RAF Marham Enthusiasts Day 21st June 2018

[Blackcat1]

Yeah but if that's how they felt about photographers, they should give a refund! Lol.

[eagle driver]

While feeling sorry for those that shelled out 50quid for this farce .
The writing has been on the wall for months that these photo calls are just designed to make money for the Mod .
With no real thought given to those that attend .
Maybe next time that one of these events come up we should retaliate by boycotting the RAF.

[Thunderbolt II]

From experience on both sides of the fence, the RAF view enthusiasts with contempt. At least in the past 20 years or so.

[SpilsbyPete]

So £50 for this event.
And yet all the moaning and groaning about £40 for the Scampton Show.
At times you amaze me.
Anyway,If you think £50 is steep.
A Event next week will be even more pricey..(Not Marham)

[armra1972]

As an enthusiast myself who up until last year was inside the wire, I now work outside the wire....just. I personally think it's embarrassing that this is the best that could be done. Any of you that came to II(AC)Sqn anniversary photo shoot know full well what can be done, and we only asked for donations back then (organised by one Sgt and one Chief Technician, maybe says it all). Again I am being perhaps a bit cynical but it seems odd after all that was suggested for you guys to see for the money you've spent it seems a terribly bad deal and maybe someones nose has been put out if joint with regards to the media hoo ha last week. I don't personally think an event like this will happen again, there are station visits which can be arranged and there are many of us around Marham who appreciate the enthusiast community.

[TornadoVictor]

I haven't bothered with UK events for about 6 years & travel abroad for my photography. I went to Marham today & won't be bothering with any more UK events in the future based on the extremely poor results.

Arthur

[Thor]

these photo calls are just designed to make money for the Mod .

As I understand things, these events normally raise money for Squadron/Station funds, not the MoD, per se. Some of that would normally be used to provide facilities/sports/leisure equipment for the Squadron/Station, some may be used as 'seed capital' to produce new merchandise, and normally at least some would be donated to the chosen charity of said Squadron/Station.

Don't forget that this type of photocall is normally driven by enthusiasts wanting some form of exclusive 'inside the wire' access, and they largely depend on the unit's support of the events, plus whatever visitors can be persuaded to stop by.

Armra's example of the II(AC) centenary event, and the 3Sqn centenary event held at Coningsby on the same day are shining examples of how to get it right, as are the annual Families' days held on the Units. This one seems to have been driven by demand but possibly under-supported.

[Johno]

I personally drove 6 hours to photograph 3 aircraft, 1 Tornado on a Tornado base !!!!!!!!!! last time was better, most of my shots have trucks or dumpers in the background. It was very poor.

[toom317]

As I understand things, these events normally raise money for Squadron/Station funds,

That's my bug bear about these events. Using publicly owned property, to raise money for private events. Is any of the dosh raised from this going to the families day?

[Thunderbolt II]

As I understand things, these events normally raise money for Squadron/Station funds,

That's my bug bear about these events. Using publicly owned property, to raise money for private events. Is any of the dosh raised from this going to the families day?

Nail on head.

[Nnthusiast]

ok i posted earlier and have just got home to Liverpool.
i have had time to think about today and here is my more 'rational take'

firstly, i questioned here the press release a week ago that said that the static would comprise of a spitfire, tornado and F-35, and thought it might be a printing error etc.
Boy was i wrong.
lets fast forward to being onthe coach at around 12.40 onto the base...... no pics from the coach of the Victor, Tornado and Cannerra as the coach sped by, down to the pan.
What we then saw was the spitfire,that had just landed, the Tonado and F-35 along with a Brousarde.
so we are all perplexed. This being a Tornado base after all, so where are the Tornados? Answer? the other side of the airfield? where are the other F-35'? in their barn.

So the 'event starts' and the first 90 minutes are like being 'b' list guests to a party. you know the ones, the fillerthe also rans, the spare parts used to make up numbers. For that's what it felt like. Staff in front of the aircraft, then selfies, then more staff, then cherry pickers in the way with more staff on them (i took photographs of all this), then RAF 100 banners and some sort of marathon running group up for photographs, then individual interviews on camera while in the way of the paying customers, then gold braid photographs, then more photographs then finally its our turn after feeling we were in their way rather than the other way around.

the F35 and Tornado where too close together, and initially the spitfire was placed across the front of both aircraft for yet more 'official photographs' then finally pushed back to the 'flight line' line up which was..... spitfire, Tonka, F-35.

Tornados took off (4) followed by a singleton (black tail one), obviously on a mission / sortie of some kind, then after a good while, they are back at an altitude to make Neil Armstrong proud, for a diamond 4 up the 'old' runway as its now being rebuilt. The black Tailed tonka flew as a sort of 'whipper in' separately before running in at great height and did a few rudimentary rolls and pull rounds at a distance a 600mm would be stretched to get anything from.

At this point you'd be forgiven for thinking that as they landed on the cross runway, they could be asked to come round and up to where we were for merely a few minutes to allow us to take their pics before they trundled back to their barns, but no it was 'right turn clyde' and back to the barns. Even the black one, which might have made 'the difference from being fully peed off to only 90% peed off wasnt playing.

A truly awful day that led to smirks and embarrasing silence on the minibus back to the car park when the driver asked 'did we enjoy it?'

A morning that had 2 x F-16's playing less than 10 miles away, A hawk T1 overhead, a Tucano overhead, a french chopper in kent heading north, had us all hoping for better than getting used as a financial filip, and an after thought to those in uniform's selfies and fun.
£50 for basically 2 aircraft, 1 civilian visitor and the Spitfire that arrived early and didnt do 3 flypasts as i can make out. looked nice on the pan though, but in all honesty it didnt have any competition.

Talk about fleecing the enthusiast! They should be ashamed at today, its a black day in Marhams P.R. organisation , and if they had any ba lls someone should firstly apologise, then offer us all a free event to mend bridges that are burnt and about to collapse inthe river.
After all, talk in the car park spoke of mystical happenings at Marham previously........ busses to see the Tonkas in the barns, busses to see the guardians etc.

as for the visitors? did they invite anyone really or was it merely the visitors noting that marham said they were asking for visitors, and rocking up?
have Marham got friends anymore? do not the other squadrons and bases around the country help each other out pn days like this?

out of 10, i'd give it a 2, but in all honesty i'm loathed to be that generous. The worst day i have ever had on any base in the world bar none. Might make the recent NTM look like a well run wornderful utopia.

[Thor]

As I understand things, these events normally raise money for Squadron/Station funds,

That's my bug bear about these events. Using publicly owned property, to raise money for private events. Is any of the dosh raised from this going to the families day?

Families' days are, as I understand it, funded by the Station and are a 'thank you' to the families of serving personnel for what they have to put up with regularly (unsociable hours, frequent deployments, etc.) as well as being an opportunity for parents to see what son/daughter do for a living or for kids to see what mum/dad work on as well as providing a bit of entertainment and Station-level social activity. Many benefits to doing that from a family support network perspective.

I'd suggest that if you have concerns about where the money you paid for the event is destined to go, it might be in the emails you were sent. If not, a quick email to the organisers (if they're not on here already) with a polite request for information should get you an answer.

Out of interest, how does one of these photocalls differ in your view from your local fire station doing a carwash event?

[TornadoVictor]

Nnthusiast
Well put - when I spoke to the Station Commander(?) as the specially marked Tornado was performing up in the heavens, he said it had a base photographer in the back seat & was on a mission to take photos of the base from above. Being trained in modern PR, he quickly excused himself & carried on with the handshaking

Arthur

[Wrathchild]

I don't disagree with anything that you've posted below other than one thing which is that the Spitfire pilot made every effort on departure to give us some darn fantastic photo opportunities.

Does it make up for the rest....I'm not sure. But I can tell you those passes were worth waiting for.

ok i posted earlier and have just got home to Liverpool.
i have had time to think about today and here is my more 'rational take'

firstly, i questioned here the press release a week ago that said that the static would comprise of a spitfire, tornado and F-35, and thought it might be a printing error etc.
Boy was i wrong.
lets fast forward to being onthe coach at around 12.40 onto the base...... no pics from the coach of the Victor, Tornado and Cannerra as the coach sped by, down to the pan.
What we then saw was the spitfire,that had just landed, the Tonado and F-35 along with a Brousarde.
so we are all perplexed. This being a Tornado base after all, so where are the Tornados? Answer? the other side of the airfield? where are the other F-35'? in their barn.

So the 'event starts' and the first 90 minutes are like being 'b' list guests to a party. you know the ones, the fillerthe also rans, the spare parts used to make up numbers. For that's what it felt like. Staff in front of the aircraft, then selfies, then more staff, then cherry pickers in the way with more staff on them (i took photographs of all this), then RAF 100 banners and some sort of marathon running group up for photographs, then individual interviews on camera while in the way of the paying customers, then gold braid photographs, then more photographs then finally its our turn after feeling we were in their way rather than the other way around.

the F35 and Tornado where too close together, and initially the spitfire was placed across the front of both aircraft for yet more 'official photographs' then finally pushed back to the 'flight line' line up which was..... spitfire, Tonka, F-35.

Tornados took off (4) followed by a singleton (black tail one), obviously on a mission / sortie of some kind, then after a good while, they are back at an altitude to make Neil Armstrong proud, for a diamond 4 up the 'old' runway as its now being rebuilt. The black Tailed tonka flew as a sort of 'whipper in' separately before running in at great height and did a few rudimentary rolls and pull rounds at a distance a 600mm would be stretched to get anything from.

At this point you'd be forgiven for thinking that as they landed on the cross runway, they could be asked to come round and up to where we were for merely a few minutes to allow us to take their pics before they trundled back to their barns, but no it was 'right turn clyde' and back to the barns. Even the black one, which might have made 'the difference from being fully peed off to only 90% peed off wasnt playing.

A truly awful day that led to smirks and embarrasing silence on the minibus back to the car park when the driver asked 'did we enjoy it?'

A morning that had 2 x F-16's playing less than 10 miles away, A hawk T1 overhead, a Tucano overhead, a french chopper in kent heading north, had us all hoping for better than getting used as a financial filip, and an after thought to those in uniform's selfies and fun.
£50 for basically 2 aircraft, 1 civilian visitor and the Spitfire that arrived early and didnt do 3 flypasts as i can make out. looked nice on the pan though, but in all honesty it didnt have any competition.

Talk about fleecing the enthusiast! They should be ashamed at today, its a black day in Marhams P.R. organisation , and if they had any ba lls someone should firstly apologise, then offer us all a free event to mend bridges that are burnt and about to collapse inthe river.
After all, talk in the car park spoke of mystical happenings at Marham previously........ busses to see the Tonkas in the barns, busses to see the guardians etc.

as for the visitors? did they invite anyone really or was it merely the visitors noting that marham said they were asking for visitors, and rocking up?
have Marham got friends anymore? do not the other squadrons and bases around the country help each other out pn days like this?

out of 10, i'd give it a 2, but in all honesty i'm loathed to be that generous. The worst day i have ever had on any base in the world bar none. Might make the recent NTM look like a well run wornderful utopia.

[Blackcat1]

Very sad

[James Cutting]

All I’d like to add, is this:

This event was set up for us. The “Enthusiasts”. People were requesting to leave at 14:30. What does that tell you? Jets were 2000ft. To put it into perspective, people woth a 500mm AND 1.4x converter struggled.

People go MUCH better shots OUTSIDE the base. Says a lot, really. Hope they have a serious hard look at how they run these things.

They have lost a LOT of Enthusiasts. As well as massive amounts of trust, loyalty and faith.

[James Cutting]

Also, not ONE person SPOKE to us at all there (bar base commander) I felt like we were a nuisance to the RAF and looked at like crap off the bottom of a shoe. A RAF guy walked passed with the “baton” and a mate asked for a picture of it; a snobby reply of “pff, you've had your chance”...great way to make us feel buddy! As already mentioned it was just a PR stunt and we were “numbers”. Disgusting.

[Thunderbolt II]

Psssst... giz 50 quid and I'll let you look at an old Tornado your taxes pay for. Now sod off while we spend the cash on something unspecified.
Maybe they could put the money towards a proper viewing area... Thought not.

[Off Airways]

Clearly reading all of the above, many of you are "extremely" disappointed and disgruntled and understandably so in my opinion .... but all these comments will do nothing unless you have the courage and conviction to complain in writing promptly or NOTHING will be done, it's your call! No base wants bad PR!

Just my two cents worth having been involved in very successful families day's and squadron exchanges.

[Blackcat1]

Bring back Air Fetes at Mildenhall. The Americans were always great hosts, reading these comments I'm in shock the way certain members of the RAF have been acting!!