Flying the flag
Airshows provide the UK its second most popular outdoor event (the first being football), and they communicate the professionalism and dedication of all of our servicemen and women through the only real means we have of entertaining hundreds of thousands of people at a time; aircraft. They also demonstrate face-to-face the kind of people that their military employs, and the public aren’t the only ones that enjoy them. They give the aircrew an opportunity to talk about their passion; aviation. Its a buzz to be among friends, meet an interested public, and talk about what you do for a living and why you enjoy it.
For two days that’s the reality, but for the days around the event, particularly if you happen to be based at the venue, it is a huge effort that the public will never see, and also the reason I’ve been at work for the last 31 hours!
I’m one of the lucky ones. Firstly I am UK based at the moment, and secondly I’m flying in for a static show. For the display crews there is even more paperwork to complete, authorisations to be obtained and check flights to be passed. For the airshow organising committee, it’s almost a year’s work for them before I even get the email tasking me to attend.
Nobody just flies into an airshow; with that number of aircraft arriving there has to be a plan, and its very fluid. The majority of attendees at big shows are military, and subject to rapid reprogramming to more urgent tasks, so confirming attendees is a notorious nightmare. Add to that the fragile nature of aircraft themselves; a snag that wouldn’t be a problem for operational flying locally is a much more serious issue when you’re planning to take the airframe to a distant location without engineering support. For the Squadrons also, a flight to an airshow is never wasted. The transit will always be planned in order to meet training objectives and currency requirements.
This is another reason that I am still in work. Our mission profile for Waddington is to route via Odiham for fuel through the London Heli Lanes. We often go there at night for medical transfers but hardly ever get to fly the routes for training, so its a valuable opportunity. After that we will fly through Duxford to gain maximum visibility of a Navy aircraft in a region that rarely sees them. On our return we plan to fly Navy student pilots and observers at Cranwell as part of their flying familiarisation, during which time we will drop the Senior Pilot (the aircraft and detachment commander) at Barkson Heath for a meeting, to save the cost of travel later on.
Every opportunity is taken to extract maximum benefit from the mission. Unfortunately on the day, our aircraft required maintenance prior to landing away and another unserviceability meant that we changed the plan at late notice and flew a direct route to Waddington. The core mission was achieved, sadly without the valuable London sector.
The airshow itself was fantastic. I am told that the flying displays were superb, but sadly I hardly saw them because the aircraft was so popular. We were fortunate to be able to take groups of the public through the aircraft and show them the interior. This is always a favourite for me, mainly because I love the disconnect between what equipment people think we have access to and what we actually use, but also because there are always some great (and some totally weird!) questions.
Sadly for me, Waddington will likely be my last airshow. I am posted onto a Squadron with an operational focus in September, so I am likely to be elsewhere in the world for next year’s display season. Having taken part in the last two, I will miss it. The atmosphere at an airshow is very special, and I would strongly recommend any airshow-goers to talk to their military pilots and aircrew as much as they can. Ask the questions and please do ask if you can look inside. Most pilots love to talk about what they do, and I would almost guarantee that they are enjoying their day as much as you are.
