As a middle aged, no..scratch that…as a three quarter aged dad to a young child, with a fairly stressful job the amount of time I can devote to hobbies has diminished over the years and RIAT is normally a sudden realisation of “shit, I need to pack, we’re going tomorrow”. However, this year for the first time my little boy has really started to look forward to RIAT – indeed it transpired he’d been telling all his school chums about it for a few weeks beforehand. This helped me get into the mood as well and I tried to keep pace with the developments on both RIAT and Kempsford Facebook groups which added to the anticipation. I had also been frequenting the UKAR forums and couldn’t help trawl through the doom posting about how FRIAT was basically f*cked forever.
Thursday
Packing the car was a mammoth task as always, especially as we have a new and substantially bigger tent after our old one packed in at RIAT 2023 after about 15 years of fantastic service. I was also glad to still have my trusty and even older camera bag with me which I’d repaired by sourcing a ‘hangar queen’ donor off Ebay. The drive down was a brain numbing trudge through road works all the way down the M1 then again on the A roads. However, upon arrival at Kempsford the weather was glorious and giddy with excitement, wristbands deployed, we set the new tent up in the top field. Despite being on a family mission I couldn’t swerve that first night of holiday vibe and we spend a bit of time at the marquee where I have a beer of two and start to unwind….
…before returning to the tent to knock back about 5 or 6 bottles of beer and finish the evening gawping at the stars in the clear night sky listening to the Doves on my bluetooth speaker. Holiday mode activated.
Friday
It’s a beautiful day, temps are climbing and the sky is blue but the doom posting has got to me. I get up at 06:30 (helped by the glorious sound of a U2 taking off around that time) and have a brew before heading out to Blue entrance to see how insane the queue is now RIAT has implemented this holding area system which makes me think of cattle pens. I’m pleasantly surprised to discover at 07:14 there is no queue!
Still pissed off they took away our precious FRIAT entrance though! I head back to the tent and wait for my son and girlfriend to wake up before having breakfast then heading into the showground at 09:30 with no queue other than security. We have a brief foray into the stalls and statics and I’m pleased to see the Antarctic Survey Twotter there, nice catch RIAT.
I have no real interest in patches but this bad boy got bought quick sharp.
I also see a big line of F16 fins stretching off into the distance down in green which is roped off. Looks impressive.
Those 2 get plotted up in front of one of the new screens not far from FRIAT which is great for them but terrible for me to shoot from :-D. I eventually head into FRIAT, grab my programme and a coffee and soak up the vibe before getting to my seat. Same people as last year – 2 guys to my left who are absolutely sound and great to chat to then the chap on my right who is a Johnny foreigner but I can’t work our which country he’s from and so conversation is limited to terse hand gestures and nods/weak smiles. He’s probably from Daventry and just can’t be arsed speaking to me and I wouldn’t blame him to be honest.
First up, Danish F16 and it’s chugging out a goodly amount of shock diamonds. I really like this paint job.
The F16 was followed up by a Luftwaffe Typhoon which gave a really good display and also had a stunning paint job
Undoubtedly a star item for me when I saw it on the line up for this year was the Boeing F15QA. Last time I saw a proper display by an F15 was RIAT 2006 I believe when the USAF sent an F15C and before that it was an F15I at….blimey, I can’t even remember which airshow it was but I think it was in the very late 90s or early 200s?
It was a really good display and not sure which of the days they did it but there was at least one tailslide! The noise as well, oh the noise. I was just telling the guy next to me about the lovely blue-noteesque noise you sometimes get from those big Pratt and Whitneys when lo and behold it demonstrated the howl perfectly. Will we ever see an F15EX at RIAT?
I can already see this post is spiralling out of control. Blog posts are meant to be short, punchy, a quick read. Hahaha no chance, not when I’m on the case but just stick with it for as long as you can. I mean, I probably shouldn’t be posting about the Embraer C390 but it is a lovely little lifter and looking on Wiki it seems it’s starting to build a fair few orders around the world including Brazil (obviously), Portugal, Hungary Netherlands, Austria and South Korea. It’s not quite as sexy as the Kawasaki C2 but getting there.
Just after 11 a real treat as a USAF U2 enters the chat, I’m wondering if this was the one that went up about 06:30. We get a flypast and a couple of touch and goes – not something you expect from the U2! I’m digressing again but I am currently reading about Aquatone in the Dreamland book by Peter W Merlin. This book is phenomenal, the detail is staggering but very readable and some superb photos, most of which I’ve never seen before.
Anyway. The U2
Gotta calm down with the photos now. I missed the final landing as by now my son was getting pissed off daddy was deserting him so had wandered back out to meet up with my family and had a terrible view for shooting the NATO formation aircraft go up! Never mind, I did get a couple of nice ones but didn’t really catch the Spanish F5s. I’ve gotta say the formations don’t often get me super moist but I know for a lot of people they are a big draw to RIAT. The BOAC 747 with the dead sparrows, now that, yeah that did do it for me.
We took a walk down to Red and looked at the statics and I also hit the stalls looking for good T-Shirts and finally found a cracker from the Matador guys. The weather was scorching by now, getting a bit too hot for comfort. However it didn’t stop us having a good look around some of the British army’s latest infantry vehicles. The Ajax is a right unit, weighs as much as a tank and is festooned with cameras. A good friend of mine worked on Ajax, probably designing the cup holder or something but I lay the blame of any Ajax fault squarely at his feet…and there have been a few!
We also got to sit inside a Foxhound MRAP which was far more interesting than I thought it would be. Again, cameras all over the shop to give the crew good situational awareness of what’s going on outside.
We also saw some drones, one of which was the size of a bloody donkey – I think Ukraine has similar sized ones that get called Baba Yagar and they scare the shit out of the Russians.
After leaving the here I got us some water from the bowser, think it’s the first time I’ve done it and man alive it tasted awful, chlorined up the whazoo. Guess it’s better to be safe than sorry but it was grim. Anyway we perused some more statics including a turbo Firecat, a first for me and a surprising highlight
It was so hot I was starting to worry about my little boy overheating so we decided to head back to Kempsord for a couple of beers at the campsite bar (me, not him) then back to the tent for a game of Scatch and a disaster involving my clumsy foot and the boy’s newly purchased F15 toy.
Saturday
Pretty early start, I go through on my own this time and again pretty quick getting through security. It’s just gone 08:30 and it’s already very busy but thankfully not as baking hot as yesterday.
Bacon sarnie, coffee then down to shoot more statics before the flying starts up. I shoot the Alize, a definite highlight of this year, last time I saw one was maybe Farnborough 1999 or something?
F16 line up.
Today the flying display kicks off with a flat display from the F15QA. Flat but still roarsome as my son’s birthday cards often proclaim.
After a suitable period of FRIAT avgeeking I bail to go join gf & son over in Family enclosure. Somewhere along the way I buy some chicken nuggets in Korean sauce and they are good. I mean if you got served this specific food at this specific price outside RIAT you’d want to karate kick the vendor into the sun, but here, in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.
Our child has been carrying on as he does sometimes, and wants a toy aeroplane and of course he wants the biggest and best in the shop. A battle ensues but the squeaky 5 year old wheel gets the oil and in the end he walks away with a £30 diecast Vulcan. It’s a thing of beauty to be fair but in a homage to pre-Black Buck he snaps off the AAR probe within 10 minutes. We have completely made a rod for our own backs by ‘rewarding’ such behaviour!
This year was the 50th anniversary of the F16’s first flight and quite rightly a big fuss was made at RIAT with the line up and what not but but it was also the 50th anniversary of both the Hawk and the Tornado. The Finns were here again this year with the 4 x Hawk TMk1s of the Midnight Hawks display team, 3 of which were in a lovely retro red and white scheme and as always they fly a nice, well executed and professional display.
After the Hawks I shot the Czech 211 squadron Gripen very badly, blurry and grainy but here’s a couple anyway, it did have a nice paintjob. I’m hoping I got some better pics of it either on the Sunday or departures.
More grainy pics of the Luftwaffe Typhoon followed, ISO400, I’m not gonna even bother with them. However the shots of the Matador have come out half decent.
Looks like after the Matador we had the Yellow Sparrows from Norway which I think are a new one on me. The default mindset of many a RIAT goer is to go get some food when a display team with props goes up but I always try take the time to watch them these days and truly appreciate the amount of skill that must be required for this kind of precise flying. Plus, they’re a nice bold yellow, and have sharkmouths!
During another wander along the statics I took some crowd shots, I always take a few, it amazes me how many people are there and find myself wondering what little vignettes are happening in that frame, all those little mini stories and dramas. It’s an extension of people watching really although when I do it at night through people’s bedroom windows using my 400mm whilst dressed head to toe in black…all of a sudden it’s voyeurism under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Political correctness gone fucking mad eh?
I must have returned to FRIAT shortly after this because this is where I start seeing photos at 600mm! I borrowed a Sigma 150 – 600mm lens from COAP (I think that’s what they were called) just to see how useful that extra reach really is, and what the IQ is like on brand new glass compared to my 16 year old L series 100-400 Mk1. Well, looking back through the images now they start off pretty shit as I’m clearly getting to grips with it. Shooting at ISO400 there’s a lot of noise and I’m still getting a lot of blurry shots so that kinda points to me being rubbish as well as some question marks over the high ISO performance of my 7DMk2. I did get some interesting shots of the CF-188..those nozzles are rather close to the tarmac!
My shots begin to improve now and I’m reasonably happy with some of these.
And on occasion that extra 200mm of reach meant some of those distant shots that I normally take and always discard are actually viable.
The lens was twist-to-zoom which took a bit of getting used to compared to my push-pull Canon although I was subsequently told it could do both.
Anyway, enough Cf-188. Oh wait…no..we have the formation!
Overall I think there’s a lot of potential with a lens like this, when used correctly it will produce results I couldn’t achieve before. I don’t think I’d swap, but I’d certainly like it as an additional zoom.
At some point on the Saturday I stopped to have a good talk with a guy on the British Antarctic Survey stand. I was fascinated by what he was telling me about the work they do but alas I cannot remember much now so you better check their website out! Also, worth a mention was the guy running a coffee business out of the side of his Landrover Defender! If he’s at RIAT 2025 and you like a good coffee and brownie, this is where you want to go.
Sunday
Steady morning, not much of a hangover despite having a fair few beers in the Kempsford Marquee last night. I would have had a few more steady beers as well back in the day, but as a reasonably responsible dad I have to behave myself these days – no more spewing up in the chemical bogs at Kempsford eh? No point rushing so I make us all a fry up and brew coffee using my Aeropress – great gadget once you get the amounts right. We don’t head in until about 11 am and I get to the FRIAT stand just in time to catch the Qatari F15 going up.
We do more statics and I suffer a short circuit in my cerebral shopping-cortex and I lurch from aircrew stall to aircrew stall thrusting screwed up notes into their hands to amass a horde of t-shirts. The crowning glory is the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron U2 t-shirt which I try to only wear on special occasions but the sad reality is outside the world of avgeekery no one is going to think there is anything remotely cool about it.
I’m just gonna blast through Sunday photos now, otherwise this blog post is going to get a bit samey. The Italian Typhoon was a great display, always is – I hope we get to see their Tornado again if it’s still in service? It’s time for me to bang on again about the time the Italian Tornado got way out of line at RIAT and was practically over the crowdline, best day ever for my childish little inner avgeek. I have to make a confession, something that wakes me in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. A lot of my aviation knowledge is old, gained in the 80s and 90s before I started drinking and the like, and when I saw said Tonka it looked kinda clean and elongated (optical illusion) and I dredged up a memory that the Italian AF used to operate F3s so for a very short while, whenever I spoke of this incident I referred to it as an F3. I subsequently discovered they went out of Italian service about 10 years prior. Faux pas like that haunt me….
As I said before, I’m not hugely into the formations but you bet I’m gonna be there getting a picture or 20 of each of these unique formations because FOMO! So when the Red Arrows formed up with the Patrouille Suisse I dutifully got my shots in. The F5 is such an attractive little jet, and the PS markings are stunning, and their flying is excellent…somehow though I don’t get too excited by them anymore. And yet you know very well when they retire, which is very soon I think, all I’ll want to see at an airshow is the Patrouille Suisse!
I spent a ridiculous amount of time watching the F15s getting ready to go up. There was something mesmerising watching and listening to the various testing going on.
This has to be the end of the F15 pics now, this blog post is bloody full of them. It is also true that I have neglected rotary so here, I got some nice side profile pics of the Apache, which I believe is an AH2 which is our latest version here in the UK.
Sunday was very much a family day where I tried to dial down the selfish avgeek behaviour and this is reflected in the incredibly low shutter count for the day! I really don’t have that many pics, it’s pretty astonishing but knowing I had departures the following day meant I could somewhat relax. I find it hard to relax at airshows, always worried I’m missing out on something, might not see it again etc etc. I swear it stems from childhood trauma when I was sat in a traffic jam so near yet so far from …Biggin Hill maybe?….watching a Jag going back and forth, up and down in the distance, nearly crying with frustration!
Walking down the road back to Kempsford on Sunday is when post-RIAT blues begins. There’s still Sunday night left, and departures, but it’s not the same is it? All of a sudden you start to miss what was annoying, like the relentless ‘ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls’ announcements! However, we had a great wind down at the beer tent and a couple of photos here really sum up the Kempsford/RIAT experience for me now. Watching my son enjoy the vibe, and engaging with him on a shared interest is a real privilege and I hope he continues to enjoy airshows with us.
In the picture below you can see the RIAT blues temporarily disappearing in the haze of a few pints of real ale and a glorious sunset. I always like watching the sun going down behind the big jets on the base whilst sinking a pint or two.
Monday
Departures!
I’m lacking motivation somewhat so it’s another lazy morning with an instant porridge pot and a 3-in-one coffee from a packet before finally heading back on to the base, FRIAT pass fluttering around my neck in the breeze. There’s a bit of a wait before the escorts come and take us through to the stand. I take my usual seat but the 2 guys to my left are nowhere to be seen so we all spread out a bit.
Departures in the FRIAT stand is such an odd vibe. It’s not an airshow, it’s just aeroplanes taking off and pissing off home and yet the undercurrent of barely contained childlike excitement is tangible. There’s normally at least one person with a scanner broadcasting the chatter between tower and aircrew, and then someone will always want to pipe up first with “<insert aircraft type> rolling” when something starts its take off roll. A full broadside of L series, Nikon and Sony glass track it like Bofors and pom-poms blasting away at an attacking torpedo bomber! Occasionally, if a wing is dipped to give us a bit of topside there’s a ripple of appreciation followed by immediate chimping at LCDs. And lo it came to pass that one of the first I shoot is a Luftwaffe Typhoon that gives a beautiful topside as he comes past FRIAT. Marvellous, a great start!
Not only that but his wingman did the same! I’m getting giddy now.
As if that wasn’t enough, one of my star items gets airborne next, the Alize. Now, we all know the Rafale gets the attention, it’s got the sleek lines and the sexy curves but if we’re talking French aviation I’ll take the Alize thank you very much. It’s definitely got that vibe of ‘a camel is a horse designed by a committee’ about it and long may such oddities continue, albeit in private hands like this one. I think maybe I saw one at Farnborough but not in the air. Crikey, that was back in 99 so it would have still been in service!
Following the Alize we had yet more topside and some shock diamonds out the back of a Belgian F16. Good times! Of course the Belgian F16s are going to Ukraine, I wonder if this one has gone over yet – assuming they are also sending two-seaters?
Also sending their F16s to Ukraine – the Dutch, and their departure did not disappoint and indeed gave me what might be one of my favourite shots of the weekend
Another aircraft I was keen to shoot was the Spanish F5. Stuff like this maybe I wouldn’t have been too bothered about 20 years ago but when you start to realise that a few years from now all airshows (if they are still allowed) will be grey F35s in the far distance then you appreciate it more.
In a similar vein, how’s about that 50th anniversary Tornado? Will we ever see an F35 done out in such a gaudy paintjob?!
I hit the much reduced for departures day FRIAT facilities and wince as I once again hand over an extraordinary amount of money for a sarnie and a coffee. I don’t know exactly how it works but I’m assuming the vendors will have paid at least a grand to be there, plus travel costs, outlay, wages, insurance etc etc so it’s just a circle of dry bumming unfortunately. I really must stock up more at the Kempsford campsite shop next year – all that money spent on over priced food can get spent on overpriced t-shirts..or more likely toy aeroplanes for the boy.
A surprisingly pleasing departure was this handsome little Vampire done up in RCAF colours.
A couple of things struck me in the FRIAT stand. Firstly, one of the benefits of departures is that with a 100 – 400mm lens you’re not at max zoom all the time therefore some of the softness is taken out of your photos and camera shake is lessened ergo slower shutter speed ergo wider aperture and more light etc. Secondly…when they move FRIAT stand next year….maybe we’ll get pics of the Tornados actually rotated rather than still welded to the runway 😀
As is always the case now, I can’t spend all day in the stands and I called it a day after the Qatari Hawks depart. However, one of the great things about Kempsford is that you are still very close to the runway so whilst deep in post camping admin I was still able to shoot a few more departures.
And so we draw to the close of another great RIAT. Stone me it’s getting expensive though. Bearing in mind my son gets in for free, the total bill for 2 adults and one child to do all show days at RIAT staying at Kempsord 4 nights with me in FRIAT and Family enclosure for us all when you chuck in fuel and food/fun money is gonna be at least £1000. A thousand bloody pounds!
I’m not sure what the star item was for me this year, most years there’s an announcement that knocks my socks off (see list below) but I don’t know if there was one for 2024. I think I was pretty excited to see the F15QA so that’s as near as we’ll get. It was a great RIAT though, they always are, they just fluctuate each year in terms of what parts I enjoy the most.
2023 was the Mangusta & Fiat G46,
2022 Mercury/Viggen/Lansen,
2019 Lancer, Red/Arrows & 747 in BOAC markings
2018 Flanker & Kawasaki K2
2017 Flanker & Thunderbirds
2016 F22
2015 Japanese P1 & K2
2014 Fitters
2012 Black Eagles & Vulcan
2010 Raptor
2009 B52
2006 MiG 29 OVT