|
|
Post by chrisb on May 10, 2020 10:35:34 GMT
The VE day events made me reminisce about the scale of previous events and in particular the Silver Jubilee airshow at Finningley in 1977. One of my best airshow memories and the highlight was the Australian F-111 doing its "dump and burn" - some video of it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=48h2-kGxDg0Another abiding memory of the day was a car being dropped from a helicopter after numerous public address warnings for the owner to move it. All a set up of course but still sticks in my mind. Any other memories of that day or other RAF flypasts? |
|
|
|
Post by alisdairmclean on May 11, 2020 10:08:43 GMT
Ahhh, Finningly '77. Everyone seems to have gone there. Apart from me! I didn't have transport in those days and my interest in aviation was only starting, unfortunately.
Living near Slough in the late 70's and early 80's I could get a train to Newbury racecourse for one of the early International Air Tattoos; and as a family we often went to the shows at RAF Abingdon. In the early 80's these included the dropping of a battered Cortina from a chinook on to the airfield, as you describe And I have vague recollections of one of these shows benefitting from a London flypast, before the aircraft dispersed back to their respective bases. In my memory it always rained at Greenham Common and was sunny at Abingdon.
Happy days!
|
|
|
|
Post by keith on May 21, 2020 7:21:16 GMT
Never seen a ‘dump and burn’ before. Spectacular.
|
|
|
|
Post by bobs on May 22, 2020 18:04:10 GMT
Abingdon must have had a policy of not using the scrap yards - they were dropping cars in the middle to late sixties.
This was generally prefixed with a few PA announcements about an unattended car parked illegally outside the guardroom, and if it wasn't moved, it would be removed.
The charade that followed involved describing the removal and a man in civvies running across the airfield as his 'car' was airlifted across.
Of course, it always fell off the hook, not on the concrete, and the resulting height of the car was about 100mm (as viewed through binoculars). Obviously it had previously been stripped and didn't fool the adults one bit (we hope) but the younger audience seemed to enjoy it!
Oh Dear, I seem to be remembering all sorts of things from Abingdon BofB shows now!
|
|
|
|
Post by bobs on Jun 10, 2020 13:37:31 GMT
Further to 'dump and burn': The things you find on the internet...   I don't think Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion would appreciate it! |
|
|
|
Post by chrisb on Jun 11, 2020 9:11:30 GMT
Just burning off excess fuel before landing - safety always comes first 😊😊😂
|
|
|
|
Post by richardl on Jul 8, 2020 15:35:12 GMT
The "dump and burn" by the Aussie 1-11 still sticks in the receeding memory bank. On the Saturday I was right on the crowdline fence to the righthand side (looking at the runway) of the crowd. The F111 did several tighter and tighter level banked turns over the airfield and finally flew over the edge of the crowdline to my left , presenting me with a head on view of a 111 in full bank coming at me. Suddenly a vast sheet of flame appeared behind it! For a moment or two I thought that a nasty was about to occur in my close vicinity until it continued turning back roward the runway - still warming the crowd with the Super A/B. Very spectacular but a trifle worrying for a moment or two!
|
|
|
|
Post by richardl on Jul 9, 2020 0:25:34 GMT
The Illegally Parked Car routine was common at airshows in the 50's and 60's. The grass airfield event equivalent was the "Drunken Member of the Crowd" A light aircraft, generally a Tiger Moth, would taxi out, the pilot would get out for some reason and walk away, a person from the audience, apparently well sozzled, would then wander over to the empty aircraft, climb in, erratically takeoff and do low level stunts as if ignorant of the pilotting, followed by a bouncing landing and ground loop, finally abandoning the plane and departing chased by angry airfield staff. Very spectacular and skilfully flown - at least on most occasions. However at an airshow at Sywell in 1963 Tiger Moth G-AMNZ - a Tiger Club single seat conversion named "The Decon" - started the Crazy Flying well, but then stalled at low level, did a couple of spins, and then impacted the airfield vertically in front of the crowd with a loud Crunch! The wings collapsed but the pilot walked away hardly harmed, and The Canon was subsequently rebuilt. Some of the crowd standing near me applauded, and at least one commented on the skill shown in staging such a spectacular stunt! There was no post crash fire, but an eager fire engine crew lent by the USAF from Chelveston quickly proceeded to cover the battered airframe with a large quantity of foam which, apparently, due to its chemical makeup did more damage to engine and airframe than the crash itself.  |
|
