the details wrong for blue badge holders and from what I heard there were many disgruntled disabled visitors! And I did also hear that there was a prang on the A607 so I think that's why they may have been directing us across to the A15 at that point?

I took a friend and his son for their first proper airshow and they thoroughly enjoyed it, as did I. And it was my sister's first airshow for like 12 years, she enjoyed it too, just as she remembers it. We opted to stay by the car instead of bashing and fighting our way through the crowd line. We had a bit of a walk to find someone selling programmes and down by the crowd line just by the grandstands and VIP tents there were several tents and windbreaks that weren't taken down all day. However, it was good to actually watch an airshow from the back of my car just like the old IAT days when my parents took me, rather than watch through a viewfinder all day. There were the usual trade stalls to plough through although I haven't seen the 'Madame Sarah' gypsy stand for a few years up by Alpha, what happened to her??! Good to go round the static and talk to the pilots/walk through the Sentry tho, haven't done that for years!! A pity that most things flew right to left instead of the usual left to right, even with no crosswind.

The static was indeed thin and there were perhaps a few things missing from the flying display that could have made it a little better and filled some of the gaps, but I'm not going to harp on about it as I was happy with what I saw - Thunderbirds, Team Viper (which were just b-e-a-utiful), Bronco, B17 being highlights - it's just something to expect now with airshows, a sign of the times I guess. Or clashes with other shows :whistle: Thunderbirds commentary was undecipherable to us, we couldn't understand a word she was saying it was so distorted. Or was it her accent?......

On the whole, really good day out in the end, I got a nice tan and a free pack of Yorkshire Tea too! And for £20, I really can't complain. Super value for money. Will I be back in 2012? You bet!! (although maybe a little earlier)

So take note - sort out the traffic arrangements, get rid of the ticket booths and make sure the Yorkshire Tea stand is back next year!
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