Royal International Air Tattoo 2011

Anyone know when the arrivals are as I may be able to get a day off during the week to go have a sit in a local pub and watch.
Wednesday to Friday mainly. Thursday will be the busiest for arrivals, Friday is a mix of arrivals and display validations.
 
RNAS yeovilton, should be good this year, no Vulcan this time tho :(

It's on the list for the Vulcans shows this year as 'Confirmed' :confused:

The A-10 I'm very much looking forward to hearing and seeing, such an epic plane!

Fingers crossed for the Vulcan I guess,
 
I'm going with the Mrs and her Dad, looking forward to my first airshow! (Even if RAF Cosford is just up the road)
airshows are great :D i've only ever been to the sunderland one though :(

the first year i moved to newcastle they had a F-117 Nighthawk doing a fly past on its way back to wherever but i didnt go that year something i really regret :(

ive always wanted to see a B1 though seems they go RIAT every year
 
I'll be going, but I don't know what day yet, I'll wait until I can see a weather forecast for that weekend and I'll choose the day that has the least amount of rain!


Remember it's a ticket in advance event. Your best bet if you want to leave it late regarding what day you go is to get a sat or sun ticket, bit more expensive but....

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The person looking for a campsite, I'd suggest Kempsford if they still have pitches left, it's the closest campsite to the gates, you can camp touching fence however the views arn't so good as tottersdown but that is a fair walk from that campsite to the entrance gates.

I'm getting to kempsford campsite on the friday, show on the sunday and departures on the monday, can't wait, six of us going.

Bring on blue skys and no dirty white clouds.


A-10 the highlight so far I think, the make a real cool noise.
 
Not going this year. Been the last two and apart from the A10 theres not a lot that I've not seen in the last two years. Just seems to be loads of F16's

not worth the 2 hour traffic queue to get in.

I'm going to goto Yeovilton instead, the queue should be smaller andits half the price.
 
Vulcan now confirmed as attending RIAT 2011 :cool:

:D :D :D

It couldn't attend Cosford this year due to poor weather! (Sunday, Yesterday) so I'm glad I went away for the weekend after all..!
 
Anyone from OcUK fancy a little meet? I'm there for 4 days (Fri - Mon) working with the Red Arrows.

I'll have the ability to get you air side an I'll give you a little tour of a Red Arrows jet and if the pilots are there at the time you could meet them too.

:)
 
I wish more big European airshows would do what a lot of American shows do - they dont cordon of the planes behind barriers.

At shows across the pond you can tramp right through a C17, walk up to an A10 and stick your finger in one of the Gatling gun barrels or lean on an Apache and talk to the gunner about what its like flying in that helo.

3854103213_64d63e09b1_z.jpg

Picture:Flickr

Im sure it also wrecks photos...stupid barriers!

Having said all that Air Tattoo does look like an awesome show. They need to do mock Rafale vs Eurofighter dogfight!
 
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Anyone from OcUK fancy a little meet? I'm there for 4 days (Fri - Mon) working with the Red Arrows.

I'll have the ability to get you air side an I'll give you a little tour of a Red Arrows jet and if the pilots are there at the time you could meet them too.

:)

Nice offer!

My Girlfriends dad is a Volunteer at the show, he got us the tickets. Although I've only just been told that we've just got tickets for Sunday only, but they're free so I can't complain!

I'm hoping he'll maybe be able to pull some strings and get us closer to certain areas and things :p
 
Not going this year. Been the last two and apart from the A10 theres not a lot that I've not seen in the last two years. Just seems to be loads of F16's

Pretty much this. 2009 was great, 2010 was ok but this year doesn't look good at all. Giving it a miss for 2011.
 
I wish more big European airshows would do what a lot of American shows do - they dont cordon of the planes behind barriers.

At shows across the pond you can tramp right through a C17, walk up to an A10 and stick your finger in one of the Gatling gun barrels or lean on an Apache and talk to the gunner about what its like flying in that helo.

Im sure it also wrecks photos...stupid barriers! !

Stopping people getting on or into the planes is a safety thing for the Pilots and Groundcrews. Lots of people genuinely haven't got a clue about how dangerous a Military plane can be compared to say, an Airliner, and they drop things/litter (and don't tell anyone), touch or fiddle with stuff and, in a few cases, steal stuff. For example the Merlin helicopter that dropped its emergency door at 300ft onto some onlookers in Ireland happened because "someone" fiddled with door and the crew didn't spot it before take-off.

As for talking to the crews most "decent" air display setups will make sure at least 1 aircrew and 1 groundcrew are there at all times, just to talk to people.

The best setup I'd seen (but the queue's were large) was a one on one guided tour of the AC-130 at Mildenhall in '94 where there was 5 aircrew (from different parts of the A/C) who each escorted a single visitor around their section (and keeping an eye on them for the above reasons) and answering their questions for about 5mins before passing the visitors on to the nexty guy. Great idea just too many people wanted to have a look so the queues got a bit daft and I never saw them do it like that again.
 
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I am going this year :) Not inside the showground but on the outside of the fence were everyone lines up. Great view without paying and standing at the end of the run way with the planes less than 2 metres above your head :D Last year the Vulcan made a strange appearance because it wasn't scheduled for the day we went but it came and flew.

I've been to RIAT as a paying customer a few times, but I've never done this. I was under the impression the police\base security moved people on in such instances. I'm interested in doing this - where exactly do you stand?
 
airshows are great :D i've only ever been to the sunderland one though :(

the first year i moved to newcastle they had a F-117 Nighthawk doing a fly past on its way back to wherever but i didnt go that year something i really regret :(

ive always wanted to see a B1 though seems they go RIAT every year

I've been to RIAT twice when I was a little younger, Want to go back. Sunderland air show is soo poor compared (I know it's free and all that)

But the real deal is much better. :)

Get your self to one.
 
Going with my dad and my brother, love the battle of Britain memorial flight.

Hope the B-52's make an appearance this year too, and the harrier/osprey demo's are always interesting.
 
the harrier/osprey demo's are always interesting.

They won't be interesting this year. :-) No B-52 either as far as I can see. They do fill the sky rather nicely though.

There's supposed to be a pair of Gripens flying, which would be nice to see, but other than that I don't feel I'm going to be missing much by taking a year off.

I do worry that it's going to be downhill from here though, as global airforces are cut back in the continuing fall-out from the global recession and tension around the planet sucks up remaining resources. So there's probably a case for going now rather than later. I'd probably go if it didn't take so much effort (and cash) to get there.
 
Very much plan to be there! Going with three other OcUKers.

Wanted Pimm's Flight Deck but it was full, and Trenchard Chalet was loooolprice.

riat.jpg
 
I've been to RIAT as a paying customer a few times, but I've never done this. I was under the impression the police\base security moved people on in such instances. I'm interested in doing this - where exactly do you stand?

Right below the runway :D

Got a SLR this time so gonna try and take some good photos :)
 
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