Farnborough 2014 - Anyone on here going?

[Qwert1e]

What time do you need to arrive to avoid getting stuck in a jam on Saturday??

[Mojocvh]

? Alpha jet on steroids???

[FourWheelDrift]

Yakovlev Yak-130 after a Milan Fashion show make-over.

[sanguinary]

ecsrobin said:

Latest weather locally would suggest don't bother on Saturday. You might see something fly at the end of the day if the forecast is correct.

I fear you may be correct.

[FurtiveFreddy]

A nice squadron of biplanes and triplanes just flew over heading in the direction of Farnborough.

[Eric Mc]

ANOTHER birdstrike for the Reds - 3 in two weeks.

[anonymous-user]

FurtiveFreddy said:

A nice squadron of biplanes and triplanes just flew over heading in the direction of Farnborough.

Probably the Great War Display Team. Bruce Dickinson now owns and flies one of the Tri-planes in the team.

http://www.greatwardisplayteam.com/the-team-pilots...

[RizzoTheRat]

Qwert1e said:

What time do you need to arrive to avoid getting stuck in a jam on Saturday??

Friday.

Traffic gets very bad, with a lot of local roads closed and one way systems all over the place. They run buses from Farnborough and Aldershot station though whcih makes taking the train a fairly sensible option.

[FourWheelDrift]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

He then rushed back and flew the Eclipse Jet display.

[Qwert1e]

RizzoTheRat said:

Friday.

Thanks. I'll set the alarm early....

I remember having to get to Fairford at the crack of dawn in a year when many sat in queues for 2 or 3 hours and were eventually turned back without ever getting in.

[jmorgan]

Suppose Sunday is a stupid am turn up as well then.

[yellowjack]

Eric Mc said:

ANOTHER birdstrike for the Reds - 3 in two weeks.

Red 8 this time. Red 9 flew along to 'check it out' while a five ship and a two ship joined up and flew circuits out toward Caesars Camp/Church Crookham. Then 9 rejoined the other seven, 8 made a safe landing and taxied over toward the 'James Bond' hangars to be surrounded by three fire tenders. Then two blokes in blue overalls had a gander at the 'plane, and it continued under it's own power to it's parking area. The remaining eight did a 'smoke on' flypast toward the Swan, turned and headed back down the runway before peeling off to land.

I'd seen what looked like a buzzard fly across the runway during the early part of the display too. From the AAIB area toward the woodland on the far side. I didn't see the actual strike, but when Red 8 landed there was no obvious damage when viewed with 10x50's.

Later, before, and during the Vulcan's display I spotted another Raptor wheeling around over the woodland, but this one had what looked like a tether/strap hanging from it's legs. Maybe it was supposed to scare away the other birds, but it wasn't working. '558 landed and turned at the canal end, before taxiing back to the centre to meet it's tug. A whole parliament of rooks just stalked around beside the runway, mere yards from those big intakes. A big flock of gulls crossed the runway during another display too. I'm surprised there aren't far more bird strikes during the show, to be honest, given the large numbers of birds in the area.

[yellowjack]

While I'm here...


...'after show' arrivals, as we packed away our picnic rug for the trip home:

Merlin helicopter
Hawker Hunter
Breitling Stearman wing walking team

Stuff that didn't fly today, but was 'in':

Meteor
Vampire
Canberra
Jet Provost
Super Constellation
Catalina

...and one that I couldn't identify. Appeared to be a high-wing monoplane, with fixed undercarriage, in spats. Was pale in colour, possibly sandy/buff (I'm colourblind, though so don't hold me to that) with a radial engine with red around the front of the cowling. Looked like the love child of a Stearman and a Lysander. Anyone any ideas?

Aside from the weather, the flying display has the potential to be a good one, given the aircraft they've got dotted about the airfield.

[Civpilot]

The Vampire and Meteor did actually do a couple of fly overs early in the morning before landing.

The halls were not as good as previous years until I got to SAAB.

Full size model of the Grippen 2 on the stand and had a guided tour of the cockpit from the pilots seat by a guy called Richard who is one of their chief test pilots.

Then I *might* have been invited into the flight simulator hidden in the middle of the stand

They also gave me loads of goodies including baseball hats, pin badges etc

So they won the unofficial hospitality competition for me

[yellowjack]

yellowjack said:

...and one that I couldn't identify. Appeared to be a high-wing monoplane, with fixed undercarriage, in spats. Was pale in colour, possibly sandy/buff (I'm colourblind, though so don't hold me to that) with a radial engine with red around the front of the cowling. Looked like the love child of a Stearman and a Lysander. Anyone any ideas?

I think it may be a Stinson V-77 Reliant, G-BUCH. Anyone able to confirm?

[ukaskew]

I fear the 'open' weekend tickets may bite Farnborough in the arse tomorrow given the forecast today (as it did with RIAT once if I remember correctly), it's going to be busy!

[Dr Jekyll]

Eric Mc said:

ANOTHER birdstrike for the Reds - 3 in two weeks.

First one was Red 6, then Red 7, now Red 8. Wonder what the chances of that are?

[FourWheelDrift]

PlanesTV have this as the lineup for today, published this morning by the show. Which means it will change

1230 - Meteor & Vampire
1244 - Breitling Wingwalkers
1303 - Great War Display Team
1319 - Airbus E-Fan
1326 - Airbus A380
1334 - Airbus A400M
1347 - Augusta Westland Lynx
1357 - Aerostars
1415 - Avro Vulcan XH558
1427 - Extra 300
1437 - Super Constellation
1447 - Trescal Starduster
1456 - Boegin F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
1506 - Sea Fury
1513 - AV8B Harrier
1527 - Canberra PR9
1539 - Avro Anson
1559 - Red Arrows
1634 - Boeing P-8A Poseidon
1645 - DC3 Dakotas
1657 - Eclipse Jet EA500
1706 - Eurofighter Typhoon
1718 - Supermarine Spitfire

[Tim330]

From works carpark using camera phone

[Mojocvh]

Eclipse Jet EA500, what a nice little aircraft that is!