Worst Airshow

[rob68]

Taking a lead from the best airshow thread, what has been the worst or most disappointing show you've attended, probably some of the Cosford shows for me with traffic etc.

[aceyone]

Checking my notes,was Upper Heyford 6th May 1990,very hot,traffic was awful ( Bank Holiday ) and nowhere near enough flying !

Having said that quite a few Biggin Hill shows have been dire,usually due to weather !

[Airshowhammer]

Manston 2013. Sends shivers thinking about it

[The Baron]

The last Culdrose show springs to mind. Cloud so thick and so low that we couldn't see the static aircraft, let alone the runway.

[Costar1198]

Gonna agree with Airshowhammer here, Manston was horrible, was due a good few hours before the show and got there just in time to see the L29s at a naughty field, got out of the car many a time to see the Hunter and Vulcan, shame really...

[CJS]

RIAT 2008

[Big Eric]

RIAT 2008

The Kempsford ploughed bog....................



Ouch!

[SCARECROW 451]

IAT 87 Campsite was flooded I took 2 pics on the Sunday, got to about 12 then my mates said nope so a squelch back to the campsite, chucked soaked tent into car and left !

[Dan O'Hagan]

Lucky that only about three people actually turned up to Spirit Of Adventure in 2007 (?) otherwise this might be a very repetitive thread...

[Tom105]

Other than Shuttleworth August show 2014 which wasnt there fault as the weather stopped all flying, got to be farnborough 2018 and duxford september show 2013 (would have been better had the F86 flown )!

[iainpeden]

RAF Finningley in the early 1980s. The fog was so bad that the top of the Galaxy tail couldn't be seen. The only things to fly were the Tornado ADV - all you could see was the afterburner on take off - and a Shackleton which droned by, totally invisible to anybody on the ground.

[aviodromefriend]

RIAT 2008

You really attended that one?

To put in mine (well actually not one but a few, I prefer to not think back completely to compare them) Chievres 96, De Kooij '92, Cambrai '03 and all European trade shows have at least one entry in the list. Not bothered to check which year was the worst for each of the three. Swidwin '18 also didn't live up to expectations.

[spaceward]

Adverse weather aside it has to be FIA 2018 for me . I’ve attended the show many many times going back into the late 70’s but when I got back into the car I said to myself “ unless things change drastically that’s the last weekend show I’m going to” and then to confirm my thoughts FIA has done the job for me.

[Mike]

RAF Finningley in the early 1980s. The fog was so bad that the top of the Galaxy tail couldn't be seen. The only things to fly were the Tornado ADV - all you could see was the afterburner on take off - and a Shackleton which droned by, totally invisible to anybody on the ground.

1980. I flew up on the Friday in the Varsity from Duxford. Saturday was a total loss, as you say (I also remember watching a flashing beacon trundling over, which was apparently attached to a Nimrod. Sunday was a lovely sunny day for the trip home, marred by the news, as we arrived back at Duxford, of the loss of the A-26 at Biggin Hill.

[Slinger65]

Abingdon 1990 - a great programme but the A34 northbound ended up gridlocked and the massed RAF flypast was viewed from the car window as we sat helpless and stationary waiting to get in. By the time we finally got onto the field, the show was about halfway through and we were pretty much done.

Not in the same league admittedly, but the first post-Shoreham show at Old Warden - distant displays, a new fence line at the far end and the Red Arrows' display aborted due to a helicopter entering their NOTAM'd airspace.

[farnboroughrob]

Leaving weather and traffic aside, and within the context of the time mine is a 'NATO day' at Upper Heyford in 1981. Now the younger viewers would be salivating over the flying but back then it was very poor, particularly from the UK services.

Flying
USAF C-130, F-15, A-10, F-4, 5x F-111 single pass
Norwegian F-5
RAF Lightning, Jaguar, Red Arrows
static
USAF A-10,F-15,F-4,F-5, F-111
RAF Jaguar, Lightning
German F-104, F-4
Norwegian F-5
Danish Draken x2

Also went to a show at Rochester in the late 70's that was poor but that had a Vulcan and a Lightning. Civil shops in late 70's were not often great at there were very few warbirds back then.

[paulb1973]

I seem to recall a very cloudy and damp Yeovilton show about ten years ago, possibly less (c.2009-11) where very little flew - bar helicopters and the Royal Jordanian Falcons! The Vulcan went tech in the afternoon, but probably wouldn't have flown anyway due to the cloud base - cue hoards of people leaving around 3pm. We did get a French Rafale doing a brief weather check and short show from the Sea Vixen though.

The USAF Open day of 1986 at RAF Fairford (sandwiched between IAT 85 & 87) was extremely wet - just lots of rain and more rain. Then it brightened up towards the end of the day.

[farnboroughrob]

On the weather from I remember a Middle Wallop show in the 90's that had a cloud base of about 100ft. The Tornado was heard, but not seen, atleast it didn't rain!

[Andyperkins]

I seem to recall a very cloudy and damp Yeovilton show about ten years ago, possibly less (c.2009-11) where very little flew - bar helicopters and the Royal Jordian Falcons! The Vulcan went tech in the afternoon, but probably wouldn't have flown anyway due to the cloud base - cue hoards of people leaving around 3pm. We did get a French Rafale doing a brief weather check and short show from the Sea Vixen though.

The USAF Open day of 1986 at RAF Fairford (sandwiched between IAT 85 & 87) was extremely wet - just lots of rain and more rain. Then it brightened up towards the end of the day.

That Yeovilton was 2009, was my first time back there in 6 years and like you say very little flew and a huge disappointment that the Vulcan went tech then just when they said it was fixed the cloud base dropped to around 100ft which ended that.

[parsley]

Can't remember exactly which year it was now but a St Mawgan show (1985 I think)where upon entering the airfield about 9am or thereabouts the cloud was so low it was nearly touching the top of the Nimrod hangars.

The DC 3 that was doing pleasure flights that day took off and the clouds dropped again preventing it from landing so had to divert to Exeter and sit there for a few hours with it's passengers.A number of display items blew out because of the cloud base scraping the deck (from memory French Etendards and a Mirage 5 were amongst their number.The weather started to lift mid to late afternoon and very late in the day a four ship of Buccaneers arrived.

There were some reasonable static items but the flying was a write off.

[CJS]

RIAT 2008

You really attended that one?

To put in mine (well actually not one but a few, I prefer to not think back completely to compare them) Chievres 96, De Kooij '92, Cambrai '03 and all European trade shows have at least one entry in the list. Not bothered to check which year was the worst for each of the three. Swidwin '18 also didn't live up to expectations.

I had a ticket for the Saturday, then I managed to get one for the Sunday (remember when you could buy them in Lloyds Bank?!), so I feel like it counts!!

[Tommy]

Cosford 2011 was rather dismal, must be said. I’ve never seen such relentless consistent drizzle, after such a glorious summer’s day 24 hours before.

[speedbird2639]

Cosford 2011 was rather dismal, must be said. I’ve never seen such relentless consistent drizzle, after such a glorious summer’s day 24 hours before.

Then they announced there would be no more flying and almost immediately the sun came out.

[sopwithflyer]

Leaving weather and traffic aside, and within the context of the time mine is a 'NATO day' at Upper Heyford in 1981. Now the younger viewers would be salivating over the flying but back then it was very poor, particularly from the UK services.

Flying
USAF C-130, F-15, A-10, F-4, 5x F-111 single pass
Norwegian F-5
RAF Lightning, Jaguar, Red Arrows
static
USAF A-10,F-15,F-4,F-5, F-111
RAF Jaguar, Lightning
German F-104, F-4
Norwegian F-5
Danish Draken x2

Also went to a show at Rochester in the late 70's that was poor but that had a Vulcan and a Lightning. Civil shops in late 70's were not often great at there were very few warbirds back then.

The Draken was pretty much at every show back then. Such a boring thing you took it for granted and never really took much notice of it. The F1-11's too. Remember the used to do an airfield attack at some shows. Boring, Boring, Boring. Now I just wish I could see them again. Makes me laugh seeing the moaning about attendances on some threads - the posters will be saying the same one day.

[paulb1973]

No mention of the year 2000; a rotten year weather wise for RIAT (at Cottesmore) and at the Air Fete at Mildenhall. The weather gods revenge for the generally good weather of the 90s (certainly at Fairford). I drove along the M69 towards Leicestershire thinking the cloud and drizzle would naturally clear (on Sunday) but it didn't! But we did get some flying most of the time, so it wasn't a total loss. Those very heavy rain showers sweeping in on the Saturday at Mildenhall certainly live in the memory.