RIAT

BarryTheAviator · Post by **BarryTheAviator** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:46 am

This weekend is the UK Royal International Air Tattoo - I believe the biggest combined military and civilain airshow in the world and guess which lucky pilot has got free tickets as aircrew - yep ME. I am going along for both days as aircrew for a balloon pilot friend of mine - we have full airside access and will be doing both static and free flight shows for the public. If you want to see what you are missing have a look at this web site <a href='http://www.airtattoo.com/airtattoo/showcontent.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.airtattoo.com/airtattoo/showcontent.asp</a> and go green with envy. I will take some photos and if any of them turn out half reasonable I'll post the best on this forum. I know it is a bit off topic but ...

chevol · Post by **chevol** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:19 am

"<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BarryTheAviator @ Jul 12 2005, 02:46 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>This weekend is the UK Royal International Air Tattoo - I believe the biggest combined military and civilain airshow in the world and guess which lucky pilot has got free tickets as aircrew - yep ME. I am going along for both days as aircrew for a balloon pilot friend of mine - we have full airside access and will be doing both static and free flight shows for the public. If you want to see what you are missing have a look at this web site <a href='http://www.airtattoo.com/airtattoo/showcontent.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.airtattoo.com/airtattoo/showcontent.asp</a> and go green with envy. I will take some photos and if any of them turn out half reasonable I'll post the best on this forum. I know it is a bit off topic but ... [right][snapback]4237[/snapback][/right] </div> A Balloon! you mean like these airborne targets they use to train jet pilots to shoot ? I hope you'll be wearing a chute... I am just jalous! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] Have fun! "

Post by **nwadc10** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:42 am

"That looks interesting. I've never heard of that airshow before, does it rival in size with the Paris Airshow? I see the USAF will have a B-1B flying. I was at the Oshkosh airshow a couple years ago and they demonstrated the B-1B with slow speed fly-by's (do demonstrate the variable geometry wings) and a few high speed fly-by's. The high speed fly-by is quite possibly the neatest thing I've ever seen. They did the fly-by at M.97!!! Any faster and some airflow over the wings would exceed M1.0. If they do the same thing at this airshow...don't miss it! Enjoy those couple of days and I look forward to seeing a couple of pictures. Justin"

BarryTheAviator · Post by **BarryTheAviator** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:20 am

"<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chevol @ Jul 12 2005, 02:19 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>A Balloon! you mean like these airborne targets they use to train jet pilots to shoot ? I hope you'll be wearing a chute... I am just jalous! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] Have fun! [right][snapback]4239[/snapback][/right] </div> Yes I know - Balloon (hot air) just about the most useless form of transport ever invented. Still it is my ticket to see the proper aircraft. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img]"

BarryTheAviator · Post by **BarryTheAviator** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:24 am

"<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nwadc10 @ Jul 12 2005, 02:42 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>That looks interesting. I've never heard of that airshow before, does it rival in size with the Paris Airshow? I see the USAF will have a B-1B flying. I was at the Oshkosh airshow a couple years ago and they demonstrated the B-1B with slow speed fly-by's (do demonstrate the variable geometry wings) and a few high speed fly-by's. The high speed fly-by is quite possibly the neatest thing I've ever seen. They did the fly-by at M.97!!! Any faster and some airflow over the wings would exceed M1.0. If they do the same thing at this airshow...don't miss it! Enjoy those couple of days and I look forward to seeing a couple of pictures. Justin [right][snapback]4240[/snapback][/right] </div> Last year it was quite interesting at RIAT (I didn't go but my ballooning friend did). A B52 came all they way from the US for a fly past and then returned without landing (presumably had a few in flight refuelling sessions). The only problem was that after all that effort somebody made a bit of a navigational blunder and they did the fly past at an airfield about 20 miles away. Whoops!! "

wijnand · Post by **wijnand** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:41 pm

"<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BarryTheAviator @ Jul 12 2005, 04:24 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>Last year it was quite interesting at RIAT (I didn't go but my ballooning friend did). A B52 came all they way from the US for a fly past and then returned without landing (presumably had a few in flight refuelling sessions). The only problem was that after all that effort somebody made a bit of a navigational blunder and they did the fly past at an airfield about 20 miles away. Whoops!! [right][snapback]4243[/snapback][/right] </div> Barry, enjoy and keep us posted!!!! About navigational blunders: I heard a story from a pilot who had mixed up EHBK and EBLG (they are only a few miles from each other) he got landiong clearence for one of them (I can't remember which one) and landed on the other!!!! I would have liked to see the look on that guy's face when he examined his taxicharts against the airfiel!! Have a pleasant ""ballooning"" !!! wIJNAND (ehbk)"

Post by **nwadc10** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:50 pm

"Last summer an NWA A320 on a flight from MSP to RAP (Rapid City, South Dakota) landed at the wrong airport. That's a big problem to begin with and to make matters worse, they landed on the military base (which is for B-1B's, in fact). They sat on the ground for several hours waiting for a new crew to arrive from MSP to fly the A320 about 10 miles or so to RAP, the civilian airport. While on the ground they made the passengers close their window shades so they couldn't see details on the military base. Both pilots no longer fly for NWA. Things like that have happened before but usually the crew lands on another civilian airport. That's funny about the B-52 though because of how far they had to fly just to get there and they had to turn right around and go home. I wonder when they realized they missed the airport and what the expressions on their faces looked like at that instant [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img] Justin"

maj · Post by **maj** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:18 pm

"<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nwadc10 @ Jul 12 2005, 09:50 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>That's funny about the B-52 though because of how far they had to fly just to get there and they had to turn right around and go home. I wonder when they realized they missed the airport and what the expressions on their faces looked like at that instant [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img] Justin [right][snapback]4251[/snapback][/right] </div> How's that for our taxpayer $'s at work! Geez!!"

BarryTheAviator · Post by **BarryTheAviator** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 8:30 am

"Fantastic weekend - the weather was perfect - clear blue for two days. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] I have taken over 100 shots so I should be able to dig out one or two good ones. There were nearly 2 miles of static aircraft from microlights throught to the mighty Globemaster, airforces of many nations - including a lot of USAF aircraft- B52, B1B Lancer, F16, F18, C5, ScanEagle UAV Flying display continuoulsy from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm both days - everything from Spitfires, Lancaster, B52, Typhoon, Apache (inverted!!!) plus several airforce display teams - Red Arrows (RAF), Il Frecce Tricolore (Italy), Royal Jordanian Falcons, Patrulla Acrobatica Aguila (Spain), The Blue Eagles (UK Army Helicopters) - you name it and they were there. The aviation equivalent of a child being let loose in a chocolate factory!! Pictures wil follow in the next day or so (if any are good enough) "

BarryTheAviator · Post by **BarryTheAviator** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 3:14 pm

I have put 4 pictures in the Screen Shots section if anybody wants to have a look.