Royal International Air Tattoo 2017 Discussion Thread

[welshandy]

Just had a great site of the B2 escorted by 2 x F15's over the Hoburne site in South Cerney

[bizfreeq]

93-1087 'Spirit of Pensylvania' for the B2

[Blackcat1]

Great help lol thanks. But great I got the times for the F4s, Tornado and Mirages! Yay :-)

[Apache123]

Was a great show saturday. The weather didnt play ball but there was great quality aircraft on show and was one of the better RIAT shows in recent past for me. I was abit disapointed with the usafe fly throughs as thought it might be more of a formation rather than seperate. Overall very pleased with the show and bring on 2018s show

Regards

Apache123

[slogen51]

On Sunday I thought the USAFE displays were quite good , okay they just basically beat up the field but they were fast and loud and the crowd seemed to like them.

[POL]

Really struggled to enjoy RIAT today. The aircraft present were amazing, a really brilliant effort by the team produced some quite rare aircraft, including some first timers.

The static layout seemed great for photography, friendly crews, great flying displays, but it all seemed a bit....dull. Almost as if the fun of the event was gone.

I don't know if it was the fact is done my usual buildup "arrivals" list, so knew exactly what was there; down to the last airframe, or the fact the flying display seemed to be north of the secondary crowds assembled in the various camp sites, or just that after two stunning trips in to Europe for both operational and airshow flying, British shows are just a bit lacklustre?

Now, I'm quite sure I'm the only one who thinks this. I spent the entire two(!!) hour drive from Fairford to Heathrow this evening thinking about it.

I think this may be my last RIAT as a paying visiting. Maybe I'll try a secondary crowd location next time..?

[Nighthawke]

Early mid-life crisis onset?

[Blackcat1]

Yep campsites get better views of the displays I'm told and it does look obvious. Watching Thursdays Flanker practice I think he thought the crowd line was Totterdown !! ;-)

[turmo]

My first time attending as FRIAT but next time I'll probably limit to pay as you go Spotter Days I.e. not the weekend.

Once you've seen the rehearsals the only advantage of the weekend is the full static. Everything else is louder, busier and generally less enjoyable, personally.

A pity they don't do 'Mach 0.5’ packages just covering the enthusiast days.

[EF-111]

I attended Saturday and didn't let a little rain dampen my enjoyment of the day. I know some of the flying was cancelled, but the ones I really wanted to see (Italian Tornado, Su-27, Mirage 2000Ds, and Rafale) all got off the ground
The static was generally well laid out, though they could have moved the barriers a little further back from the nose of the U-2. Non aircraft wise the Japanese drummers were brilliant, and well worth the best part of an hour I spent watching them at lunch time.
Leaving the green car park at the end was very smooth. I left just after the Apache demo and was back in my mum's house in Gloucester before 18:00

[sabrejet]

Really struggled to enjoy RIAT today. The aircraft present were amazing, a really brilliant effort by the team produced some quite rare aircraft, including some first timers.

The static layout seemed great for photography, friendly crews, great flying displays, but it all seemed a bit....dull. Almost as if the fun of the event was gone.

I don't know if it was the fact is done my usual buildup "arrivals" list, so knew exactly what was there; down to the last airframe, or the fact the flying display seemed to be north of the secondary crowds assembled in the various camp sites, or just that after two stunning trips in to Europe for both operational and airshow flying, British shows are just a bit lacklustre?

Now, I'm quite sure I'm the only one who thinks this. I spent the entire two(!!) hour drive from Fairford to Heathrow this evening thinking about it.

I think this may be my last RIAT as a paying visiting. Maybe I'll try a secondary crowd location next time..?

I've been attending IAT/RIAT since 1976 (did miss a couple in the late '80s/early '90s) and have to say that I thought this year's was the best in a long time.

However I would say that the way to enjoy it is to do arrivals days (rehearsals often closer to crowd line and the interesting static is not static) and then go on Friday when there are fewer people about. OK you don't get the whole static or air display deal, but then you've seen most of it arrive anyway. Yes there are no more F-104, Lightning, SR-71, Tu-95 or Vulcan displays of long ago but instead we have a number of other notable machines to take their place.

Luckily I think the B-52 will be available for RIAT long after I'm not.

And OK Friday next year may be different, but we'll see how that goes. I hope to be there

[nescafe37]

Great help lol thanks. But great I got the times for the F4s, Tornado and Mirages! Yay :-)

Yep - there really helpful on here sometimes
Guess some folk can afford to spend evey last moment here including paying to go into the shows.

Obviously some better off than us mate.


C.

Says the man who is writing posts at 4.40am lol.

[MRTT]

Anyone able to confirm what's not departing today?

[grogresaurus77]

Where do we find out which aircraft won awards?

[bizfreeq]

Anyone able to confirm what's not departing today?

B1 and B52 are tomorrow Ollie

[sneezy24]

My thoughts on RIAT 2017.

Did some different things this year.

Went on arrivals day (Thursday), P&V East. Great location, great arrivals and rehearsals.

Went again on Saturday (not done a weekend for a looong time, but have done a couple of Fridays). Weather was awful!, but really enjoyed the statics, and most of the displays.

I tried to get excited by the Thunderbirds but having seen their rehearsal on Thursday, I went looking for some paint to watch dry....

Reds? What can I say! Flat display but SUPERB!

Easy in and out by bus, trained to Swindon. Only problem was that bus on way in seemed to get lost!!!

Went on Monday as well, went to P&V West for a change. Really good day, got some cracking pics! Got a bit hot though, left about 14:15 when it was starting to wind down a bit.

Big thank you to all the volunteers (particularly Clive, Andy and Miles - thanks for the Breitling coffee!)

See you next year!

Mick

[MRTT]

07-7172 for the C-17.

[red leader]

I did deoartures today. It was great weather. A shame not like this at weekend.
I left around 3pm after c17 had taken off. A hercules went over me as I drive out. Anyone know which one it was? It was just after the usaf c17.

[bizfreeq]

The Qatari one

[Richard E]

Firstly, two requests. The USAF C-17 parked at the 27 end of the runway on the northside and a USAF bizjet that landed approx 0900-0930, both Sunday?

The bizjet was a Gulfstream C-37A 01-0028/10028