RAF Marham Family Day 2011 (inside - image heavy)

[Viper28]

Well I more or less got of the plane from Bubble and Squeak land and jumped in the car to get to the 2011 Marham Family Day this year. Its always a good day out with the chance to speak to the crews and see the planes close up. Both the static and flying display this year actually looked very thin, what with the cuts and a lot of the RAF / UASF etc. deployed but that’s never a good way to judge the day. Its great to be on base but it actually means you are shooting into the sun a lot of the day. Not that there was a lot of sun for a lot of the day! The day is also linked to the Lowestoft show so a fair bit operates out of Marham

#1 First display of the day was “off program” and was a flying and passes by a French Airforce Mirage 2000 from Nancy airbase being flown by a RAF (Marham) exchange pilot. Always loved the M2000:


#2 Next up were the Red Arrows, on there way to Lowerstoft:


#3


#4 Next one was not planned. The BAe125 from the Royal Flight was on static but got an urgent call to get up to Scotland. He certainly took the award for the lowest departure and longest time in ground effect:


#4 Usual nice tight display by the Kingair that actually found some sunshine (the Mr Blue-sky effect again):


#5 Three great passes by the BAF F16 display planes in formation, first pass was 100’ at 500-knots :


#6 For something a bit different a nice tight display by a DR-107


#7 Another unscheduled departure from the static. The Puma crew got the call that they had to RTB ASAP:


Then things got interesting. The A-10’s had be flying in the area on the way to the Holbeach range. The lady ATC controller kept trying to sweet talk them into dropping in. The first pair were bingo on fuel but the her charms worked on the second pair and they agreed to a slow (what else from a A-10) pass:
#8


#9


#10


#11 A regular display at Marham, Neil McCarthy's JP from Newcastle


#12 Yak-52’s of the Aerostars display team


#13 Both RAF trainer display planes where there, formation back-track:


The Jules Flemming did a nice tight display in the Hawk
#14


#15


#16 Followed by the Tuc


#17 Then the Chaos boys arrived, 2 Typhoons from 3sqn in probably the lowest fastest passes I’ve seen a Typhoon do, the climb outs were awesome, what 40,000lbs of thrust does for you:


Welcome return of the Tornado GR4 Role Demo team, flying as Alien-1 and 2. They certainly did not hold back on the passes to the point that Alien-2 popped a panel somewhere during the demo:
#18 Alien-1 crew:


#19 Alien-2 crew:


#20 Alien-1 rolling :


#21 Show of force:


#22 Run-in and break to land, you can see the missing panel on Alien-2:


#23 Full-stop!


#24 Making a quick get away the classic VC10:


The show was closed by the classic shape of the Hawker Hunter and Jonathon Whaley ringing the neck of the beautiful Miss Demeanour:
#25


#26


#27 Sunroof open on the final pass:

[Lightningboy2000]

Simply superb report! Would have made a better display than both days at Lowestoft put together! Did the Mirage make a visit to Lowestoft on Thursday?

[smacken]

Stunning pics, all of them :-)

[SamP]

Wonderfully crisp & clear images, I didn't realise so much turned up for it! 1 & 21 (the later especially) do it for me, just awesome.

[KINROTATE]

Super image quality. Looked like a fair display overall too.

[Viper28]

Thanks all, yes it turned into the best Marham yet

Lovely pics. Yak 50s by the way, not 25s.

Sorry typo, they are actually Yak-52's according to the show info. It was also Neil McCarthy's from Newcastle in the JP, I need to learn to read

[jamesv9820]

Fantastic Simon,

Always nice to meet up and have a laugh for the day - cheers for the loan of the 400mm 5.6 as well. Worked a treat with my 7D

[liamkillington]

What a fantastic set! Great work!

Regards,

Liam

[Lossie15]

Lovely images! Looks like th 022 Tonka was missing a panel!

[Turbo 1]

Fantastic... Enjoyed looking through those. Thanks for posting

[scanman]

Looks like they were well supported by aircraft. Good photos as well.

[NigeF-51]

Saw the show from inside the wire as well, was a good show, better than I thought it was going to be.
Viper28, the show info was wrong, they were most definately Yak-50s not 52s. Yak-52s are two-seaters with tri-cycle u/c not tailwheel.
Regards,
Nige

[crashman]

Cracking Shots, it was a great day out, the weather could have been better and i was gutted that the FW190 did not arrive / Display. what was the story with that ?

[Viper28]

Thanks too all

Cracking Shots, it was a great day out, the weather could have been better and i was gutted that the FW190 did not arrive / Display. what was the story with that ?

No real idea on the FW-190 it was not mentioned at all. Could be wrong but I think the sweet talking ATC lady used its slot for the A-10's (in which case I'm not complaining). They did seem to have real issues this year with the timing etc. Was not helped by the emergency departures of the 125 and the Puma to be honest.

Not quite sure on the story with the GR4 (only one taxied) for Lowestoft, his departure was delayed because of the Red's and he was bitching that he only had 2-mins to spare to make his display slot, he actually requested a into wind take off, rather than back track but was denied, the all of a sudden he scrubbed and returned to the ramp. Don't know if that was because he missed his slot or went tech. Was fine for the role demo

[deerhunter]

Brilliant shots, thanks for posting them