RAF Leuchars airshow - tomorrow
Discussion
Depends on the cloud base, really. The Reds usually have a 'poor weather' display which foregoes a lot of the high up stuff, leaving mostly formation fly-bys and close passes in opposing directions. With some of the other displays you'll see them disappear into the cloud, then reappear every so often, so not very exciting.
Don't think I'll go, as the lineup gets less impressive every year and the traffic direction from Fife Constabulary gets more retarded despite saying 'we've learned lessons from the last show' every fecking year. Last show is likely to be 2012 or 2013, so I might make the effort then.
Don't think I'll go, as the lineup gets less impressive every year and the traffic direction from Fife Constabulary gets more retarded despite saying 'we've learned lessons from the last show' every fecking year. Last show is likely to be 2012 or 2013, so I might make the effort then.
I took my Mum out for a lunch today and we ended up going round the Fife coast, ending up in St Andrews. First encounter was a Chinook that came in incredibly low over the Forth and passed over just to the east of Leven before passing between the hills behind Lower Largo and disappearing into the cloud. Lowest I've ever seen one before. Very impressive.
On arriving in St Andrews I saw a fighter jet performing some loops and so on so we carried on towards Gaurdbridge for a closer look. I think it was a Eurofighter (two small wings ahead of the main ones) however it disappeared as a C14/C17 came into land (sorry, I'm no plane expert here!) There were already a good few people parked int he laybys along the Gaurdbridge/St Andrews road so I turned round and headed back towards St Andrews and turned off down a track that lead to the shoreline - when I say track, I mean Land Rover spec.
We parked up and watched the French (?) display team take off in formation (2 x 4 planes) and then circled before 5 basically buggered off towards the North Sea. Three remained and looped aorund for about 30mins with one doing loops and various fly-bys. Two then landed again (one escorted by two fire engines and an ambulance?) leaving one solitary jet which carried out circling/looping for a while.
At that point we left... no idea what became of the other five jets as they were nowhere to be seen? Weather wise, today was very misty/low cloud cover however late afternoon the cloud base lifted and it was blue skies and very pleasant. If I knew I could get through the traffic and get down the track/footpah/field to where I was today, I'd go back as I had a brilliant vantage point opposite the runway.
And again, please excuse my lack of knowledge. The most I know about planes is that there's an orange and white A319 that took me from home to work numerous times last year!
Regards
On arriving in St Andrews I saw a fighter jet performing some loops and so on so we carried on towards Gaurdbridge for a closer look. I think it was a Eurofighter (two small wings ahead of the main ones) however it disappeared as a C14/C17 came into land (sorry, I'm no plane expert here!) There were already a good few people parked int he laybys along the Gaurdbridge/St Andrews road so I turned round and headed back towards St Andrews and turned off down a track that lead to the shoreline - when I say track, I mean Land Rover spec.
We parked up and watched the French (?) display team take off in formation (2 x 4 planes) and then circled before 5 basically buggered off towards the North Sea. Three remained and looped aorund for about 30mins with one doing loops and various fly-bys. Two then landed again (one escorted by two fire engines and an ambulance?) leaving one solitary jet which carried out circling/looping for a while.
At that point we left... no idea what became of the other five jets as they were nowhere to be seen? Weather wise, today was very misty/low cloud cover however late afternoon the cloud base lifted and it was blue skies and very pleasant. If I knew I could get through the traffic and get down the track/footpah/field to where I was today, I'd go back as I had a brilliant vantage point opposite the runway.
And again, please excuse my lack of knowledge. The most I know about planes is that there's an orange and white A319 that took me from home to work numerous times last year!
Regards
Edited by Davie on Friday 9th September 22:48
Edited by Davie on Friday 9th September 22:49
ApexJimi said:
Do they still put the planes up in the wet? It's never rained when I've been, so no idea.
Was wet in '08 - they seem to just keep an eye on the weather and then put something in the air when they can 
From '08...
You can see the amount of moisture in the air on the top of the wings!:
More in my Leuchars airshow gallery on my site.
For those heading along tomorrow, have a good time!
creationracing said:
Zat ees not ze Red Arrows zat ees ze Patrouille de Francais mais non ?Chuck328 said:
I won't be going. After last years parking debacle and finally making it in sometime after 1pm to see half a day of probably the worst airshow I've been to. Doubt I'll go again.
Perth show was better (Saturday), shame they didn't repeat it this year.
I agree... last year I didn't get there until 2:30pm, absolute joke!Perth show was better (Saturday), shame they didn't repeat it this year.
HillfootsBadger said:
creationracing said:
Zat ees not ze Red Arrows zat ees ze Patrouille de Francais mais non ?Click on the 2011 Leuchars Air Show link near the bottom of the page. Scroll through the pics and you'll see close up photos of the Reds and the Patrouille (with the blue/red and high mounted wings).
Tally Ho, chaps!!
Pip Pip
creationracing said:
bigwheel said:
Well flagged in the first instance, then.
It certainly irritates when self-professed professional media types don't check their work before publishing.
To be fair, it was an image of 8 silhouettes trailing red, white and blue smoke. Easily mistaken and probably passable to the 99% of their readership who couldn't distinguish between the front profile of a Hawk and an Alphajet. It certainly irritates when self-professed professional media types don't check their work before publishing.
PistonHeads - Pedantry Matters.
Davie said:
I took my Mum out for a lunch today and we ended up going round the Fife coast, ending up in St Andrews. First encounter was a Chinook that came in incredibly low over the Forth and passed over just to the east of Leven before passing between the hills behind Lower Largo and disappearing into the cloud. Lowest I've ever seen one before. Very impressive.
My pleasure 
The cloud base was around 150' up the Forth, so we negotiated with Edinburgh to let us through their airspace and cross at the Bridges at Low-Level. With the forecast weather at Leuchars, I didn't want to pull up into the cloud and risk not getting in or having to trog 10 miles out to sea. It looked like we were going to be following the coast all the way around, but we saw a gap and dived through - we train hard to be able to operate in such conditions, so it's good to do it for real from time to time.
Hope the damp day didn't spoil it for you!
WD
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