“Your Questions Answered” - RAF Cosford Airshow Debrief

[Tommy]

Hot on the heels of our RIAT YQA podcast, we’ve also extended this out to RAF Cosford Airshow, too.

We will be interviewing Sqn Ldr Chris Wilson (who was on our preview podcast a few weeks ago) once the dust has settled to debrief on the 2024 show and look ahead to 2025. Chris is currently the Media Officer for the RAF Cosford Airshow, but will assume the role of Ops Director for the 2025 air show so have even more responsibility!

We hope for this to be a full and frank debrief, warts and all, and, again, as we’re always looking for exclusives we can offer the forum members, we’re pleased to open the floor to all of you.

As Chris is media officer, we can ask about anything and everything for the show (tickets, traffic, aircraft, the lot) and he’ll do his best to answer them subject to usual caveats (sensitive info, etc).

We will be giving Chris a chance to breathe, and for the dust to settle and the pennies to be counted, so please provide your questions by 26th July and we’ll get together with him towards then, or in early August.

Once again, use it or lose it, guys. Over to you!

Best wishes,

Tom

[capercaillie]

Why did it take so long to acknowledge the Rafale wasn't coming on social media when they are all over it for every other little "giggle"? Nobody was blaming Cosford, but it made no sense to not say.

Who decided on emojis being the way to announce acts?

[jasonT1981]

Was there ever any discussions about the Gnat doing a flypast with the Red Arrows in regards to the 60th anniversary or did the Gnat addition come too late to put anything together?

Are you aware that many in the Cosford Club were unable to see quite a lot of the Chinooks demo due to the Gazelles being in front of them, thus blocking all the ground action that was happenning during the demo?

[LittleRedTrain]

Is there are any way you could improve the provision for mobility-impaired customers arriving by train?
Some people, like my wife, can manage the stairs from the station platform but need a mobility scooter to get around the showground.

At the moment, there is no direct pedestrian access from the railway station to the EventMobility scooter hire location in the Disabled Car Park, you have to walk all the way to the pedestrian entrance and double-back (about 3/4 mile).

Could an on-demand golf-cart or similar service be made available?

[patrouille2001]

Please More Toilets, There was many waiting to go to the toilet, I missed The French Air Force Extra. Plus meet the Pilots tent and also what about roading in aircraft like 2018 ie: Black Mike. Cheers

[106500]

On the toilets issue, there were lots of long queues at the men’s but upon getting inside there were often lots of available unused urinals. It was clear that users failed to realise this was the case, hence the queues. A simple sign on the exterior as to the number of these would suffice and avoid unnecessary queuing. Hope this helps.

[Peregrine]

Would you consider a dedicated photography area for the static display? Somewhere to park some of the items with a clean background and the barriers a little further back? Similar to what has been done at RIAT with the stars of the static being parked up at the western end away from most of the showground clutter.

I loved the effort that was put on by lining up all the Jaguars but found it impossible to find a composition where there weren't people in the way of the jets further along the line.

[Woodford_was_wicked]

Who do you actually approach to try and secure an act? Does each air force have a dedicated "social secretary" or is there a lot of personal networking going on to try and find someone with influence who may be able to order something juicy be sent?

Similar for private acts, do you just ring up and ask how much they want to attend? How do you decide who and how many to ask, assuming you don't want to ask too many and risk over booking but assuming not everyone will say yes (at acceptable fees)!

[BossMann]

What I would like to know is why does he think the Cosford airshow struggles to get foreign military participation whereas all the other military foreign air force shows and others such as sanicole don't.

Why are foreign air forces not sending abundant assets to the RAFs only show? what is his plan to do and try and change this ? does he even want to change this? Cosford as the RAFs only show should be a military show

Why is the RAF not supporting the show better both in the air and on the ground? only a Juno and a Tutor on static this year, plus the addition of the a400m pair/ Hawk t2/ A330 flypasts. Look at what the RAF is providing for RIAT on static

[DeanW]

In the podcast interview it was interesting to note that Cosford do not request specific assets when sending invites out to air arms.

Considering the limitations of Cosford in terms of runway length and static display area, is this approach not to the detriment of the show by not aiming for the assets that would help deliver the strongest possible show for Cosford, while also potentially providing further variety year on year?

[MiG_Eater]

As I mentioned on the earlier thread I was basically flabbergasted to hear from the podcast that the Cosford team weren't absolutely hammering the phones when the Danish show cancelled. Whilst Peter Reoch was at the helm we saw some absolutely incredible display line ups at Cosford - I hate to be cynical, but are the airshow team resting on their laurels with consistent sell outs? If not - then why has the quality of participation declined so appreciably since then, whilst other airshows have not suffered in the same way?

On a practical front, I wonder if the depth of the crowdline has been considered? It was absurdly busy and I think giving more space would improve things drastically.

Finally, although I know this was mentioned on the podcast - surely the overall benefit of having the show over two days would be a net benefit? Whilst I understand the extra effort of having the airfield unavailable for an additional day - surely the extra money raised via tickets, and the increase in visibility for the RAF would be a vastly bigger positive?

[Cole]

Just a quick one for now!

Why aren't the Blast Pens used for statics anymore?

imo its the best static location at a UK show and it isnt utilised anymore?

[georgemac]

What I would like to know is why does he think the Cosford airshow struggles to get foreign military participation whereas all the other military foreign air force shows and others such as sanicole don't.

Why are foreign air forces not sending abundant assets to the RAFs only show? what is his plan to do and try and change this ? does he even want to change this? Cosford as the RAFs only show should be a military show

Why is the RAF not supporting the show better both in the air and on the ground? only a Juno and a Tutor on static this year, plus the addition of the a400m pair/ Hawk t2/ A330 flypasts. Look at what the RAF is providing for RIAT on static

The RAF sends very little to foreign shows ,that is one of the reasons .

[BossMann]

What I would like to know is why does he think the Cosford airshow struggles to get foreign military participation whereas all the other military foreign air force shows and others such as sanicole don't.

Why are foreign air forces not sending abundant assets to the RAFs only show? what is his plan to do and try and change this ? does he even want to change this? Cosford as the RAFs only show should be a military show

Why is the RAF not supporting the show better both in the air and on the ground? only a Juno and a Tutor on static this year, plus the addition of the a400m pair/ Hawk t2/ A330 flypasts. Look at what the RAF is providing for RIAT on static

The RAF sends very little to foreign shows ,that is one of the reasons .

Hasn't the RAF sent flying displays ( Reds/ Typhoon/ Falcons/ BBMF ) to shows in Canada, USA, Norway, Sweden, Czech republic, Slovakia, Portugal, France, Ireland in recent years / this year? haven't seen any of the above air arms apart from French supporting the RAFs only official show?

I guess another question would be how are the team at RAF Cosford going to try to attract more foreign displays to the show? what are they going to be doing differently to what happened this year?

[Tommy]

Similar to the RIAT questions thread - if everyone could please keep this one to questions only, that’d be tops.

(It risks becoming a lot of needless extra work trying to sift through questions and answers if it’s a free for all)

[bishbashbosh]

This year definitely an improvement over last year, but the same questions remain:

• Why is so little space given to the crowdline - it’s cramped, uncomfortable, and would be dangerous in an emergency.
• Why are the blast pens no longer used?

[st24]

Why not go for a 2 day show? It's a huge event now and way too big to see in one day. Also 50k people crammed into a relatively small space (and even more so at the front of the line) is quite overwhelming. Perhaps put a ceiling of (say) 35-40k each day- more comfortable and higher income?

The Saturday could be the same day as the King's Birthday flypast and most elements could appear after the London bash.. A great way to get maximum RAF types in the show, albeit on one day..

[Dom.]

That was answered in our Cosford podcast

[MiG_Eater]

It was answered, but I found the answer pretty unconvincing. The benefits would be enormous and the cost (an extra day working around the airshow build up) doesn't appear insurmountable.

I really hate to say it but although i'm sure the guys at Cosford put time and effort into the show, it does feel a little bit like there's a problem for every solution. Its a good show - but it could be so much better.

[BossMann]

As was mentioned on the post show podcast why is the show on a Sunday and not a Saturday with most people going back to work on Monday and kids going back to school maybe having the show on a Saturday would be better?

[rdchawk]

As was mentioned on the post show podcast why is the show on a Sunday and not a Saturday with most people going back to work on Monday and kids going back to school maybe having the show on a Saturday would be better?

You would then have volunteers giving up more work time and leave to attend and help build the site etc.

[jasonT1981]

With the shows cancelled in 2020 and 2021, with one of them trying for a September show but not being able to make it work. How advanced was the planning at the time of shows being cancelled, can you share any insights on what we might have expected for those shows such as themes or aircraft that had expressed interest in being there?

Where did the idea for the Jaguar "Cat walk" come from? This was surely a highlight of the static and is there any plans to repeat it in the future or do the same with other aircraft types?

[Tommy]

Bump on this. Now that RIAT’s out of the way, I’m getting things back on with this.

I’m happy to open the floor for a further week or so if anyone has any burning questions.

[jasonT1981]

Just wondering if this is still happenning?

[Dom.]

Yep