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Waddington 2014 What did you think

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Mallett17
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Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Mallett17 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 8:50 pm

Just got home from the show. Here are my thoughts.

Traffic in
10 out of 10. On base by 09.30 with no delay

Static
6 out of 10. Sparse but some very tasty bits. Shame no C130 from anywhere.

Flying
7 out of 10. Bitty and disjointed at times. Some very good displays though.

Day as a whole
10 out of 10. Lots to do for the family and no rain.

Traffic out
4 out of 10. Over an hour to get off base. Our fault really leaving at 17.30. Should have sat tight.

Hope you all had a good day too.

Robin

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blakey
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by blakey » Sun Jul 06, 2014 8:59 pm

Traffic in
10 out of 10. On base by 07.30 with no delay

Static
5 out of 10. Nice what was there, but very thin this year

Flying
10 out of 10. Everything that flew was awesome

Day as a whole
10 out of 10. Im gonna miss next year

Traffic out
10 out of 10. waited till the very end and drove straight off

Loved every day from Wednesday to Sunday :clap:
Lee Blake

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Ferrari
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Ferrari » Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:10 pm

Static 10/10 - best in terms quality I've seen at Waddington
Flying display 10/10 - best in terms of variety I can remember (e.g. F-18 instead of another F-16, and the Canberra and B-17 were great to see).
Traffic 10/10 - absolutely fine in and out (left at 4.00p.m. after the Vulcan on Saturday).

A question - I come on the A46 from Newark, then end up in a car park in a field off the base which is about as far from the action as you can get. If I follow the 'red route' signs and sneak through Waddington village, would I end up in the car park next to the KC-767? It still had cars coming in at lunchtime with space to spare.

Ferrari

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paddyboy
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by paddyboy » Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:40 pm

Amazing :O

Me and Lee agree 101%

Cheers

Paddyboy :clap:
XH558, always the first lady in my life
Just remember, please don't tell the wife


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Northolt Nobbler
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Northolt Nobbler » Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:41 pm

From Saturday:

Static: 5/10
Flying Display: 7/10 - The Swedes made it for me, Canberra was very nice and the Spanish were a welcome surprise.
Traffic: 5/10 Did the train/bus thing. Stood for an hour waiting for one up to the show in the rain and caught one almost immediately at the end. Traffic was obviously interfering with the route and we took a detour in a attempt to avoid the worst of it in the city centre.

One comment (might end up as a rant - be warned...)

Gormless George Brake-on and Ben Drivell are not good commentators imho. I know its a hard task entertaining people for such a lengthy period of time, but their 'I was in the [insert Service/Company/Team here] flying the [insert fixed/rotary wing aircraft type]and we did [insert activity/airshow] comments really get on my mammaries. At times their facts are a little awry - what's the power of the Hunter engine got to do with the 'blue note'?

But - and here we go - do they know that when a microphone is on, if you don't want people to hear anything (such as prompting the Spanish team commentator what to say (despite how quietly you whisper it) or, heaven forbid, sneezing quite violently shows) not hitting the 'off' button a shows distinct lack of professionalism.

The volume of the music was akin to that probably pumped through the slightly more meaty speakers stacks at Glastonbury last weekend and completely ruined a pretty average Soloturk display and made the Jordanians even more unbearable. There has to be a way of controlling the output of the music to make it: 1 - less overpowering and 2 - a lot less intrusive.

There must be better commentators available than these two and I suppose they'll be doing their level best to ruin what promises to be a pretty average RIAT. Thankfully, I'll be working and will have almost no exposure to the PA during the show which, I suppose, is one positive to take to Wiltshire on Tuesday.

Maverick231
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Maverick231 » Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:00 am

Traffic in
10 out of 10. On base by 08.10 with no delay

Static
6 out of 10. Too many light aircraft but some very nice Mil. Shame no US Navy C130.

Flying
10 out of 10. Some fantastic Aircraft! There were delays but things like that happen.

Day as a whole
10 out of 10. Lots to do for the family and there was somthing for everyone.

Traffic out.
8 out of 10. Got stuck for about half hour but other than that it was well organised!

We beg you Waddington, PLEASE RETURN IN 2016!!!!!!!!
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Mayfly
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Mayfly » Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:53 am

Mallett17 wrote:Just got home from the show. Here are my thoughts.



Traffic out
4 out of 10. Over an hour to get off base. Our fault really leaving at 17.30. Should have sat tight.

Hope you all had a good day too.

Robin
Gosh yesterday we left at 17.40 and was home - 12 miles away by 18.10.

Another great day all round IMHO. Some lovely jet noise after 14.00 almost all the way through to the end, tho' time table was running late and disrupted to the proposed one.
Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire

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andyl1962
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by andyl1962 » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:10 am

Northolt Nobbler wrote: The volume of the music was akin to that probably pumped through the slightly more meaty speakers stacks at Glastonbury last weekend and completely ruined a pretty average Soloturk display and made the Jordanians even more unbearable. There has to be a way of controlling the output of the music to make it: 1 - less overpowering and 2 - a lot less intrusive.
Have to agree, the loud music really got to me too, much rather hear silence in between commentary items.

And why o why is the grass never cut, must be 6 inches long over most of the airfield.

burnsy133
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by burnsy133 » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:21 am

Traffic in
10 out of 10. On base no queue by 09.00 Hrs, parked at the top end of the AWACS ramp, round the corner.

Static
8 out of 10. Some nice stuff dotted about, a bit to much civil light for me to award a 9.

Flying
8 out of 10. Again everything that flew was great, not enough heavy stuff for a 9 :-) .

Day as a whole
10 out of 10. Great day, great company.

Traffic out
10 out of 10. Back to car for 17.23, back home in Manchester for 19.48.

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Dunk
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Dunk » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:39 am

Thought it was a surprisingly good line up given current military cutbacks with some rare items such as the Turkish Casa, Draken and L410

Roping around static aircraft is just ridiculous and why ram in all the static at the far end, when there was a lot more room to utilise.

Flying display was more disjointed on Sunday, really had the feeling no one knew what was going on, and certainly the commentators were not being fed the information they were on Saturday which meant they missed a number of items departing/lining up/arriving on Sunday. The Sentinel going head to head with the Merlin wasn't a great advert for Air Traffic Control, although it wasn't ever going to end in tears, it wasn't great.

Last year the the taxiway that Aspa/Reds used this weekend was apparently no longer suitable for jet aircraft when asked why they didnt put the Swedes on there, has this since been repaired? Why wernt the Swedes put there this year?! Waste of such rare and photogenic aircraft dumped over the far side.

Came in through Barn fair entrance, no problems as ever.

Tickets and numbers - Waddington kept pumping out from Thursday onwards that NO tickets would be on sale on the day, yet the Barn farm entrance had tickets on sale, almost like they didnt want to take peoples money! Crowd size seemed down on both days compared to last year, and you have to wonder where the organisers got 70,000 from for Saturday - was this just based on the advance ticket sales, as they have no idea of actual visitors through the gates as no ticket stubs etc were taken?

Speakers - way to loud, H&S almost painful at times. I noticed on Saturday the PA guys turned up the speakers at their control box by the Media enclosure a number of times. I sat looking at them shaking my head yet they just turned up!

Thoroughly enjoyed Saturdays display, both on the ground and in the air, crews were superb as always, it was a great day. Sunday just had the feel of a show that wasn't coming back….

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beefsteak
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by beefsteak » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:51 am

I was in Nottingham on business on Saturday and Sunday morning, I was finished by 10 am so took advantage to nip over to Waddo for a bit.

I know that as I didn't pay I have no rights to complain (Which I'm not , honest) But the bit I got to see , from the Spanish helicopters to the Typhoon, seemed very disjointed, lots of gaps. I couldn't see the airfield itself so if there were obvious problems I appologise, but I was listening on the airshow radio, and to be honest , they were rubbish! with very little information forthcoming , they just seemed to love the sound of their own voices.

I did like the Apache coming really low over my head as i was getting ready to leave!!
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Fatbloke
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Fatbloke » Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:31 pm

We went on Saturday.

Traffic In – No problems for us, we cut across country from the A46 at Swinderby and came in though the back of Waddington village, straight into the “Brown” car park. No queues – Result! Though it was a bit of a hike from there to where everything was happening, especially when the shuttle busses had stopped running when it came to getting back to the car.

Static – Not bad in terms of content, but I suspect many might have missed the aircraft at the top end of the site (the P8 etc,) tucked around the corner as they seemed to be. The barriers were far too close to the aircraft in some places, which caused problems with photography. I do wish they wouldn’t insist on putting covers over aircraft in the static display. We spent the day on the crowd line, intending to do the static when the flying had finished. But when we got there some of the aircraft (eg the Tornado with special tail markings) had been covered up for the night. I’m afraid I don’t want to photograph an aircraft with a blanket over the cockpit.

Flying – Very good, although I did wonder why we had to have both the Jordanians AND The Blades. It took too long IMHO to clear the Rivet Joint from the runway. Patruilla Aspa seemed only to want to display to the VIP enclosue and not to the rest of the crowd line. Shame the Merlin went tech as I’ve yet to see one in the air. Didn’t miss the Falcons though :D

The Vulcan – Brilliant take off, which then petered out into a pretty boring display, though I suppose we should be grateful for being able to see it fly at all! Once the flying display finished we headed for the static and in particular, for the "Vulcan Village". When we got there it was shut! That seriously pee'ed us off!

Commentary – disjointed, unprofessional and, unfortunately, there were language difficulties in that it was difficult to understand what the Turkish and Spanish chaps were saying. The PA was FAR TOO LOUD. I’m sure it must have breached health and safety rules!

Shuttle Busses – A fantastic and far more interesting selection of vehicles than you generally see at other airshows. But after viewing the static at the end of the show we staggered back to catch a bus back to the brown car park, only to find that they’d stopped running!

There were a few other niggles, the lack of a site plan in the programme, the website going down three days before the show and still down today(Monday). No announcements (that we heard) to say the place would shut at 7:30pm.

Finally, there were a few things the organisers couldn’t do anything about – the weather in the morning, the crowd line facing into the sun. But one thing that really pee'ed me of was that stupid cow in front of me on the crowdline, who insisted in frantically waving her arms in the air (and in front of my camera) every time an aircraft came past and encouraged her offspring to do the same GRRRR!

f1jetfan
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by f1jetfan » Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:48 pm

Here's my take on Sunday when again we got lucky with the weather, although we were owed some luck after 2007

Statics - 7/10 Some great items, Turkish Navy casa, oil spill 727, the Slovaks, P8 posidion etc just not enough military aircraft. Sign of the times so very much quality over quantity.

Flying - 9/10 It's not that long ago that Waddington had hardly any international participation in the flying display so these last few years have been great. Solo Turk, Suisse f18, viggen, drakken and Dutch hunter were superb. I also thought Sunday's Vulcan display was impressive.

traffic - 7/10 Arrived at 7.30, drove straight on to Base then once we got moving after the whirlwind departed it was straightforward.

Overall another quality Waddington, had to make the choice between this and British Grand Prix this year, really wanted to be in 2 places at once!

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Adam
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Adam » Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:55 pm

From my Sunday experience:

I agree 100% on the volume of the PA, rattled my head somewhat. The commentators just annoyed me towards the end of the day too. Static placing was rather bizarre, you had to walk some miles to catch the decent stuff at either end. The quality of the static was good though. Flying display I thought was really good, really enjoyable. Vulcan display will never be decent when Kev isn't flying, always seems to hold back despite the promises of a more dynamic display after the wing mods. I got there really early as always and left late which always ensures no traffic.

My real bone of contention was the shuttle buses finishing once the display finished. On my walk back from the P-8 back to the Brown car park, I passed several elderly people and people on crutches visibly struggling to walk back to their respective car park. I carried an old couple's bags and cool box from the KC-767 to the Brown car park because they looked like they were going to drop dead. It's meant to be a family event, people are likely to purchase tickets in the belief their physical limitations wont pose such a burden with the use of shuttle buses. I believe RIAT run their shuttle buses until last knockings, unless I'm mistaken.

But to finish on a high, the Viggen-Boner effect from 2013 still lived on, with the Draken it was a SAABgasm. Being bang on crowd centre made the Patruilla Aspa display really entertaining, Hornet display was good, Hunter F6A display was pretty awesome (rightly winning the Boeing Trophy) and the varied runways in use probably added to the show IMO (Thanks wind!).

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blackbelt
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by blackbelt » Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:21 pm

found it a bit borring ,nothing special ,vulcan on sunday was so tame and a short display.weather was good though for change .6 ,10

Northolt Nobbler
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Northolt Nobbler » Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:34 pm

Oh, and one more thing...

The display line seemed to be closer to Coningsby than Waddington. Probably not the organiser's fault, but some blue-suited 1-Star tosspot mandarin at the MAA deciding that, because we haven't had an aircraft go into the crowd for such a long time, it'll be safer to move them further away while flying. If this continues to happen, maybe Ryanair will start to sponsor the Waddo displays and park everybody at Cranwell...

I think I've got everything off my chest now.

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Ferrari
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Ferrari » Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:44 pm

It's interesting reading the number of comments about loud PA.

It's because of this that I started watching the display south of the area where the Reds Arrows were parked as there are no speakers down there.

I just don't want to hear music or too much commentary when an aircraft is displaying. I want to hear the noise of the engines.

Waddington is the only air show I get to and I thoroughly enjoy it each year. Perhaps Doncaster Sheffield Robin Hood will capitalise on
1) no Waddington in 2015
2) last flight of the Vulcan
3) it being the former site of the Finningly Air Displays and put something together for 2015.

I would pay good money to be there for the final flight of XH558, but would also need some left over to pay for the therapy afterwards.

Prestwick seems to be doing a decent job of putting something together this September.

One final point, I loved seeing the teddy bears and the banner of Finningly Primary school in the bomb aimer's window of XH558. As a school teacher, I can say that THAT is how to inspire children.

Regards,
Ferrari

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Cornish-guy
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Cornish-guy » Tue Jul 08, 2014 1:11 am

I have just seen the video on the landing Turk F16 from the runway end - WOW was that low......must have been just a couple of feet above the spotters heads, Scary... :clap: :clap:

c.
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reheat
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by reheat » Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:06 am

As a lover of all things fast and loud, and also all things big, loud and smokey, I found the show to be lacking in these departments.It was crying out for a B1 and B52 display.
Also, it wasn't so long ago that the main static display line was full of military fighters.This year, it was a continuous line up of Civvie 'put puts'.I thought I was at Humberside Airport instead of a Royal Air Force base.
There was hardly any big aircraft to look at and photograph on the ground, let alone flying.
Highlights were the F16, F18, Typhoon, Draken, Apachie, Hunter and Vulcan (albeit a shadow of it's former glory display).
I feel the R.A.F. is so stretched to put aircraft at such events, and even the might of the U.S.A.F. has now got it's restraints, that the organisers are relying on Civvies to make up way too much of the static line up.
The glory days are sadly gone, and I feel that we may have seen our last Waddington Air Show too.
Long live R.I.A.T.
Regards,

Steve.

Rockstar
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Re: Waddington 2014 What did you think

Post by Rockstar » Tue Jul 08, 2014 1:48 pm

Traffic In

Took the young family this year (Sat), and as getting everyone ready is like a military operation in its own right, I was somewhat later setting off than would normally be the case. Even so traffic seemed tediously slow, even by normal standards. We joined the back of the queue about ¼ mile or so north of the B1178/Dunston Pillar junction on the A15 around 8:20 and it then took nearly an hour to get on base. This may of course be the late arrival effect. However, on entering the airfield it soon became apparent that there was only one lane taking northbound traffic off the A15 but for those travelling south from Lincoln this soon split into two lanes meaning traffic flows from that direction were moving considerably quicker. Once on base however, no problems.

Static

Long gone are the days of rows of military aircraft so no point in moaning about this. I am realistic to the fact that we have to be grateful to get anything! We can only hope what we do get is quality over quantity, and in this respect I think this year succeeded. First UK airshow appearances by the P-8 Poseidon and Turkish Navy CN235MPA were obvious highlights, whilst other rare and notable airshow appearances included the Slovak L-39 and LET-410, Italian C27J & KC-767, Belgian Air Component SF260 and Dutch Chinook. Even some rarely seen civvies were great captures for the show, namely the SAAB Swordfish MPA, both of the Beechcraft Texans and the Oil Spill Response 727 – an increasingly rare airframe. Aside from RIAT and Yeovilton, Waddington is really the only place to stand a chance of catching up with some decent military/company visitors, and as some of this year's attendees will not be appearing at the other shows then full credit to the Waddo team for getting them to this one.

Some minor quibbles though. Personally I think locating all of the large aircraft on Sentry Dispersal would have looked pretty impressive, rather than being fragmented across the static area. Equally (although not comparable to the glory days), why not have a reasonable line up of fighters – 3 Typhoons (including of course a German AF example), 3 Tornados and 2 F-16s wouldn't have been a bad line up by today's standards. Layout of the static always seems a bit random to me at Waddington, and then of course we have the barriers being too close to aircraft, but then after almost 30 years of attending airshows I suppose I should be used to this by now! Finally (and yes I accept there are some operational commitments) but for the RAF's premier airshow, I can't help but feel a little disappointed at the poor representation of RAF assets - no Hawk T2, no 1, 3, 6 or 11 sqn Typhoons, and none of the heavies.

Flying

Despite the early poor weather (leading to the Falcons cancelling their jump) and the Navy Merlin going tech, I thought the flying display flowed pretty well. The weather improved as the day went along and there were spells of some really good light for photography. Content I thought was pretty good and diverse. Where else are you going to see a Sentinel, E-3 and RAF Rivet Joint Flying at an airshow this year? Although helicopters aren't everyone's cup of tea, the UK debut of the Spanish Air Force Patrulla Aspa was a major coup for the show and I thought were pretty good. Foreign hardware was represented by decent displays by the Swiss Hornet and Solo Turk; while a display by the 202 Squadron Sea King was a most welcome sight for what seems to be a rare airshow performer. Some nice formations were provided by the D-Day Typhoon and Spitfire, while a Hunter T7 and 2 Gnats joining the Reds for a 50th anniversary flypast was also a highlight. What may have been lacking in modern military hardware was more than made up by some classic jet displays which provided a personal show highlight for me. Dutch Hunter, Black Arrows Hunter T.7, Gnat Display Team, Canberra PR.9, Draken, Viggen and of course the Vulcan. Jet heaven – superb.

Traffic Out

Stayed until nearly 7.30 – no problems!

Overall

Despite some fairly minor quibbles, on the whole an excellent day out with some decent participation and flying from what may have been the last show at Waddington – I hope not.

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