RIAT 2016 your views

[B58]

Well I'm just back from a great day, flying excellent & varied shame about the cloud base. Static very good but a few annoying little things, 1 why put an aircraft that's come from the other side of the world in front of a line of toilets. 2 I would of thought the F22 could of been parked next to the F35s. 3 please don't put 2 sets of steps on both sides of the aircraft keep 1 side clear please. 4 if there's a rare aircraft on the ground doing nothing on the north side ask the USMC if there KC130 could be parked in the static it would of been nice lined up with the others & whats happened to the 45 degree static line format? It makes better photo opportunities. It sounds like I'm nit picking but these are little things that would of topped the day completely. Other than these things well done RIAT for putting a great show together this year i know it's not easy but many thanks.

[MRTT]

Been a cracking show so far, still got Sunday and Monday to go before I can offer my full review! Thought that Solo Turk performed an immense display today, possibly getting my vote in the FRIAT Award! A great shame that 'Miss Helen' was unable to make it yet again today, hoping we see the Heritage added to the Flight tomorrow!

A shame about the weather this morning, Spanish Typhoon pilot didn't seem to happy about displaying with the low cloud but good on him for pushing on, a thoroughly enjoyable morning despite the less than favourable cloud base!

[Voodoo1]

Just got home from the long drive back! (Killer on the legs but worth it)
Totally agree with all the points raised B58. Funny as I was talking to a nice gent today next to the 41 sqn Typhoon and he mentioned the static issues were causing problems with photo opportunities, it's not like they didn't have space!

Overall ignoring those issues I thought today was better than last year. The cloud base was poor that meant a few acts rescheduling but it worked and I was forever changing the camera settings, therefore my RIAT photo post this year might suffer.
It was hard to choose the best display, I thought SoloTurk was awesome as always but I was impressed with the Gripen & Rafale displays too (I heard the Rafale pilot got a telling off by RIAT for his display, not sure of specifics but they ordered him to pull out of a maneuver).
The F-22 is always impressive but disappointed with the F-35. It's hard to compare them as they are not like for like but for me the F-22 is the big brother that the F-35 has to live up to but fails more than not.

Hopefully next year will be better especially with the USAF celebrating their anniversary.



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[Voodoo1]

On a positive note...
There seemed a lot more air arms with patches, coins, posters, t-shirts and free stickers, info booklets. We'll done those teams!

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[fires999]

Hi Guys
Sounds like overall this year is pretty good !...With regards to the small "issues", I hope there is a way of addressing these to the RIAT organizers (not sure how many read FIGHTER CONTROL) but I guess speed is of the essence because a large show like this is worked on way in advance and imagine RIAT 2017 is already quite far along its timeline,
Hopefully the comments will be taking into consideration...time will tell.
Thanks
Fires999

[david14]

I went Friday, been doing P&V for departures last few years. Arrived just before the flying display started at 1100 and drove straight in and left just asthe reds started their display and drove straight out.
Flying display pretty good, although could have been longer than 4 hours. Nice variety although unfortunately clouded over - not the organisers fault
In today's terms good attendance, but no hornets, and missing a number of more obvious aircraft - Dutch f16s, Finnish f18s, nothing from Denmark etc

[sneezy24]

Friday here as well, good display, shame about the weather (brightened up a bit, but cloud makes for difficult pics..)

I did the Swindon shuttle bus, took 1 1/4 hours to get from Swindon to FFD!!!!

Agree with the comments about the static display, angled would be so much better.

Started to walk back as the Reds displayed, saw it all as I walked (semi-backwards!), got the bus back, got a train at 15:43, back home in Wokingham with a Gin by 16:50!!

Probably going to P&V on Monday, might be a bit wet but I have waterproofs!

[robin]

Fantastic display by the various Typhoon pilots, but best individual pilot display I feel must go to the Solo Turk Pilot......with that said, I would just dearly love to see what he could do flying a Typhoon at an airshow !

[sabrejet]

My thoughts:

Good:
Greek F-4s
Electric racer in the tech display
Tanker/F-35B demo (another pass would have been nice!)
Bryza Coastal Command scheme
Chipmunk line-up (more of the same in future years maybe?)
Bristol Scout (highlight of the day for me)

Not-so-good:
Too many Typhoon IIs (OK it used to be F-4s/F-104s, then F-16s so now I guess it's the Tiffie 2's turn)
Heritage F-22/F-35A display: overlong and we got bored in the end (!) - it reminded me of B-52 and Thunderbirds equally overlong demo's. Music and commentary was wayyy naff.
A bit 'thin' on variety this year? (no US Army, not much USAF (A-10s for a start) and was expecting an RAF RC-135 maybe?)
Commentary team calling the F-35 the "Lightning". For many of us there will only ever be ONE Lightning, and this ain't it!!! By my reckoning, the F-35 should really be "Lightning III" - or come up with a new name!

Another strange thing occurred to me: before the show we were being told how 'rock-solid' the F-35 would be in the hover. It didn't look that way to me. In fact in hover it looked much like the Harrier did. A bit of 'spin' maybe?

Don't want that to sound too negative - it was a great show after all. But it did seem that a lot of stuff was notable by its absence this year. Relying on warbirds also demonstrated that it won't really work if the weather is marginal and/or there's a decent crosswind.

[B58]

Voodoo1 quite agree about F35 but my guess is it will improve over time as the Eurofighter has, no new aircraft will be hammered so early in life. It would of been nice to see the old Fairford classics like B52 A10 RC135 but nonetheless it's been a great show,just wish all flying display aircraft were southside & within reach as I explained in 1st post. Maybe a small group of enthusiasts on an advisory team would help smooth out the small & easy to solve issues that get lost in organising a huge event like this. Anyway roll on 2017 70th anniversary USA ah yeah

[bizfreeq]

Another strange thing occurred to me: before the show we were being told how 'rock-solid' the F-35 would be in the hover. It didn't look that way to me. In fact in hover it looked much like the Harrier did. A bit of 'spin' maybe?

So that couldn't possibly have been something to do with the hefty crosswind that was blatting across the runway all day then?

[Mark43]

I went Friday and thoroughly enjoyed it even though I managed to get sunburnt. Yes I kid you not. Not a patch on the Greenhams and Fairfords of yesteryear but still enjoyable none the less. Only downside was the rip off sausage in a roll for £6.80 but I suppose that's cos it was organic

[sabrejet]

Another strange thing occurred to me: before the show we were being told how 'rock-solid' the F-35 would be in the hover. It didn't look that way to me. In fact in hover it looked much like the Harrier did. A bit of 'spin' maybe?

So that couldn't possibly have been something to do with the hefty crosswind that was blatting across the runway all day then?

Well we're led to believe it shouldn't...

[bizfreeq]

Could you point me in the direction of the manufacturer's statement that the F35 is rock solid in the hover no matter what the weather conditions then please, as I've never seen it written anywhere. Personally I would say, if this statement you refer to does exist, then they are alluding to an aeronautical miracle, an aircraft that performs perfectly in, and unaffected by, the wind.

[sabrejet]

Oh please: are we seriously saying that the F-35 only works in calm weather?

Anyway, the point about Harrier vs F-35B in similar conditions stands.

[bizfreeq]

No you are saying that you were led to believe that it should be rock solid in the hover no matter what in response to me saying the crosswinds were the reason it wasn't. I was asking you to show me where it says that. I am realistic in the view that in windy conditions such as yesterday it is always going to wobble in the hover.

[Zac Hinchcliffe]

As a first time RIATer I knew I would love it and I did. I thought almost every display was excellent (within reason! I did go for a bit of a wander during certain displays) and the static park was also excellent. I thought Soloturk and Polish Tiger were the best two F-16s with Zeus being the clear 4th in that group, but considering the Frecce were doing a 'flat' display, I guess this was due to weather conditions? I live very close to Coningsby so have seen Mark's Typhoon display a lot and yet despite this and also it being the 4th Typhoon display, that was the best (again probably weather related as I did enjoy the 'smoke' from the Italian). My top four displays were the Rafale, MiG-29 (I messed up and was completely in the wrong place for the take off though!), A400 and F-22. As a first timer to a military airshow I was blown away by the organisation of it all. The free drinking taps, the endless bins, the speed of the queues, the traffic control and the crowd control was second to none. Music festivals could learn an awful lot!
There were only a couple of negatives I could think of really. I think as a first timer doing a single day, there was almost too much to see and not enough time to see it. I could've done with maybe an hour's break in the middle to do the static park a bit more justice as I only just about got around everything and didn't have any time to visit a single stall. Next year I will certainly try and do two days. I also felt that the Heritage flight was a bit odd. The F-22s individual display was fantastic and what an amazing plane, but the F-35A did pretty much nothing and when the flypasts were taking place there was a lot of time when you couldn't see either plane as they were outside of the airfield. The yanky commentator was a bit yanky for my taste too and kept going on about how it was the best plane in the world and how incredible it was. Sometimes you have to let the plane speak for itself! Great to see them together though and I wasn't complaining during the show itself!
It was certainly a wonderful show though and one I will remember fondly for a long time to come and not just because this time next year I'll probably still be processing photos from it, but i've learnt a few things for next year, that's for sure! More refreshments, chairs and a hat next year! I was exhausted after the Patrouille finished!

All the best
Zac

[timb]

I thought everything about it was excellent, the static was well laid out, I take a photographs and I don,t expect the big stuff to be good for photographs, lets face it most people visiting just want to see things close up, as I do. The flying display was awesome, especially the F22, F35 [liked their heritage fly bys with the music] A400 and as always the Frecce.I did Fri and Sat, I believe it takes 2 days inside to "do it properly".Lots of other things to see and do and entertain.Shuttle bus came in very useful once or twice. Always good to hear the Turkish commentator, I havn,t heard anyone that excited since the Icelandic football commentator !!!! I,v e done all the Greenhams, Cottesmores and Fairfords and never been to a bad one --some are just better than others. Congrats to RIAT and everyone concerned for giving us great entertainment every year.

[quid21]

As a Saturday visitor, I thought there were too many F-16s, I think 4 F-16 displays in one day is 2 too many. The Polish F-16 display was my favourite.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it, except for the muppets that I had the unfortunate experience of being camped near - they didn't turn there music off until 1am, even though I politely walked over and told them that I was tired, had traveled a fairly long distance and needed to get some sleep before the show. They then carried on talking really loudly until around 2.30am when finally they took themselves off to their drunken and quite possibly stoned beds, yes I smelt marijuana being smoked, I believe they only went to bed because a woman went and spoke to them. A toddler nearby kept being woken by them and kept screaming understandably as he must have been so tired too, I wouldn't have minded quite so much had I not got up at 6am and done a full day of work before traveling down. They were also blowing things up on there barbecue at gone midnight - absolutely appalling behaviour from grown men. We tried to sleep but the sun rose at 5am, and then we went to the show so incredibly tired all because of those idiots.

The campsite (Townsend Farm) had families staying so I cannot be the only one whose Saturday was ruined by tiredness.

[B58]

A holes,quid21 you have my sympathy totally uncalled for behaviour. There should be a code of conduct drawn up & if no one sticks by it your out, as for the strange aroma in the air and call to the police would of done the trick after all its not Glastonbury.