Last week I went off to the Royal International Air Tattoo again and spoiler alert the sun came out! (See last year's blog for the story of 'Monsoon Fairford').
For the first time since I've been going to the show I was flying solo as Dad was unable to come due to Mum's deteriorating health 💔 so rather than camping it was 'glamping' in a hotel in Swindon.
It was an easy train route from Eastbourne to London and then onto Swindon. I was very excited as the train to Swindon left from Paddington! Paddington Bear is one of Mum's and my favourite things which cheered me up during her difficult time.
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| Meeting the bear himself |
Luckily I remembered my manners and didn't face the 'hard stare' ....
I stayed at the Swindon Town Centre Premier Inn which was perfectly located in the town centre and a short walk from the bus station where I picked up the shuttle buses into the show each day.
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| Not quite tents |
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| Corney settled in quickly |
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| We liked the fun purple light |
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| This police helicopter was technically the first aircraft sighting of the year |
We were up bright and early the next morning to head for the shuttle bus. The traffic was a bit heavy going into the show but it gave me the chance to amuse myself watching the hedges full of grasshoppers 😄
We went through the ticket barrier really quickly and we were in! The first aircraft we found were of course the Red Arrows in their 60th display season livery.
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| Wearing the appropriate outfit |
The weather was absolutely stunning, the polar opposite of last year's monsoon. Much like Duxford back in June the planes looked absolutely gorgeous against the blue sky.
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| Canadian Globemaster |
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| RAF Voyager |
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| RAF A400M |
I took the opportunity to climb onboard.
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| The air con was much appreciated |
I had a walk around the static park and found these German Tornados
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| F35 |
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| A4 Skyhawk |
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| F18 |
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| Turkish Phantoms |
We found one of the few shady spots on the airfield behind a generator and waited for the flying to begin.
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| Modelling his free sunglasses from the A400M |
The show was opened by the RAF Falcons performing one of the best team jumps I've ever seen.
The first jet of the day was part of the show's theme celebrating 50 years of the F16 Fighting Falcon and came from the Danish air force.
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| Such a cool colour scheme |
Another of the themes of the year's show was 75 years since the formation of NATO and there was a special flypast featuring aircraft from NATO countries.
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| Rivet Joint, Mirage 2000, Gripen & Tornado |
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| Sentry, F5, Hawk, Typhoon |
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| Tornado landing |
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| Royal Navy Black Cats |
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| German NH90 |
One of the highlights of the weekend was the insane display from the Qatari F15.
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| A very rare appearance from a USAF U2 spy plane |
A popular returning guest from last year's show was the Spanish Harrier -
The Red Arrows closed the show with their best display in years. It was great to see them back up to a full 9 ship formation with moves I haven't seen in years.
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| Diamond 9 |
They also performed a flypast with the Canadian F18 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Canadian air force.
Some highlights of their Friday & Saturday displays
After the show finished there were a few more arrivals including this storming arrival by two Greek Phantoms.
Friday's highlights on my YouTube channel -
Saturday dawned grey and a bit drizzly, before this would have disappointed me but after last year's rain nothing can be as bad again 😂.
I got the bus half an hour earlier which was a good decision as I was onto the airfield by 8.30am. I've never been into the show on a Saturday before, every other year I've watched with Dad from the campsite (I got a massive sad pang when I got on the bus after Friday's show rather than heading to the campsite) and on the weekend days the full static park is open.
The static park is over 5 miles long and I'd already done 15000 steps by 10am 😂 The highlight was the line of F16s stretching into infinity
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| Lots of them had special liveries |
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| Italian Tornado |
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| Gripen |
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| The business end of a Typhoon |
I positioned myself at the 'landing' end of the runway to try and get some shots of the aircraft on the approach. It was a more photographically challenging day as the sky was slate grey.
The show was opened by the Qatari F15 which wasn't able to do it's full display because of the low cloud but the sky's loss was the crowd's gain as it performed a lot of low high speed passes.
The moist air lead to loads of vapour as the planes were climbing and turning, like this German Typhoon.
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| Spanish Harrier |
Saturday was my only chance to see this year's RAF Chinook Display and it opened the display by dropping off a 2 tonne field gun ... as you do ...
Another anniversary celebrated this year was the 50th anniversary of the Hawk with a flypast with examples from the Red Arrows with a Hawk T1, RAF with a Hawk T2, Qatar with a Hawk T2, Finland with a Hawk T1 and the Saudi Hawks with a Hawk T1.
The Saudi Hawks put on their normal colourful display
The Canadian F18 flew with a Fighter Collection Spitfire.
It was an absolutely fantastic display and well deserving of it's award.
The RAF F35 performed a role demo, I can't wait to see it making waves over the sea like the Harrier used to at Airbourne -
The Red Arrows performed their 'flat' display which meant I was able to capture some good shots of the synchro pair.
I was over the moon when the Red Arrows and RAF liked some of my photos of the displays on my Instagram (@jentheplanegeek) 😱
RIAT was my first chance to see this year's Typhoon Display . This year the aircraft is painted in the colours of a Hawker Typhoon that took part in D Day.
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| Full afterburner take off |
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| Hiding in the clouds |
Here are some highlights of Saturday's display -
It was another fantastic and thankfully (mostly) dry RIAT year although incredibly sad not to be there with Dad. Keep an eye on my YouTube Channel for some more videos of the show. And watch out for my Airbourne preview blog coming in a week or so.
Love Jen
XxxX
PS Hotel is booked and tickets bought for next year already 😉
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