Yeovil Airday = poor & Vulcan

[DaveB]

I think he means shows like the annual Waddington Airshow rather than a more normal base/families day mate. I bet the RAF run the Waddington show though
Something like Waddington requires the general rubbish (eg.. you and me) to attend so that they get some dosh back. Families days are generally closed to the public (though you can stand outside and look in as I do at Benson) ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[SkippyBing]

I shall now explain everything I know about RNAS Yevilton Air Day, and air shows in general. Disclosure, I booked this years acts.

I disagree with the statics comment, in addition to the Sea Kings, we also had Dutch F-16s (four, they offered I said hell yeah), Spanish Harriers (first time in years they've actually made it), French Navy Rafale, Lynx and Hawkeye (they lost their keys and are still here), French Air Force Ralafe demo (UK Premier), Catalina, Portuguese Lynx, Gnat, German Navy Atlantique (last chance to see), Naval Strike Wing Harriers (first UK show this year with them), Apache, and some other stuff I can't remember. Within the week prior to air day we lost a NATO E-3 to operational tasking and on the Friday the RAF Nimrod went U/S. If the weather on Saturday hadn't been so poor we actually had more static aircraft booked than we had space to park. Certainly beat the **** out of Waddington.

Reference the flying display, we started with a 1500' cloud base and by the end were down to 500', I can't be ****ed to explain all the various display limitations, suffice to say no fast jets were going to display with less than 1000', the Reds may think they can do their flat display down to a 750' cloudbase but they obviously hadn't read the manual that points out there's a 650' ridgeline to the East of VLN which rather limits the options. And when the left three aircraft of the formation disappear in to cloud during a turn then it's only sensible to tell them to leave. Similarly the Frecce may have thought they could perform, but the airshow limits were clearly 1000' cloud base for fast jet show, should that have been broken just to keep the public happy? Airshows have a five times higher accident rate than normal flying because people have made that sort of decision in the past.

As to the visiting crews appreciating the hospitality, all the guys I spoke to in the bar afterwards said how much they were enjoying the party, so we must have done something right. Not sure where you got the information about the Frecce, but there was no lunch time catering in the wardroom during air day for logistics reasons, they certainly shouldn't have paid for the food as they had participants passes and the accommodation issue was well understood months ago as they're staying in the country until RIAT and there's no way VLN could subsidise the extra nights.

Families days, don't charge admission and are therefore subject to a completely different sent of rules.

Commercial partners helping run an airshow is quite frankly the only sane way to do it, without them either I would now be personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in overspend on accommodation, policing, fuel and aircraft, or we'd have to have a full time team of several SO2s and 3s. The mandate is that VLN runs it's airday at a profit, quite frankly service personnel have no real training in how to do that, the profit is split between Naval Charities and the commercial partner. Yes it does cause friction, it's not perfect, but having slagged it off before I joined the air day team I'm now convinced it's the only practical way to do it without fiddling the books to hide a huge overspend and have service personnel attempting to do something that's better left to experts. Other air shows may not have this sort of arrangement, however there has been increased scrutiny of the finances over the last few years and it may well bite them in the ass in the near future.

To sum up in the words of Mitch the Belgian F-16 display pilot it was a nearly excellent show that would have been excellent with the right weather. I may be f*****g awesome but even I can't control that.

[DaveB]

Y E S

I think the 'thrust' of that should've been directed at chockhead819 (either an ex or serving waffoo by all accounts.. my memory doesn't go back that far) rather than the wider audience (we all know here that you were responsible.. largely if not completely for the display) who's main contribution was the lack of XH558 again

Don't take it to heart mate. You of all folk know what waffoo's are like ;-) Excuse the misspelling but it is better understood by non-naval types that way ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[forthbridge]

To sum up in the words of Mitch the Belgian F-16 display pilot it was a nearly excellent show that would have been excellent with the right weather. I may be f*****g awesome but even I can't control that.

I think that's the real point (for myself anyway). I couldn't even comprehend the logistics of an airshow. I know Leuchars relies on sponsorship for certain aspects of the event, and it's not surprising. In reality, it's probably right to go ahead with the event in most conditions (obviously following minimums rules), but for the public, it's frustrating 'not' to see what they thought they would. I've been up at Leuchars several times in less then ideal weather, but actually, when I'm there, then if the conditions are poor, theres' no point griping even if it's annoying and depressing... but being a moaning Scotsman, the thought of fewer displays (not helped by looking at old Programmes from the show and seeing displays appear and vanish from the site (Harrier, Tornado)) - and in particular less than ideal weather, then I'm liable to have a real whining session at the potential for a 'poor' day. In reality I know the risk if I decide to attend, and take that into account. I've seen enough abandoned displays over the years and know what the reason is. While it may be disappointing, I'd rather wait until the weather is kind enough than see any rules broken and safety issues waived.

It's perhaps a 'theme' of today's weather that so many events seem to get hit these days.. or our memory is playing tricks ;-)

We're truly lucky that we have the ability to attend these events - long may they continue :flying:
..and I don't think our preoccupation with moaning about the weather and looking back with the rose-tinted goggles will change either.... ;-)

Anyway, I'm down in Dorset in August, so I'll make sure I make another visit to Yeovilton just for the fun of it - always good!

**Edit: and having seen the look, and spoken to aircrew of abandoned displays, I know they are probably more peed off than the public - and, if I think how annoying it is if I get weathered off for some task like cutting the hedge or grass, I can imagine what it's like when you organise an event like an airshow only for circumstances to conspire against it!

[chockhead819]

Well cloud level very low, most fixed wing cancelled. - I UNDERSTAND BEING AN EX-WOO, BUT NO REAL EXPLANATION TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

At least I saw the vixen which is what I wanted to see. BEST BIT APART FROM FALCONS & RAFALE


very poor static display unless you like seakings. IMHO THEY TOOK UP TOO MUCH OF THE STATIC PARK, THE JET PARK IN FRONT OF 846 LOOKED EMPTY.


RNHF which was advertised not flying only sea fury static but with covers on! THIS WAS THE REAL PISSER FOR ME -(FALSE ADVERTISING MAYBE?)


Many people turned up to see the Vulcan & many left disappointed. There were a lot of muttering from VTTS Supporters saying they had been let down again & is it getting to the stage where its just a white elephant. One guy next to me said he had donated to the cause & had gone to 5 shows but still hadn't seen it fly because of the many techincal problems.
THIS WAS MEANT AS A GENERAL STATEMENT - COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT IT TO BE HONEST.


There were alleged behind the scenes rumblings as well, Freece Tricolori didn't fly but wanted to go, they were informed that they couldn't. So they approached the private company who run the show for food & accomadation for the extra time, they were refused. The pilots went to the wardroom for a meal but it hadn't been arranged, so end up eating in the Junior rates dining hall & being charged for the priveledge.

THAT WOULD BE TELLING BUT WAS TOLD AT 7-30PM SATURDAY NIGHT JUST AFTER THE AIRFIELD CLOSED.

i do understand about the complex nature of airday, i worked in the airday office during the time RN ran the show & had to deal with food,accom,traders, static areas, general public on a daily basis etc. Being a chockhead not a writer this was the biggest shock to the system of my RN career doing a job so totally out of trade.
But Hey Ho what would life be liked if matelots didn't drip!!

[SkippyBing]

Well cloud level very low, most fixed wing cancelled. - I UNDERSTAND BEING AN EX-WOO, BUT NO REAL EXPLANATION TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

Well our feedback from the general public has been generally positive and understanding.

very poor static display unless you like seakings. IMHO THEY TOOK UP TOO MUCH OF THE STATIC PARK, THE JET PARK IN FRONT OF 846 LOOKED EMPTY.

Sea Kings were there for the 40th Anniversary celebrations, the Jet park was probably the best for variety of any show bar RIAT this year, it would have been full but there were a number of cancellations on Saturday morning due to the weather. True there were no Tornados, but that wasn't for lack of trying as invites were sent to every fast jet unit in the UK, if they couldn't make it there's not a lot we can do to magic up an aircraft. The Typhoon display pilot said we had the best display of jets, flying and static, of any show he'd been to this year so far.

RNHF which was advertised not flying only sea fury static but with covers on! THIS WAS THE REAL PISSER FOR ME -(FALSE ADVERTISING MAYBE?)

The RNHF have had serviceability issues this year, the problem with the advertising is that the copy is prepared well in advance and a judgement call has to be made on what will be available. Ironically the website is probably the slowest thing to update as it's all done via the RN's web contractor who seems to only work one day a month.

THAT WOULD BE TELLING BUT WAS TOLD AT 7-30PM SATURDAY NIGHT JUST AFTER THE AIRFIELD CLOSED.

I'd be genuinely interested to know, my sources are as high as you can get in the VL air day organisation so if we haven't heard it it's not going to get fixed.

Interestingly the enthusiasts at UK Airshow Review, who make me look as if I only have a very fleeting interest in aircraft, have been generally upbeat about VL, recognising that most of the short comings were due to events out of our control, i.e. the weather and a magnificently incompetent traffic manager in one of the car parks.

[chockhead819]

Maybe the fact it was my first VL airday since the 80s, made me feel disappointed about things in general. I did enjoy the Hangar displays.
Maybe it was just me regarding the cloud base, all I heard was it was "yellow 1" but just as at Portland you know when flying is going to be dodgy.

BTW do you know if Roger Bevan (ex-Lt Cdr still around at Yeovil?)I have heard from him for over a year, he was FDO on Invincible.

[SkippyBing]

Oh, since the 80s all air shows have shrunk, I wouldn't try to compare the two it's just too depressing.

Roger is still around as the Air Staff Officer, runs the stationary cupboard like a tyrant!

[jab]

Some people can be quite ungrateful at times :@ As I was not there was the Sea Vxien display any good?

James