My first trip to the Royal International Air Tattoo! Myself and good friend Chris decided to head down to Gloucestershire to see one of the world’s biggest military airshows for the first time.
We got digs in a B&B which must not have been near any pubs as we were stuck for food. The hosts didn’t normally do food but very kindly allowed us to join in with their evening meal for a small fee. I also recall there was a swimming pool covered over with a tarp which their cats took great pleasure in scurrying across!
Airshow day! It was spanking hot down at Fairford, I don’t think there was a cloud in the sky all day. I think we plotted up right at the end of what is now Red zone at the Eastern end of the crowdline. I wanted to be right at the front and this was the only place I could do that – I had a lot to learn about these big airshows where getting to the front mean super early starts and defensive elbows! I’m looking at EXIF information and it looks like I was using a Canon 350D chassis with a Canon 75-300mm lens. The zoom lens was alreday rather old and had been bought for my old film camera. My camera at that time was a Canon 300D, an early DSLR known as the Digital Rebel in America. I’d treat myself to it back in 2004 after getting diagnosed with cancer because if you can’t treat yourself then when the f*ck can you?! So it looks like I was borrowing my then girlfriend Debi’s 350D camera, not sure why!
2006 is a long time ago so I’m struggling to recall much of the airshow but there are some highlights that have stuck with me. One of the biggies was seeing the Canberra PR9 at one if it’s last airshow appearances, I’d never seen one in the air before and I know Chris was very keen to see it as well. Most of the pictures I took of it were crap, really underexposed but it’s a testament to Photoshop that I’ve been able to Shadows/Highlight tool the fek out of them to retrieve something usable for this blog. Also of note, the pilot on the day was 61 years old!
This Canberra, XH134, actually got back in the air again in 2013 and flew on the circuit for a couple of years before the inevitable lack of funds grounded it.
I remember being surprised how sprightly this 1940s designed jet was, it took off and climbed at a fair rate of knots! Reminds me of the U2 – first time I saw that take off I expected a gentle climb but it zoomed up like a …well…F104 with the wings of a glider :-D. I’m a bit gutted that my only photos of this impressive machine are a bit gash but really I should just be happy I have any!
Next up from my fading memory, the F15C. Not sure how many times I’d seen an F15 prior to 2006 although I do know I saw an F15I (Israel) somewhere, possibly Waddington in 2001. Anyway this was a cracking display and one of the things that stuck in my memory was the peculiar whine from those big Pratt and Whitneys, you can detect a little bit of it in this person’s vid from the day at 3:33 secs in
Again, my photos really don’t do it justice but better than nothing
RIAT 2006 was the first time I saw the Osprey. This early machine was with VMX22, the Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron. I was excited to see it and thought it was going to be the highlight of the airshow
How wrong was I! The Russians turned up and stole the show with a display that I still rank as one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. They brought over the MiG 29 OVT which was done out in a stunning paint job and equipped with thrust vectoring. It took off and proceeded to do real filthy stuff, things you have no right seeing a fixed wing aeroplane do. With its wobbly nozzles seemingly pulsing and quivering this machine performed backflips like a gymnast pivoting around the horizontal bar and fell out of the sky with the pilot still completely under control. At times I was just staring up into the sky slack jawed. The nearest I’ve seen since then was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the F22 but even that couldn’t quite match the lunacy of this routine!
Again my pictures are woefully inadequate so check out this Wings TV video on Youtube
2006 was my first RIAT but I don’t think I had enough time to fully appreciate the size of it. Nor did I appreciate enough the diversity of the kit I was seeing. I’d pay good money to see a PR9, MIG29OVT, F15, Harrier, B1 etc. I wanted to go 2008 but couldn’t – as it turned out I didn’t miss much as the show was cancelled because of waterlogged car parks but I was still jealous of those who got to see the first (practice) demo of the F22.