RIAT 2019

[mark_aviation]

A joke at West today... Been here since 0530 in the queue with the hope of getting near the front of the queue to buy tickets. We asked some RIAT staff how to buy tickets and he said they’ll be coming down the queue, first come, first serve, but there is VERY limited numbers. Ticket seller just came out of the tent, tickets in hand and got absolutely mobbed. People who have been here early since 5am won’t get tickets, but people who got here at 7am and jumped the queue have got tickets.... Absolute shambles. Reflects the whole planning of this years event...

I got in just after 6am and am about 100m from the tent. I just walked down as I saw people selling something and got ticket about 10 mins ago.

People should be well ahead of me if they got in at 5:30.

I meant I joined the car queue at 0530, I was in the standing queue just after 0600, probably about 100 people back.

[Go4Long]

Romanians taxiing, looks like the Turkish might try to get out early canopies are up.

[Seahornet]

The F16 doesn't have a hydraulic tail hook so, if it was deployed, it would be down on landing which was not the case. The pilot likely saw a deployment indicator caused by the vibration and reported it as such.

Even at high transonic, a deployed hook wouldn't cause turbulence to damage the taileron like that. I'm still going for delam initiated by high G transonic manoeuvring but the official report will tell us soon enough. The main thing is that no further high G flight was performed and he landed safely.

Excellent info. I will use it to win arguments on the internet. Lol

Agreed, can't argue with any of that!

[T6NL]

I was just using the portaloo as the Fin F18 took off. Trying to aim it through the afterburner shake was a whole new experience

[FGR2]

IL-76 being pulled out by the tug.

[G-CVIX]

Sadly they haven't removed the orange display centre marker this year.

[vbombers2]

Did anyone buy the pilots helmet the Romanians were selling? A snip at £500.

[bobby 1211]

can someone give me the departure times?

[Ewart]

can someone give me the departure times?

At a rough none scientific count there is 169ish aeroplanes on the list. (This takes into account the x3 Typhoons x2 Grobs etc)

I'm sure if you ask nicely for a specific aeroplane someone will give you a rough time.

But the entire list?! That will take me longer to type than the time that is left in the day.

[rockfordstone]

so finally got round to collating my thoughts on the show.

Whilst I had an enjoyable time, something felt very off. the flying standard was high as always, but the programmes all seemed very lopsided.

The static to me felt all over the place (the Su-27 for example just felt lost and out of place) and just felt like it was missing something .

I wrote a number of my gripes on the other post, but whilst i didn't hate the show, it wasn't my favourite one. It has left me considering whether i will go next year.

[Frogfoot]

Is anyone able to provide me with a copy of an aircraft checklist, please?

[JJC]

My quick take:

- Contributions and participation from modern military assets/airforces absolutely superb. Some truly stunning displays in the air and some great aircraft and friendly crews in the static. Hard to pick any favourites, I thought the modern military contributions were all excellent with some super contrasts in display styles from the fast jets in particular. Too much quality to pick anything out, enjoyed everything on display bar the ridiculous ‘8 spinning propellers’.

- NATO flypast was blink and you’ll miss it. Cancellations unavoidable, but I doubt the A400M and Tornado would’ve made too much difference. None of the 3 D-Day F-15s...? The quartet of F-16s was great though, a chance to see some of the rarer European operators in the air (however briefly). Would’ve been good to see the F-15s based from Fairford too.

- Nothing to more to say about the abysmal PR/questionable approach to Sunday and buildup this year. Really didn’t hit the mark this year and I must say that the buildup felt flat, despite the weekend being actually rather excellent in the ends.

- The Space theme felt as flat as a pancake. Themes should reflect the aircraft/be reflected in the aircraft on show. Thankfully NATO 70 made up for that, otherwise potentially could’ve been a much weaker lineup.

- Red queue - as said above, ridiculous on Saturday. Car parking stewards ushered us into the general parking area on Saturday, despite us having my dad’s blue badge on display and stopping to ask one of the attendants which way to go on the way in.

- Static felt totally disjointed and awkwardly positioned. Felt like you could walk for fair distances without any aircraft of note at all (from the Su-27 in Red to the B-52 in Blue, for example) and a lot of those on display felt wedged into random/awkward positions. As said above, felt like an ‘event ground’ with the aircraft fitted where they could. C-17s and B-52 were parked quite nicely.

In summation:
- Participation: good
- Organisation: room for improvement

Nothing more to say other than a massive thank you to all of the crews and nations for their participation! RIAT wouldn’t exist without this continued support from the regulars and newcomers alike.

[DOUGHNUT]

Frogfoot, good list on Threashold Aero's website, expect it will be updated later to show departure times.

www.threshold.aero/RIAT_19_live_arrivals

[vbombers2]

Departures being delayed by Brize at the moment.

[197cup]

Yes it sounds like they’re having real issues with departures, the phantoms are shutting down to refuel I believe.

[FGR2]

The F-4s have just been taxied up by P&V West .

[197cup]

Turkish Phantoms are looking for a 2pm departure.

[Go4Long]

The F-4s have just been taxied up by P&V West .

Not sure if it was them I just heard, but it sounded like it was them saying they needed more fuel before they could depart now...Brize was not accepting departures thee for a while. M

[FGR2]

A later departure is ok for me. Weather is supposed to be improving.

[Go4Long]

The F-4s have just been taxied up by P&V West .

Not sure if it was them I just heard, but it sounded like it was them saying they needed more fuel before they could depart now...Brize was not accepting departures thee for a while. M

[G-CVIX]

Starting to get a little worrying with how late everything is now. At this rate, the enclosures could be shut when the best stuff leaves.

Any reason why brize wouldn't accept traffic? Volume?

[Mr Benn]

I finally manage to do RIAT (only took me 22 years) Swindon Shuttle bus was brilliant got the first one same as one or two others on here, it took about 40mins and straight in, firstly I was overwhelmed by it all but had a few quiet talks to myself to calm myself down,

Put it this way - I got throught 550 shots so cant be bad.

So all in all not a bad day out for someone who suffers with anxiety of crowded places and people.

Thats brilliant and well done mate. Especially getting on the bus, and then just going for it. You should be very proud of yourself.

Now you have to set another target...and just take it one step at a time if that helps. I found that helped me. Instead of just saying i cant go to riat, i just started doing smaller trips on the motorway, and just went further and further each time.

Let us all know how you get on

[mark_aviation]

Anyone got any news on the B-52?

[Brevet Cable]

- NATO flypast was blink and you’ll miss it.

Which NATO flypast......it was so disjointed, with such a long delay between each element that it may just as well have been referred to as a series of individual Nations flypasts.
The RAFAT-PdeF, RAFAT-B747 & Blades-A400 flypasts were much better.

But then, the term disjointed could be applied to the Saturday as a whole -- looooong gaps between most of the displays throughout the day.

Commentary was hit-and-miss again....most spectacular miss was when they were too busy waffling on to realise the Belgian F-16s were running in for their flypast....it's a bit late telling the punters "If you look to the left" when the bloody things are already halfway along the runway!

Harriers.... And well done for remembering that the crowdline doesn't just exist in front of the grandstands

[197cup]

What a great RIAT I can’t believe how fast 6 days have gone by. Really have a bad case of the RIAT blues.