RAF Marham Enthusiasts Day 21st June 2018

[A380_sully]

Having read the e-mail thread I feel totally happy at having missed the opportunity, happy replacing the pee'd off feeling I had when I realized I had missed the opportunity to attend the event. I do feel totally pee'd off for everyone who shelled out £50 for such a poor effort. It really does beggar belief.

Reference has been made to NTM and I can see some similarities here....... invite enthusiast on base under the premise of a 'spotters/enthusiasts day' then position them as far away from the active as possible. This cuts down the necessity to carry out extensive searches of bags and personal belongings etc, which I can understand, but in return for this the organisers should provide some quality, either by visiting aircraft, static aircraft or unique photographic opportunity.

At NTM enthusiasts were positioned on the north side of the runway, too far for ramp shots and far enough from the runway for an interception should anyone have a 'moment of madness'. The Polish Af had painted up a Mig21 in Tiger scheme, but this was positioned on the active side for the press shots and was wheeled away in the afternoon when it could so easily have been brought over for the enthusiasts. At least at NTM you were rewarded with a patch, challenge coin and 6 squadron note book, plus 2 days in the Poznan airshow, including an 8am public-free showground access to tog the statics and all for £50. It brings home just what a rip off yesterday was for the enthusiast.

It seems enthusiasts are now just seen as a cash cow, a quick buck. The only way to make voices heard is by e-mails to the BC and vote with your feet in future. Our air force has become so alienated from the enthusiast I struggle to see it returning any time soon.

[Freeman Lowell]

BMrider has posted the best address to use ...

Firstly this allows the Station Commander to get a "REAL" feeling of your unhappiness rather than his "Staff" telling him it went well.

From there it will be SOP pass it onto the PR section to "Deal with it" ... This is HOW it WORKS!

Good luck

Thanks for info. Letter (noting the good organisation and the areas for improvement) now posted.
Freeman

[DavidT]

After months of anticipation that this was really going to be a last chance to photograph Tornados from” inside the wire” I am now utterly distraught about it all. All my many photos “outside the wire” over the past few years have suddenly now become more than worthwhile. Like many, I must now have more shots of ZG752 than any other Tornado. They are all the same (!) only difference being the level of light and whether or not there is a motorway truck dispensing a trail of dust in the background. To me, it would have been far more sensible for Marham to have delayed the event until after the main runway was back in use. After all, it was a “photographers” day and no one in their right mind wants a backdrop of a vast construction site in their pictures. If the event” had “to be on this one day my humble suggestion would have been to provide busses to take people from “Bravo” along the taxiway to a point near to the 19 threshold. That way we could have all photographed the 5 Tornados completing their landing roll and turning off back to the HAS site. There were enough armed security guards around to have made sure nobody stepped out of line. I reckon that small gesture would have gone a long way to turning a dreadful experience into a pretty worthwhile day.

[toom317]

Seen some pics on line now. Have to admit I had a chuckle at the stuff coming out about this last night, but having now seen some pics, I'm shocked at the way the RAF have conducted this event.

[markranger]

After months of anticipation that this was really going to be a last chance to photograph Tornados from” inside the wire” I am now utterly distraught about it all. All my many photos “outside the wire” over the past few years have suddenly now become more than worthwhile. Like many, I must now have more shots of ZG752 than any other Tornado. They are all the same (!) only difference being the level of light and whether or not there is a motorway truck dispensing a trail of dust in the background. To me, it would have been far more sensible for Marham to have delayed the event until after the main runway was back in use. After all, it was a “photographers” day and no one in their right mind wants a backdrop of a vast construction site in their pictures. If the event” had “to be on this one day my humble suggestion would have been to provide busses to take people from “Bravo” along the taxiway to a point near to the 19 threshold. That way we could have all photographed the 5 Tornados completing their landing roll and turning off back to the HAS site. There were enough armed security guards around to have made sure nobody stepped out of line. I reckon that small gesture would have gone a long way to turning a dreadful experience into a pretty worthwhile day.

Or one of the 6 could of Taxied back to Bravo and Crewed out like last year.
Unfortunately the Right ingredients were there this time with flying etc,Just not well thought out.

I Found the people helping out pleasant actually apart from the Security Female who came over to take the ladder down.
Bit unnecessary that IMO but hey we move on and today is another day.

mark.

[FTS]

If you do write in, remind Marham of the so called RAF 'core values', respect and excellence in particular. They seem to have forgotten them.

[deerhunter]

Glad I couldnt make it !!

[Viper28]

I've put my pics on a separate thread

http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/v ... 9&t=163763

[napalm42]

In spite of all this negativity,mostly justified.
I would just like to thank the BBMF Spitfire pilot,who carried out three superb topside passes..

[SpilsbyPete]

Guys.

After reading about this event on UKAR and here.
I'm glad I did not shell out £50.
A observation is that you were treated as second class citizens,While a small group got everything they wanted.
So here's part of the problem.
Photographic Groups are spoiling it for joe public,hence silly prices are the going rate.

I will start a new thread "Aviation Rip Off's"

Pete

[Tronk 11]

The base commander went down the line of spotters yesterday, he asked me what had i come down to see? Looking back was that a question or a statement?
I should have said "aircraft"!

[Rockstar]

Looking back at the chain of emails linked with the enthusiasts day which began in March, there was initially no mention of what aircraft and opportunities would be available, so we all signed up to this in the hope it would be something good. You pays your money you takes your chance. Subsequent correspondence was largely around confirmation of our places, timings and ticket numbers. It was not until the email of 11th June (10 days before the event) that it stated that the Media and Comms team had given authority to release what would be on offer at the Enthusiasts’ Day. It stated;

On static display alongside the RAF100 Tornado GR4 (tail number 129) will be a Spitfire provided by BBMF and, Marham’s first public appearance on static display of a F-35 Lightning. I’m sure you’re as excited as I am to see all of these iconic aircraft together and you will have the opportunity to take photos initially at range followed by getting up a little closer for individual shots.

On top of this, there will be some station flying on Tornados and Lightning and requests have gone out for other aircraft to make an appearance. As always pending serviceability!

Subsequent to this, the day before the event a further email confirmed that;

A flypast of 4 x GR4s has been coordinated for 1330. Please have you cameras ready at this point as they will only be doing 1 pass.

The Spitfire will also conduct 3 passes before it departs later in the afternoon

Other than no flying by the Lightnings (we found out yesterday that they start operational flying next week) we pretty much got bang on what they said, so it could be argued what have we to moan about. My experience told me that the statement about requests going out for other aircraft to make an appearance was optimistic and would have been a real bonus if it had happened rather than to be expected. So, on the face of it, we were not expecting any more aircraft available to us than we have had to photograph on the previous two enthusiast days, both of which seemed fairly well received.

On base itself there was the arrival and subsequent PR fuss around the arrival of the RAF100 Baton Relay which got in the way of us enthusiasts wanting to take pictures. It was said that the Spitfire was late arriving and that all of the PR around the baton would otherwise have all been concluded prior to us arriving on base. So this was unfortunate, but the baton relay is an important part of how the RAF wants to celebrate 100 years so they were obviously going to do want they had to do.

HOWEVER. We, as enthusiasts, had between us travelled some considerable distance and paid the not insignificant amount of £50 for the privilege to be on an active RAF station. On that basis could more have been done to provide us with the experience we all felt we deserved. Well, quite frankly yes. I won't repeat what has already been said about how far away we were from the active runway and no chance of any decent shots of 7 different Tonkas that flew during the day (including the Marham 100 year special tail). If we could have got those on landing and/or taxying then that would have about justified the price and I personally would have gone home happy.

In addition, it was they who invited us and when you are confronted with the debarkle about not taking pictures from some steps because you might see into the cockpit of an F-35 it showed how detached from reality they are. From the angle we were at you would have perhaps been able to determine that in the cockpit was - a seat. I doubt much else.

It just felt lacking in organisation and knowing what to do for the enthusiast. Whether things would have been different if Swifty was present, then who knows. The reason we pay for these things is to get the exclusive access and opportunities that being on an active RAF airfield present. I just feel we were all let down yesterday.

This is written in the cold light of day to try and give a balanced view following obvious frustrations and disappointment on the day. Would I go to another one? Following this, I'm not sure there will be the opportunity, even if I wanted to.

One highlight. The 3 passes by the Spitfire. Very spirited topside passes in some great light. Full marks to the BBMF.

[The Meat]

At least I will be there on my own for the next event while you all stay outside.

[wezgulf3]

At least I will be there on my own for the next event while you all stay outside.

Am I missing something with this? Is that meant to be a joke??

Wes...

[Nighthawke]

Either bragging about something "secret" - not on old chap - or intending on being the only one to pay up for any future occasion!

[The Meat]

Either bragging about something "secret" - not on old chap - or intending on being the only one to pay up for any future occasion!

No bragging here, just know what goes in to arranging these sort of events and sometimes things don't always turn out as planned. I have spent my whole life around the RAF as I come from a Forces family and while everyone has an opinion and I respect that maybe some of the feedback should be more constructive, and to your comment yes I will continue to support such events.

[Nnthusiast]

so, a couple of days later and time to reflect, as they say in modern parlance.

Marham did, as it has been stated in this thread, tell us exactly what we were getting, right upto 24/48 hours before the event, so in reality we cant say we werent warned.
Having said that, i think that we were all pretty much incredulous that it was 'guaranteed' to be only 3 aircraft and any visitor that might pop along, and we also hoped that the flying Tonkas might be lower and brought round for a quick, engine running visit to us on the far side of the field.

But what we were all guilty of was thinking that this truly was a enthusiasts photographic day, and that being 'Tonka Town' in the last months of the beloved aircraft, we might get to see them up close , in person and in numbers, and that the 3 aircraft notice was a missprint. Sadly not.

Basically we got what it said on the tin. Alas when you wantthe tin to contain succulent peaches it contained dog poo.

so when you then add to it the fact that we all felt we were filler / second thoughts to an RAF personnel event, it just rubbed salt into the wounds.

For £50.00 i think we are entitled to that sense of entitlement. If i go to a concert and only 2 of the 5 members of the group turn up, and one of them is not the lead singer, i'd be equally miffed.

We all expected more than was promised, and given past events with greater access, more aircraft etc it was a let down of the highest order, but, unfortunately, it was ultimately a let down we knew about in advance..........but chose to not believe.

[James Cutting]

As well as this, if we had been placed down at ALPHA, and not where we were, we probably stood a greater chance of having a much better event.

[Johno]

At least I will be there on my own for the next event while you all stay outside.

I see you are from King's Lynn, when you have spent most of the day travelling to get there and back, you see things in a different light.

[Wrathchild]

As well as this, if we had been placed down at ALPHA, and not where we were, we probably stood a greater chance of having a much better event.

That wasn’t allowed because the F-35s are currently in the big green barn behind Alpha (weapons load training hangar). So for security reasons we weren’t allowed up there.