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Royal International Air Tattoo 2019

Dave Anderson   Chris Smith   Matt Falcus   Stuart Reid

After I (CS) made my debut at last years RIAT I vowed as far as possible to never miss another one, so for this year I proposed a Friends of the Airport coach trip - unfortunately it fell apart (the less said about that the better but Dave and others have all assured me "I did my bit" and it ultimately wasn't either my fault or the fault of the wider Friends group otherwise you would not be reading this report!). Anyway the FoDTVA committee members who had tickets decided to car share and we drove down after work on the Friday evening, arriving at the Premier Inn at Evesham at 9.30pm then it was straight to the Beafeater next door, where the grub and alcohol went down very nicely. One mistake made was we booked breakfast with the rooms and it turned out we would need to leave the hotel at 6am and breakfast didn't start until 7am, ah well. It was a clear drive through to Fairford, arriving at about 7am, one minute we were being directed down a country lane next thing we're driving across the B52 pads. We had a half hour wait for the check point to open but the queue went down fast once it did. Security is random, with Dave getting straight through unchecked, Matt and myself were frisked, Stuart wasn't but his bag was searched. It's amazing what people take with them! We saw wheelbarrows, trolleys, pillows you name it...one of the static heavy transporters was probably a spotter charter bringing all their gear in!! Weather was iffy all day, we'd dressed for sun, and the rain held off but the wind got up at one point and whilst there was probably no more than an hour total of sunshine, it must have been enough as most of us were very red and sore the next day! For me, the highlight was easily the British Airways 747 fly-past, strange how elegant and graceful managed to trump noisey high octane speed! Dave was there for numbers more than anything else "once you've seen one fast jet display you've seen them all" and I know what he means, some displays were a little lacklustre and repetitive but these things are designed for the general public who wouldn't have known any different and not the enthusiasts, it amazes me that some people expect Skylive to match RIAT!! Dave found the Swiss F-18 and Spanish Harriers particularly good, Matt as a non-military [fast jet] spotter also considered the 747 a highlight and I think Stuart just appreciates the lot whether it's an F-35 or Swiss PA-28!! The NATO fly-past was poor, probably due to being three aircraft light, with the E-3 Sentry and Luftwaffe Tornado's going tech, and the Luftwaffe A400M being called away for operational reasons. Also disappointing was the Apache demo, but only because a partition/marquee blocked our view of the pyrotechnics. As is always the case at these things everything was extortionately expensive yet somehow we didn't seem to mind, must have been even more so for Stuart as he went back for second helpings at both breakfast and lunch!! Last year was a better show, but I'm told that more/higher quality participants are attracted when Farnborough Air Show follows this one.

Even one of the busiest air show's in the world has its languors !!!