Royal International Air Tattoo 2024 General Discussion Thread

[Mike]

Also F-5E J-3080 was on the flightline

Could that be the one that was hangared and should still be there as 8 arrived but only 7 departed?

[peasus911]

not sure if it's already been mentioned but if my maths hasn't let me down, i counted 29 Hawks at the show, that's fantastic.

[jasonT1981]

I enjoyed my time at RIAT over the 3 days, though long covid kicked my ass on the Saturday forcing me to leave an hour before the end sadly.

Pros

The F16 Viper line was fantastic, the elevated platform was a very good idea
Security - A fantastic upgrade on last year, lessons have been learned
Swindon Shuttle bus (Sat & Sun) - very quick and no complaints
Viewing Village & Flight deck staff - Very friedly.
Flight deck Ice cream - delicious
Friday - One of the best days ever at Fairford

Flying Pros

Seeing flying Phantoms, Tornados and Harrier all in one day at a UK show? in 2024? Amazing, Friday will love long in memory. Phantoms were incredible

2X U2s. Never seen one flying, to see 2 in one day was brilliant

F15 - Wow, only thing I can compare it to is the incredible SU27 displays we saw pre Covid

NATO Flypast - That sequence of take offs and the flypast, brilliant to see.

Solo Turk - A massive welcome back, brilliant display

Yellow Sparrows - Yes, I am serious. A very nice display, though they would be suited to a smaller location like Cosford or Duxford.

Patrouille Suisse - Simply outstanding. One of my favourite displays


Cons

Friday shuttle bus - Just what the heck happened? 90 minutes to get to RIAT from Swindon, 1 hour 40 mins to get back, and it seemed I was on one of the shorter journeys too compared to other stories . I was lucky and didn't have to wait in Swindon, seems queues for more than 30 mins started just when I left. Shuttle bus got stuck in heavy traffic on Friday which had a knock on effect on picking people back up in Swindon. Honestly, it was a shambles, traffic management failed massively on the Friday.

Speaker wires - Being in the grandstand, many of my runway photos have wires running through them with the way the speakers were wired from the top this year. No thought was given to this and it didn't work

Personal Conduct - Seriously lacking, so many rude people. Nearly a number of punch ups in the grandstand due to people just taking seats they hadn't paid for then refusing to move. Idiots standing up, even on the seats and blocking views in grandstand. They seemed to think their photos were more important than anyone seeing anything. They spent the entire show looking through their lenses. Same in Flightdeck on Sunday, People in the front row seating area standing up blocking the entire view of the runway/flight line just so they could get photos. To hell with everyone else as long as you get 400 shots per display. There is a standing photo area in the Flight deck and the Viewing Village. oh fudge off to there if you want to stand and get photos. Staff need to be more vigilant on this.

Food prices - darn hell, remember when RIAT dictated the prices and had a max price for each item that could be sold? why did they do away with that.

Viewing Village queue - over 30 minutes to get into Viewing Village on Saturday, only one staff member for the grandstand tickets/wristbands. People were getting angry, especially as flying started and we were still in queue despite joining 15 mins before the show was due to start. More staff are needed for ticket checks and wristband allocation, espeically with quite a few other staff just sitting around outside the grandstand area, they could have been reallocatted for 10 mins or so.

Flying Cons

Hawks/Display teams - That segment between 12pm and 2pm was a long drag with so many teams one after another, spread them out please. There are only so many Hawk displays you can see in the space of 2 hours before you start losing interest. Now, every one of those displays are great on their own, no complaints on that, just needed better spacing.

As said before, Saturday felt flat to no fault of RIAT. I think the low cloud and weather was a dampner. Which is weird as last year it bucketed the entire weekend and it didn't seem as flat as this year's Saturday.

Overall

I really did enjoy my time at RIAT this year. Credit, and thank you to Peter, RIAT ATC and everyone involved in the show. In the skies most seemed great, but lessons could be learned on the gound in things mentioned above. I found myself not taking anywhere near as many photos this year and sitting back and enjoying the show, I think only 600 photos over the weekend on the camera (not including static on my phone)

Not my favourite RIAT but had some very memorable moments and Friday will be a memory that lasts a lifetime.

[Mike]

The checklist above has yet another version of the Red Arrow's serials - 2 of them are different from POL's list. Can anyone help?

[Doughnut]

not the official checklist, but my log of sunday.

[/quote]

Many thanks for the list.

Couple of comments are you sure you saw Vampire T55 LN-DHZ ??
The one marked up in Canadian colours was single seater LN-DHY coded 062/AL

Also the Chipmunk WP905 is G-BNZC marked as 18671 from the Shuttleworth Collection.
The F4U-5N Corsair was 123176 now registered D-FCOR

I am not up to speed on the drones but the two Qinetic Banshee's had numbers and there was one on the Royal Navy stand with a large helicopter UAV
Any details available ? Where they included on the official RIAT list ?

[Dennisblade]

not the official checklist, but my log of sunday.

Many thanks for the list.

Couple of comments are you sure you saw Vampire T55 LN-DHZ ??
The one marked up in Canadian colours was single seater LN-DHY coded 062/AL

Also the Chipmunk WP905 is G-BNZC marked as 18671 from the Shuttleworth Collection.
The F4U-5N Corsair was 123176 now registered D-FCOR

I am not up to speed on the drones but the two Qinetic Banshee's had numbers and there was one on the Royal Navy stand with a large helicopter UAV
Any details available ? Where they included on the official RIAT list ?
[/quote]

you are right about the 3 aircraft. Had looked them up om internet, but i made a misstake

[Dennisblade]

The checklist above has yet another version of the Red Arrow's serials - 2 of them are different from POL's list. Can anyone help?

10 of the hawks i read of photo's.
the one i didnt read myself, the xx232, i got of the checklist.

[simon]

Also F-5E J-3080 was on the flightline

Could that be the one that was hangared and should still be there as 8 arrived but only 7 departed?

Mike
I didn’t note J-3088 departing on Monday but did spy an F-5 tucked away nose on in the hangar so assume that’s the one along with the two Danes.

Hth
Simon

[witje]

Also F-5E J-3080 was on the flightline

Could that be the one that was hangared and should still be there as 8 arrived but only 7 departed?

On Sunday it was flying the demo and was the spare with the Red Arrows.

[Mike]

The checklist above has yet another version of the Red Arrow's serials - 2 of them are different from POL's list. Can anyone help?

10 of the hawks i read of photo's.
the one i didnt read myself, the xx232, i got of the checklist.

Many thanks

[MikeN]

Great Air Show. Weather cloudy but very little rain. My USAF did not let me down, but I wish they were not at the far end of the runway. I must have walked 2 miles that Saturday back and forth. It is nice to see other countries aircraft which we do not get to see at airshows in the states. The only complaint I have is that they had more restrooms at more locations.

[Gary]

2 miles? I clocked up near 31000 steps or 15 miles on Saturday. Need to put more effort in next time

[manstonite]

Good Afternoon
Can anybody help with the display schedule for Sunday the 21st of July ,as our coach was stuck in traffic and then directed to the wrong part of the airfield

[MikeN]

But I am 64 and how are you walking 15 miles?

[Mike]

Gary missed the last shuttle bus and had to walk back to Swindon.

[Nighthawke]

Age is not a general indication of ability. I'm 60 and regularly walk 3-5 miles a day. Many others more senior much further

Try Disneyland Paris - easily 20,000 per day. Good practice for when our granddaughter is a bit older.

[MikeN]

Forgot to mention I have arthritis in both knees.

[Gary]

Gary missed the last shuttle bus and had to walk back to Swindon.

that would have been my luck..

I blame walking to the bars and back . Didn't take the camera on Saturday. So walked the static end to end twice and had to do multiple beer quality check at the service stations



22k Friday
31k Saturday
16k Sunday

Beer was 50p cheaper in FRIAT than the main showground that could have been IPA though. Had a lot over the weekend

[pg1610]

Did anybody physically check the MSN of King Air D-CUTE
lots of pictures on line showing it to be FL-614 but numerous databases showing it as FL-504
only physically checked please not this db says this etc

Also confirmation of its current owner would help please

thanks

[bizfreeq]

FL504 is correct, checked on Saturday