Hi guys sorry for the slightly delayed blog/review of RIAT 2018, I've been making the most of the nice weather and spending every evening in the run with Esme .
Oh lucky me!
I went to the air tattoo for the first time last year and my blog RIAT 2017 explains the airshow and it's set up.
Knowing how much fun I had last year I spent nearly the whole year building up to the show, watching as many videos as possible on YouTube from air tattoos past and generally videos people have uploaded from airshows thus far this season. In fact I even went as far as to write a preview.
My week of plane geeking started off in style when I finally cracked and booked the day off to go and watch the RAF 100 flypast in London. I'd umm-ed and ahh-ed about going but my mind was made up when the mention was made of 22 Typhoons in formation! I'm so glad that I did go as it really was a once in a lifetime experience to see that many planes above London. The light wasn't great but I did manage a couple of snaps -
Waiting for the train
Pumas & Chinooks
Tornados!
The RAF's new F35s
An amazing formation of 22 Typhoons!
Check out my (incredibly wobbly) video here
We headed up to Fairford on the Thursday, we stayed at the same campsite as last year at Townsend Farm. It was so much better than it was last year, the loos were cleaned throughout the day and the water supply constantly topped up and overall just far better organised.
As with last year the campsite is right under the flightpath of the aircraft coming in to land so you get a fantastic view.
Ready to geek
One of the first aircraft we saw was this gorgeous Hunter
So excited that we had two Tornados run in over us
Just after we'd got set up the Red Arrows very kindly did their PDA!
We also had PDAs from the A400M, Canadian F18, SU27 and the Frecce Tricolori
Some other interesting arrivals -
RAF E1D Sentry
USAF F-15
RAF Voyager
We were also treated to a sunset Spitfire flypast
A few more arrivals and PDAs are here -
The fairy light game was upped this year ....
On Friday we headed off into the showground
Re-creating last year's Tornado fan-girling!
This year's Friday display was extended to an 8 hour day (it's normally 6 hours with Saturday & Sunday stretching to 8) as part of the Air Tattoo's RAF 100 celebrations. There had been a flypast planned in the same vein as the London one earlier that week. Unfortunately the weather put paid to it.
Bloody rain
Thankfully the rest of show went ahead as planned, despite the rain
A Swiss Airforce Flypast
The French Navy sent these two Rafales
The A400M fresh from it's part in the London flypast
F35
Shooting for the stars
The Reds on top form as always
The Solo Turk was one of the highlights of the weekend - the guy is an absolute nutcase, I've never seen an F-16 thrown about like that before.
The rain earlier on turned the light a glowing colour which added an extra layer to the final displays of the afternoon
Frecce Tricolori
Osprey
SU27
After the show finished I had a wander around the static displays, the static line is over 5 miles long so I barely scratched the surface.
USAF B1 Lancer
USAF KC135
One of the visitors that had travelled the furthest was this Kawasaki C-2 from Japan
I was also delighted to find a stall in the vintage village selling gorgoeus plane-print skirts and dresses. Sadly the dresses had sold out but I managed to grab a couple of tops (one with a Lancaster-print collar), I've since found them on ETSY at ButtoninRetro and ordered the skirt to match my top.
Soooo pretty, my skirt and top are far right
Some of the highlights from Friday's show -
We were treated to a beautiful sunset to round off the day.
As with last year we spent the Saturday lounging around the caravan watching the show, one does feel rather spoiled when the planes come and fly over you rather than you trekking across a field to them!
The flypast went ahead on Saturday with these 9 Typhoons
The reforming of 617 'Dambusters' squadron was also celebrated by a formation flypast of a Lancaster, Tornado & F35.
The USAF example of the F35 took part in a flypast of it's own in formation with a Mustang and Spitfire.
Speaking of warbirds, the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight showed off their Trenchard Formation of Dakota, Lancaster, Spitfires & Hurricanes
Saturday also allowed me to achieve a life-long ambition of seeing a B2 Stealth Bomber (there was a flypast on the Sunday last year so we missed it) and all I can tell you is that it is not of this world. If there's evidence of alien technology being reverse engineered then that surely is it!
Alien spacecraft with 2 x F15s
The sunshine of Saturday helped the decorations of the aircraft take centre stage.
French Rafale
Peek-a-boo from a Mirage
SU27
My favourite colour scheme this year was the Canadian Air Force F-18
A nice close pass!
A few of the aircraft flying on Saturday -
Once again the Air Tattoo was an absolutely fantastic experience and put me in geek heaven for three days. The nagging campaign for going next year starts now!
Love Jen
XxxX
Ps A massive thank you to Chris, my neighbours and Helen for Esme-sitting and general Esme-spoiling if these photos are anything to go by .....
