What can you say? Waddington promised more foreign participation in 2010 and it delivered in spades. Waddington promised more solo fast jets in 2010 and it certainly delivered this too. Waddington promised a spectacular tribute to the Battle of Britain in its 70th anniversary year, yet again it delivered. Finally, after last year's undeserved debacle with the 'Tin Triangle', the Vulcan magically appeared at Waddington 2010, so justice was done. This was an undeniably superb show and the organisers deserve huge credit for what they achieved this year but, before I get ahead of myself, let's go back to the start of my Waddington weekend and see how the show unfolded.
Arriving at Waddington on Friday morning I was excited at the prospect of a great show, and that excitement would not prove unjustified. From the moment participation by the Czech Air Force was announced some months ago, the list of aircraft due to appear at Waddington's 2010 airshow had been growing with one impressive addition after another. Despite some late and almost inevitable cancellations, none of these affected the flying or static displays disastrously and we ended up with an event that in all honesty the organisers will do well to top in 2011.
Highlights from the Friday arrivals were numerous but the two real stars of the show pitched in to the circuit at around 12.50pm in the shape of two Italian Air Force F-16s, both resplendent in the special markings of which the Italians seem so fond. While one aircraft featured a uniquely painted tail (different on both sides) it was the other, coded MM7240, which really took my breath away. Painted black with very smart sets of day-glo green chevrons and chequerboard patterns, it looked absolutely stunning, and their appearance was a real coup for the Waddington Airshow team. The Italians leased these F-16s from the United States and, with their Eurofighter work-up well under way, they have already begun returning Stateside as the lease period comes to an end. It was a shame therefore, for those who had not seen the aircraft arrive, that their placement in the static display wasn't a little more favourable for photography.
I watched the aircraft being towed round on Friday evening, both having been parked live-side while fuel samples were taken after their arrival, and just a little more thought as to their positioning would have gone a long way to helping. Placing the walkway between the two wasn't a bad idea, but leaving our chequerboard friend positioned facing straight at the crowd wasn't very clever at all and would surely have taken just a matter of minutes to rectify. Perhaps the VASS team was distracted by the arrival of a Hawk from RAF Valley for the static display just as they positioned the second Viper? We'll probably never know but, having attracted two such brilliant aircraft, it seemed almost sacrilegious not to position them in a way in which people could photograph them relatively easily.
Additional highlights from a walk around the extensive static displays (albeit with some pretty tightly positioned barriers) were a very smart recce Tornado from Germany, a 111 Sqn Tornado F.3 and a rare appearance from an Army Defender T.3 from 651 Sqn based at Aldergrove. Another welcome visitor was a USAF RC-135 from Offutt AFB in Nebraska, an aircraft which will of course be seen at Waddington much more regularly when the airframes for the RAF enter service.
In more general terms it was pleasing to see so many RAF fixed wing units supporting the show with examples of many types on display. The rotary world wasn't forgotten either with RAF Griffin, RAF Squirrel, AAC Apache and RN Sea King all in attendance, as well as an immaculate civilian registered Gazelle which retains its Marines markings. There was also the usual Waddington selection of general aviation types on show with some interesting aircraft among them - the static displays had something for everyone in other words.
There was also an extensive and fascinating static display of UAVs, or whichever designation is currently in vogue, and this also spilled over in to the flying display programme to the consternation of many, particularly as an over run on Saturday saw the solo Hunter cancelled as a result. Whatever your opinion, these vehicles perform an increasingly important role supporting our armed forces and will probably become more frequent airshow 'performers' - welcome to the future folks!
After some early cloud on Friday the day turned in to a real scorcher and with Saturday's forecast promising more of the same it looked as if Waddington had even managed to retain the stunning conditions which had played a big part in making last year's show such a huge success with 170,000 visiting over the course of the weekend.
Sure enough, Saturday dawned with blue skies and fluffy clouds and with the prospect of another huge crowd I made sure I joined many of the participants on the official transport at 07.30 to ensure a timely arrival on site. Karl and I had been invited to attend the airshow briefing at 08.30, held in a packed ops building, and it immediately became clear that the weather forecast for Sunday was already looking challenging with high winds predicted. Fortunately, for us anyway, there were no such concerns for Saturday and, having grabbed a quick coffee, were able to join the Tornado GR.4 Role Demo team for the trip round to their aircraft on the 'live' side of the airfield.
We had been granted this access in order to give us another angle on the airshow and, with other GAR staff members crowd side (and in the Park and View on Friday) we were lucky enough to have pretty much every angle covered across the show weekend. The GR.4 team are a great bunch and, while they take what they do very seriously, are clearly enjoying the airshow experience with banter aplenty as we waited for clearance to cross the active runway on our way over. This was a busy weekend for the team for having arrived and practiced on Friday morning, they displayed at Waddington on Saturday before landing for fuel, a debrief and a quick bite to eat. Then it was off to Beauvechain in Belgium for another show, a night stop in Brussels and then back to Waddington to display again on Sunday. With a third (spare) jet tagging along this was all done with XV(R) Sqn's boss in attendance in the shape of Wg Cdr Brian James - a good chance for him to see how his team is getting on!
After the usual Waddington Station Flypast from E-3 Sentry, Sentinel and Nimrod R.1, the RAF Falcons opened the show proper jumping from a Chinook HC.2 and they were followed by Team Viper, displaying for the first time as a pair of Strikemasters with two of their new acquisitions, Hunters FGA.9 G-ETPS / XE601 and T.8C G-BZSE / WV322. The team's decision to move across to Hunters is one which has excited many UK airshow goers and, while they soon plan to display as a Hunter four-ship, this was the first, transitional movement towards that goal. On the whole it worked very well with some nice formations featuring all four aircraft although these, perhaps entirely understandably, did get a little ragged on one or two occasions.
The real treat was when the formation split however and the Hunter paired passes were a lovely sight, as was Gerald Williams' impressive fast pass in XE601 which looked, and sounded, fantastic. While many enthusiasts are aghast at the team's decision to repaint some of the aircraft, including XE601 which wears the ever popular raspberry ripple scheme, it is equally understandable that the team want to put the Team Viper stamp on their new aircraft and it's good to hear that they plan to remain consistent with "operational" colours. Exciting times and we should be grateful that we have a civilian team prepared to take such a huge step forward.
Team Viper was followed by the aforementioned Tornado GR.4 role demo and judging by the feedback on Twitter and elsewhere, the lads from XV(R) were very well received, as were the pyros which form such an important part of their routine. Indeed, all the RAF displays were on-hand to perform for the Waddington crowd and Flt Lt Tim Clement's Typhoon routine was as polished and noisy as ever, while Flt Lt Steve Kenworthy in the Harrier literally stopped most of the people around me in their tracks; a hallmark of Harrier displays for years.
The 22 Group display items, as always, flew the flag in great style for RAF pilot training with Tutor, Tucano, King Air and Hawk all displaying in what was a particularly busy weekend for Flt Lts Tom Bould and Tom Saunders who both displayed in Belgium and elsewhere in addition to Waddington. With the addition of the Red Arrows (flying as an eight-ship on Saturday with Kirsty Moore suffering from food poisoning) and the Chinook role demo, this was a first opportunity to see all of the RAF's 2010 display assets perform at the same show and I don't think anyone can have too many complaints about the level of support granted to events this season.
The Royal Navy weren't forgotten either and the excellent Merlin HM Mk.1 is one rotary performer which I'm sure most of us would like to see more often. It was joined by the ever popular solo Lynx and an extremely welcome appearance from the RNHF in the shape of Lt Cdr Ian Sloan in the Sea Hawk.
One point I would like to make on the Harrier and Chinook demos is that while they are both incredibly welcome additions to the RAF's roster of displays, they both cater brilliantly for those people in the crowd positioned at datum, but at larger events everyone else may feel a little left out. The move to role demos is entirely understandable but, unlike the Tornado routine which of course features two aircraft and pyros, these two don't work quite as well at venues like Waddington - the scale of which is comparable to many venues at which they are displaying this season - albeit that we will only see the Chinook at four events in total. Even a couple more passes that take in the entire display line would make all the difference I think.
The Battle of Britain segment of the show, with Andy Pawsey at the helm and fresh from winning an award at Biggin Hill for the tribute he put together there, was a great success. The show secured participation from some great warbirds for this portion of the display and, with the addition of pyros and relevant commentary and audio affects, played out very well and made for some lovely photographic opportunities.
On Saturday it was followed by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the utterly lovely Typhoon and Spitfire routine which is already looking like a nailed on top ten highlight of the 2010 season, especially when seen in the beautiful blue skies which we saw at Waddington on Saturday.
And so on the much discussed foreign participants for the flying display, an area which Waddington had promised to deliver this year and most certainly did. Let's start with the Turkish Stars, a team which for me at least remain something of an enigma. Their display on Saturday was in equal parts exciting, tight, impressive, ragged, disjointed and downright heart-stopping and, quite frankly, too lengthy. The impressive bits were mainly noted in the first half of the display and their beautiful F-5s looked very close in some of the large formations, a number of which were quite different to those we see from the likes of the Reds and their other peers. The second half of the show was interesting to say the least with the formation of eight aircraft splitting in to various four-ships, pairs and solos for a seemingly never ending succession of passes, some of which were pretty hairy by my reckoning.
One pair got very low as they approached from the north, their smoke billowing almost immediately in to the trees as they eventually pulled up. Another pass saw the aircraft performing twinkle rolls - but pulling towards each other, something which always leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable! All in all a great spectacle and another 'well done' to the Waddington team for securing their appearance, but perhaps we all really know why we don't see them a little more often! I should add that being liveside we were well out of commentary range so maybe some of you can post some comments here letting us know just how good / bad or cheesy it was!
It was entirely appropriate that the Czech Air Force supported Waddington so well in the year that we commemorate the Battle of Britain's 70th, despite the unfortunate cancellation of the Mi-24 Hind for the static. With Gripen and L-159 ALCA in the flying and static displays - the latter joined by a Waddington regular in the shape of an An-26 - the Czech participation was strong and very well received. 1/Lt Michal Danek's Gripen display was excellent and demonstrated the manoeuvrability of SAAB's single seat fighter very well with a particularly lovely spiral descent after a vertical climb to altitude and a very slow high alpha pass. The ALCA was also impressive, and it was clear that the aircraft's Honeywell ITEC F124-GA-100 engine provides this advanced light combat aircraft (thus its name!) with a fair amount of grunt, especially evident on a couple of eye-catching fast passes.
The Czechs were joined in the flying programme by the French Alpha Jet solo which, despite the fact that I have always liked the aircraft, was fairly uninspiring. Hopefully the obvious comparison won't have been lost on some of those who have been critical of recent Hawk displays!
The Belgian F-16 is also adorned in a special scheme and one which seems to have divided opinion, I like it incidentally, and its appearance at Waddington was welcome, especially as it arrived in formation with a BAF A330 alongside a second F-16! Those criticising the fact that we only got one pass from this formation should perhaps just be glad that Waddington managed to persuade them to fly all the way from Belgium at all - and it goes to show that clashing with a major European show needn't necessarily be the issue that everyone seems to assume it will be with a number of participants shared over the weekend.
And all that brings me, inevitably, on to the Vulcan. Regular GAR readers and those that know me will be aware that I haven't been the project's greatest supporter, or indeed a fan of its displays since it returned to the airshow circuit. However, I have never actually been critical of the efforts to keep the aircraft flying each year, more the manner in which in the project has been managed in a commercial and marketing sense. So, putting all the baggage which goes with the project to one side, what did I make of the display?
Well, it's a bit louder than last year and was redeemed by the impressive missed approach and climb out - although this won't apparently be flown at venues from which the Vulcan is based for its display. That would be a huge shame and I'm not sure a take-off will make up for it in all honesty for the rest of the display is very similar to that we have seen before. I still can't help but wonder, if the aircraft's full power engine cycles are rationed, why one of them is carried out with the aircraft pointing away from the crowd at a distance of about 1000 metres? It's such a waste and from a display point of view, entirely pointless in my mind. The aircraft remains of great interest to the Great British public and received a healthy round of applause on Saturday, but then so did many other performers. It remains to be seen if this translates into donations for TVOC and whether we can perhaps see her as a regular on the display circuit without all the rubbish which seems to go hand in hand with the annual saga that is her lack of funding.
Finally one or two additional comments which I think are worthy of note. I think the organisers will be disappointed with the flypasts to mark the 90th anniversary of the first official RAF airshow at Hendon. With a lack of time and one or two cancellations, this section of the show petered out and, as part of the bigger picture, ended up being of little significance. It could potentially have played a major part of the show with some truly unique formations but still, it was nice to see this important anniversary marked in some way at least, especially as the 90th actually coincided with Saturday's show.
Secondly, I can't close without mentioning the commentary. Mike Whitehouse has been on the circuit for a long time and is known to many as one of the voices of RIAT where he used to work alongside Sean Maffett. Saturday was not his best day in the commentary box however and his tendency to talk non-stop has been noted by many people who have posted feedback on the show, as was the accuracy of much of what he said. For me, his decision to talk during one or two of the louder Vulcan moments was almost unbelievable for he was completely drowned out, his repeated comments about spurious marks of Spitfire were noted by many and his discussion of the Chinook CH2 (sic) and his insistence that we were about to get a full solo display was well wide of the mark. Some of this could have been due to misinformation or a lack of communication, but still, these are just a couple of examples from a commentary which for many was poor enough to mention after the event, never a good sign.
So, after seven hours plus of flying my Waddington Saturday came to an end. It struck me what great variety we had been blessed with at the show - everything from fast jets to trainers, helicopters, warbirds, aerobatics, military display teams and classic jets. This year's Waddington International Airshow had it all and Colin Reeves and his team should be congratulated for putting on a show in which the Royal Air Force can be very proud. Colin leaves now for a new life abroad and we wish his successor well for the 2011 show for the bar has been raised very high.
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2010-07-06 - Tim Storr
Great review of a fabulous show. I would agree with almost everything you've written except that the Battle of Britain section was not as successful as I was expecting. From my position on the crowdline it felt very disjointed, with some awfully long pauses and bizarre air raid siren audio played when absolutely nothing was happening within view. I did notice that many of my surrounding spectators in the aptly named Spitfire Grandstand seemed to lose interest half way through.
2010-07-06 - Gareth Stringer
Hi Tom. Hawk and Alpha Jet - both advanced jet trainers and therefore comparable from a display perspective. The Alpha Jet display, for me anyway, was totally uninspiring and very different from the Hawk displays which have drawn so much criticism over recent years. Might make some people realise how lucky we are! Cheers, Gareth.
2010-07-06 - Tom Saunders
Great review, can you expand on this comment though: "the French Alpha Jet solo which, despite the fact that I have always liked the aircraft, was fairly uninspiring. Hopefully the obvious comparison won't have been lost on some of those who have been critical of recent Hawk displays!"
I wasn't quite sure what you are suggesting! ;-)
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