Cosford Airshow 2024 - 9th June 2024

[georgemac]

There is a photo on face book of the offending people , they should have been escorted out of the show .

Can you share a link by any chance? Not found anything when trying to find it.

it is on a group called original RIAT nutters .

[jasonT1981]

There is a photo on face book of the offending people , they should have been escorted out of the show .

Can you share a link by any chance? Not found anything when trying to find it.

it is on a group called original RIAT nutters .

Wasn't the nutters group I saw it in first. It was posted there yes, but was not the origional source of the post. Can't remember exactly what group it was, but deff wasn't nutters at the time.

I would share however it has not blurred the people in questions faces. So unsure if UKAR Admin would allow it.

[jasonT1981]

Finally home. exhausted but an enjoyable weekend.

I do have to say, crowd behaviour at Cosford was the worst I had seen there. I was in the Cosford club and there were so many mannerless crettins.

I was front row in my seat right up at the mesh wire fence. A lot of the time people would just walk up, try to push the fencing forward a bit and stand directly in front of you.

There were also idiots who stood the entire time along the front, blocking those sitting at the front including someone with a 5ft tripod and 2 or 3 cameras attatched blocking views of aircraft coming down the flightline and people just pushing their way to the front without so much as an "excuse me".

Never seen behaviour like that in the Cosford club. It is usually a very well mannered location. But at least it didn't end in a shouting match like the first RIAT back after Covid lol

Purely out of interest.. is there much space in the Cosford club or is it packed with folk?

It's busy, but not overly packed. Usually crowd disappears as soon as the Reds finish but this year it didn't empty quite as quickly.

Every year I arrive apx 10:45am (earliest I can get in due to train times) and been able to pull up a seat at the crowdline mesh fence.

This year was a weird set-up though, it seemed to share food/drink vendors and toilets with the other enclosure for photography, or at least looked like it did going by the way the barriers were laid out.

[aceyone]

[removed]

Mods please delete if inappropriate .

[Tommy]

Removed. No problem for anyone who a posted but I’m quietly wary of breaches of privacy and I generally dislike people taking shots of others without consent and then laughing about them online (I’m sure no-one here would like it to happen to any of us!). Even if they may (apparently) deserve it at times.

It’s a no-consequence event that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, so let’s leave that sort of curtain twitching to Facebook?

Sad to see reports of such rudeness and stupidity (if true) though.

[aceyone]

Removed. No problem for anyone who a posted but I’m quietly wary of breaches of privacy and I generally dislike people taking shots of others without consent and then laughing about them online (I’m sure no-one here would like it to happen to any of us!). Even if they may (apparently) deserve it at times.

It’s a no-consequence event that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, so let’s leave that sort of curtain twitching to Facebook?

Sad to see reports of such rudeness and stupidity (if true) though.

Absolutely

[jasonT1981]

Was Cosford the first airshow flying appearance for an RAF Chinook HC5?

I don't think anyone has picked up on that yet here, but I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they use an HC5 at RIAT and Farnborough too - the better looking of the RAF Chinook variants.

I believe they said it was over the speakers.

[jamyt123]

Anyone know why the tutor had to abort their display?

Not entirely sure if this was the issue but there seemingly was a crowd incident yesterday where 2 people crossed the crowd line fences and sat airside...

I think the tutor had to hold/abort due to the catalina and upcoming typhoon display actually:

On the comms Cosford Display said that the catalina was taxing and had a wing tip over the runway, hence the grob holding before eventually being told to land due to timings.

As the show was running behind schedule, and they had to get the catalina display up and down before the Typhoon ran in at 3pm if I remember.

Typhoon was already approaching the hold even before the catalina display started - who was given 8 minutes, which it definitely seemed longer than! Typhoon did mention fuel amounts whilst holding, so it might have been a bit tighter than the team envisioned!

[JonG96]

2025 confirmed for Sunday 8th June 2025.
Tickets coming soon according to the website.
Let’s hope next year is another great year!

[jasonT1981]

Ok, now it is done and dusted.

A great step up from 2023. The only downside was the weather.

My favourites were - A400s & A330 flypasts. Rich Goodwin. French Mirage, Gnat and Sally B.

My only real complaint regarding the flying is visability of Chinooks role demo. Sadly with aircraft parked right in front of the crowd, it blocked a lot of what the Chinook was doing in regards to dropping the canon off, offloading troops, quad bikes and picking them up again etc. You could only see the top of the Chinook with the rest blocked.

Typhoon didn't really have much bite to it this year, sorry. F35 was nice to see a full demo but I didn't think it was overly 'punchy' but it is the first time ever performing it so it was still great to see.

Start of French Mirage display I was wondering what was going on. It seemed so far away but then it got good, and loud!

Oh, another issue with flying, did anyone else notice some displays were very high or far out? Noticed mostly with the JP.

Static layout is still all over the place on Cosford and it is hard to see everything.

Overall a good weekend and everything scheduled on the day appeared. I do think I will return, but like this year I won't be buying tickets right away, it will be a much later decission.

[JonG96]

I’m going to bet the Rafale will be at Cosford next year because the French will feel bad for cancelling this year

[st24]

Some of the displays were obviously better than others and it's obviously very subjective but overall a great display with a varied selection of stuff. It's interesting seeing it through the eyes of my partner who comes with a very different set of criteria compared to what an enthusiast would.

My main complaint is generally with crowdline ettiquette. If the tents, windbreaks and other fortifications were banned there might be a little bit more space. The person to our left had a set of ludicrous lenses/penis extensions, and was pushing forward so far that it was bending the mesh barrier. Every display, inching forward a bit more. My brother in Christ just relax dude, no-one is looking at your pictures other than you. The irony was he really wasn't enjoying most of the of the displays and he spent more time with his head down in his camera looking grumpy than he did enjoying anything. Then suddenly.... Boom! Leaping forwad, bending the barrier and snap snap snap ruining everyone's view. And the folks on our right were a proper crew of gammons who spent the entire afternoon after the Red Arrows display complaining about how it's POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD/THE WOKE MAFIA RUINING EVERYTHING/LEFTIST SCUMBAGS DICTATING SOCIETY because the formation name is now Hanna rather than 'Gypo' (thank gods, it was always utterly cringe that they were still using 'Gypo' and has been for decades). I have never witnessed a crowd of grown adult men defend their pitch so violently from kids who wanted to push forward a bit to see certain displays.

I don't get a chance to attend many shows throughout the year as I'm busy most weekends with work commitments and the last show I did was Flying Legends when it was up at Church Fenton and everyone was utterly lovely. Not so much here!

So yes... Show was great. The people? Not so much.

Wow...Some post....!!

Another decent family day out for us weather apart (which was actually a little better than I'd expected). Must admit, first time we've ever had issues getting in, a good 45 mins to join the A41 from my little (not so secret) secret back way in. Usually no more than 10 mins.
Conversely getting out was a doddle, especially as they let you turn right out of the main gate rather than funnelling everyone left to the M54 island.
Crowd line is a joke and not a nice place to be, even more so when your'e next to Quixoticish and can't have a good rant or bash everyone with my enormous lens...(!)
But seriously the number of people crammed in with all their stuff along with ice cream vans, food vendors and toilets...horrible.
Stafford air cadets had 2 huge gazebos there too, taking up way too much room-not good.
Echo most of what's been said re static and flying. Good to see a "fat" Chinook dangling a big gun but once on the deck there's not much to see unless you're crammed at the front- to be honest I thought they'd pick something else up after disgorging the troops. Typhoon very flat - final pass from crowd front to vertical seemed to be over Halfpenny Green, Reds better now with 9, big 9 entry different but the "60" doesn't quite work, perhaps wind/clouds stole the moment (as it did with the French extra smiley face and heart). CD (and the other pairs tactical displays I've seen) have always taken a lot of space to position; though perhaps a tad distant it didn't seem much different to previous times. At the end of day it's 2 gorgeous camo (even though one was unmarked ! ) pretty rare fast jets just tearing the place up, what's not to love? What was good to see was the RAF actively supporting THEIR airshow for a change , and yes the Atlas pair over the trees looked great, as did the Falcons tumbling out of the back of a third ( all 3 in numerical order too!) More please - surely a Poseidon and a Globemaster could drop by, shame to see the home team Tutors not doing a welcome flypast. F-35 was good but only really from a novelty point of view, high alpha particularly very impressive and some decent lashings of the loud pedal.
Supporting cast good, some nice varied flying and fair play to the Swordfish crew who must have got drenched on their transit flights. As others have said, refreshing to see everything that made the final list turn up on the day. Bravo.
On the ground there's no denying Cosford is a big show that's crying out to be a 2 day affair. As I've said many times, imagine a Saturday show that captures most elements of the KBF - what a way to present the RAF to the public.
With the (notably few) dragged out museum aircraft, the DSAE airframes and the visitors there were nigh on 70 aeroplanes on static which isn't to be sniffed at but they seem to get lost in all the paraphernalia of such a large show, shame. Shame too that it looks as though the revetment area is now totally out of bounds, again, a great shame as some (the only?) really decent photos were possible there.
We enjoyed it again as we do most years and this was much better effort to last years, Patrouille Suisse aside. This is the last military airshow in the UK and I feel almost ridiculous saying that given the pedigree it has and how bizarre it sounds to say. We need it and need to support it.

[capercaillie]

even more so when your'e next to Quixoticish and can't have a good rant or bash everyone with my enormous lens...(!)

You would have done if you didn't keep stopping to look at your pics between each pass. And are you sure it was a lens.....?

[Stagger2]

Definitely an enormous Lens, anything else is in the Macro range!
Once again the old adapted adage prevails, It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it! Fundamental photography skills are essential imo?

[st24]

even more so when your'e next to Quixoticish and can't have a good rant or bash everyone with my enormous lens...(!)

And are you sure it was a lens.....?

Hard to tell these days mate, hanging there, battered from previous use, difficult to extend, not getting out very often...

[capercaillie]

even more so when your'e next to Quixoticish and can't have a good rant or bash everyone with my enormous lens...(!)

And are you sure it was a lens.....?

Hard to tell these days mate, hanging there, battered from previous use, difficult to extend, not getting out very often...

Ah yes, I remember the scar you showed me on the shaft at Old warden.

[st24]

even more so when your'e next to Quixoticish and can't have a good rant or bash everyone with my enormous lens...(!)

And are you sure it was a lens.....?

Hard to tell these days mate, hanging there, battered from previous use, difficult to extend, not getting out very often...

Ah yes, I remember the scar you showed me on the shaft at Old warden.

Made worse by you and Andy extending your pristine examples with ease when needed....

[UK Airshow Review]

• "French Dressing" - Dominic Vickery attended the 2024 show to find out how it lived up to expectations.