Just Flight blogs

A right RIAT

RIAT = Rain Interdicts Air Tattoo.

It all started off so well! Well, err… no, not really - it just got worse . The weather for the week before RIAT 08 was not exactly sunny and hot, more like grey with a lot of rain… so even at that stage there was doubt in my mind as to the state of the ground for the show. So, the week progressed and Just Flight’s carefully laid plans swung into operation; hire a marquee, hire an additional generator to power the computers, screens and beer-making equipment and hire a van to transport this all around the countryside, as well as all the other logistics to enable us to attend and demonstrate at the show. Person and vehicle passes were given out all the crew that were attending. 

Friday
Cometh the day to attend the show and set up. It was planned that I and Richard arrive at around 14:30 to get in the queue to get on site with the rest of the exhibitors and that Scott would arrive a bit later and Mark late in the evening as he had other commitments.  Of course we all arrived late! Richard arrived before me and rung me from the airfield to say he was there and it was raining stair rods. I was only about 3 miles away and was in bright sunshine! That all changed as I approached the airfield. As I joined the slow moving traffic past the end of the runway it was hammering it down. You can see my video blog of that here, yet there were hundreds of people getting absolutely soaked watching the airfield and a solitary F16 that was taxiing about. Even members of the military in their dress uniforms who had been at the Queens flypast were getting absolutely drenched. I rang Scott and he said he was still on the M5 motorway doing about 10 MPH and was not due for several more hours… all starting to go wrong…

Ps and Qs (Passes and Queues)
Eventually got through the queue to gate ‘G’ (the exhibitors’ entrance) and was ushered into another queue to get my car security checked – it then struck me that I had forgotten my pass! ARGHH! That kind of thing I never do but somehow this time I had. More foreboding of how well it was all going to turn out! So I got out of the car into the pouring rain and went to the site check-in marquee to explain that 1) I had forgotten my pass and 2) I was due to pick up an additional car pass as arranged with the organisers on Wednesday. Needless to say, they knew nothing about the extra car pass and were looking at me very strangely as I had no personal pass… I had also stupidly forgotten to bring any photo ID with me! ARGH! (again).

After I had found the right person to explain all this to I was suitably equipped and went back to my car and was then escorted by motorbike to the next… queue! This queue was to get escorted (again) to our exhibition pitch. Richard was already there with the van full of goodies. After about 30 minutes’ wait we actually got to where we were supposed to be. Of course, no sign of a marquee, just two tent pegs with the words “Just Flight” on them. Our fellow exhibitors were busy setting up either side of us, one selling military clothing and suchlike, of which the owner was “Daz” (saw that on his number plate). I’m sure he came from Peckham and used to own a yellow Robin Reliant but I never asked. To our other side was a 40-foot trailer that, like some transformer toy, expanded into an amusement arcade… (further forebodings of doom).

Who? Where?
After several hours waiting and many phone calls with the marquee people that included words like “Who?”, “Lost”, “Where are you?” and “How do we get in?” a battered white Mercedes van turned up and two guys started to erect the accommodation. All now seemed to be going swimmingly, especially in the campsite just outside the airfield perimeter that we could see. It was a terrible mess of grass, mud, cars tents caravans and a tractor dragging the aforementioned articles around! Still, where we were the grass was wet but solid and our marquee was being erected on the solid taxiway so no problems for us with water – yet!

Richard and I let the guys get on with their erection. Next thing I see is their van driving off at high speed heading towards the exit. Eh? I looked at the marquee and it had no floor and the front of the marquee had a big gap in it, meaning any rain could get in and any stock in it get out! They had just left without saying anything! I got Richard to ring them on their mobile and eventually managed to get them to stop before they escaped (apparently they had another marquee to put up in Bath and were late). We were chasing after them in our van at the same time – it was a bit like a Laurel and Hardy film crossed with the Keystone Cops! We caught up with their van and explained that we would like the front to be able to be closed. After a first offer of “Here is another bit of tent” to which I replied “How do we fit it?” (and got the reply “Just drape it over the top”) I insisted that they return and do the job properly, which they did.

“We should have a floor..”
At this point Scott had rolled up and mentioned that “We should have a floor”. The erectors looked at the invoice and said that was not the case but we could pay for one, they then changed their mind and said we had paid for it and they would lay one. So out came some plastic sheet and some kind of felt ‘carpet’ which they ‘fitted’. The trouble was that it had obviously been last used in a field full of cows as it smelt of their, err, Cow Sh.. err ‘waste products’. Still, undeterred, we were making ‘progress’.

Whilst they were finishing off the tent Scott decided to do a spot of golfing, as can be seen on the video blog. Scott always has been far too relaxed and will probably live to be about 127 years old.

Anyway, while we were waiting for the marquee, the practice for the display was going on and we managed to see the French and Swiss aerobatic teams display as well as the Grippen, a great formation between a late Mk Spitfire at full throttle and a Eurofighter (see it on my video blog) and the amazing F22 Raptor doing slow-motion manoeuvres in the sky, including some kind of controlled flat spin – quite impressive. Shame we never saw the full display in action over the weekend, not that we probably would have done as we would have been confined to our marquee, I guess. Late in the day a Fedex A310 landed and was pushed back into the static area not far along from our pitch.

B1B USAF Supersonic bomber.

Good news and bad…
Richard and I managed to get Scott off the runway and back to the pitch and we all started unloading the van and putting up the many various elements of the stand. This all seemed to be going quite well, although it was starting to get dark as it was now 21:00 hours. Around 15 minutes later the RIAT guy who had been organising our area came into the marquee and said “I have some bad news – Saturday’s show has been cancelled”. Both Richard and Scott started to smile as in “This is a wind-up” but I took it a bit more seriously and the smiles soon dropped as the reality of the situation dawned on us. We were told that we would hear at 16:00 on the Saturday if Sunday’s show would happen. OK, time to abandon ship and we all headed back to our hotel the ‘Five Alls’ at Filkins, just north of the Airfield.

The Five Alls pub sign - devil in the middle (and detail!) 

Horsemen of the apocalypse arrive at the Five Alls
We arrived about 22:10 and went into the bar. We started discussing the cancellation and the barmaid said that a family who were staying at the hotel had planned to go to RIAT and she had better tell them. About 10 nano-seconds later the father (Robert) came into the bar and quizzed us: “My eleven-year-old son is upstairs in floods of tears at the news,” he said. Ah… we felt like we had arrived at the hotel like the horsemen of the apocalypse with bad news! Robert then mentioned that his son, Sam, had not been at all well in the past and had been looking forward to the show for months! At this point I took off my black cape and put down my scythe and said that we may be able to help them on Saturday.

We decided that we all needed some food and were greeted with the reply that the food was “finished for the night”. Right… so we all piled into my car and drove to Carterton, next to RAF Brize Norton, to get some grub. We had heard about a good Indian restaurant above a dry cleaner’s (bizarre!) and ate a good meal there. We then returned to the hotel and, as the bar had closed retired for the night to see what Saturday would bring. B.T.W. the pub sign includes a picture of the devil so maybe…..?

Saturday dawns and the sun is out…         
“Brown sauce?” came the reply from the confused French-sounding waitress serving me breakfast. “I will ask zee chef” she said, and returned 60 seconds later with “Non - we ‘ave none”. Fearing that we were staying at a high-class eatery I imagined the chef was disgusted that I had dared to contaminate his fine food with such rubbish as brown sauce. I decided at this point that a proper tomato was better than asking for the tinned variety that I prefer… Scott, Richard and Mark joined me at breakfast and a discussion was had as to the plan for the day. Knowing that the show was cancelled for today, Scott went to Oxford to do some shopping as he was off on holiday the following week and Richard and Mark went off to The Cotswold Wildlife park to study the Meerkats to see if they could pick up any tips on family organisation which could be put to good use at Just Flight Towers. It later turned out that Scott who is also a devoted cricket fan had seen some signs saying ‘Oxford CC’ which he assumed (foolishly) was Cricket Club so wishing to view the cricket followed them but it eventually turned out it was the local Oxford Caravan Club(!) so that was disappointing (but very amusing to us non-cricketers!). I decided that I would go to the airfield and check on the marquee and wait for the news on Sunday’s show. I had also offered to take Robert and Sam to the outskirts of the airfield so that they could see if anything was happening.

Beast at Cotswold wildlife park.

Beast at Cotswold wildlife park.

Slippery slope!
Off we set in my car. I had a cunning plan to get to the airfield by a quiet route to ensure I would not meet any traffic in case the news of the show’s cancellation had not got through, so I planned to get to a point that I know just to the north and take the route from there. Doris, my sat nav, would safely guide me to that point and I would be fine from there. (I had it all planned you see…) “Turn left in 300 yards”, “Turn right now” and so forth as we snaked our way to my RV point. I carefully followed her instructions but got to a point where she said “You have arrived at your destination”. Hmm, right, but actually wrong. Doris had taken me to the back of where I wanted to be and not the front.

I needed to turn around so I looked and saw the entrance to a farmer’s field and proceeded to reverse into it and do a three-point turn. All was going well for the first 2 points of the 3 until I went to pull forward and get back on the road… the wheels were just spinning and we were going nowhere! We were stuck on some slippery grass and on a slight incline. At this point Doris kept telling me I had gone the wrong way and that I should turn around – needless to say, I turned Doris off. So Robert got out of the car and started to push. I was revving the engine and we moved about a foot… “Are you in second gear?” asked Robert “Yes,” I replied “And I have also turned off the too-clever-by-half traction control that kept reducing the engine revs when I needed more.” After putting some rocks under the rear wheels and still getting nowhere fast I took some carpet out of the boot and put that under the wheels. Eventually we were back on the road after much revving and pushing.

Lovely day for an air show (and moving a washing machine)
On the airfield itself it was quite pleasant.  The sun was out a lot of the time although there was a fair bit of cloud around and we did have 2 or 3 pretty light showers through the day. I opened our newly installed zipper ‘front door’ and saw the floor was soaking! Lots of our boxes were wet - so much for the membrane under the ‘carpet’. Maybe the previously mentioned cows had punctured it? I moved all our boxes off the floor. Sitting outside in the sun it was actually quite warm, although luckily tempered by a small breeze. It really was a good day for an air show and the show was all dressed up with nowhere to fly.

Wet boxes from the rain. 

F15 head on

C-130 Hercules USAF

I heard a rumour that although the aircraft could have flown, that would have encouraged visitors to the area, which would have caused chaos as there was nowhere to park. I also heard that RIAT is covered by cancellation insurance, so if any plane had displayed it would have voided any claim, which seems to make sense, so although 3 or 4 aircraft took off they just departed and did not display. The static aircraft line was quite busy with people wandering up and down like they were attending some private air show. These people were the air and ground crews as well as the other staff looking after the show. In fact the amusement arcade opened and started playing annoying funfair music and a stand a few plots away from us started selling gifts to the people who were there!

HEER CH53 heavy-lift bier keller.

Abandon ship – we’re going down!
At 16:00 hours I was intently listening to the Air Show Radio (87.7 FM) waiting to hear what was happening on the Sunday, but nothing! 5 past, 10 past, 15 minutes past… not a sausage! Then at 20 past it was announced that the Sunday was also cancelled.  Some calls to the rest of the crew got them back on the airfield and we started to dismantle the stand and put it all back into the van, which at this point included a washing machine that we were transporting back to our warehouse on behalf of our MD, Andy, who lives near Fairford!

Midges and Mosquitoes
Quite appropriate this, as we are near to the release of our own Mosquito… I would find out just how annoying these beasties are. On the Saturday evening the crew were invited around to Andy’s house, which happens to be just off the end of the runway at Fairford, so we duly turned up and had an evening of reflection on the last two days as well as good food and drink. We sat in the garden and were aggressively attacked by midges but they were clever! None of us saw or heard them and it was not until Sunday that their attacks were found.

Starry, starry night…
We left Andy’s at around 01:15 on Sunday and drove back to the Five Alls. We had a key for the night entrance so no problem… until we tried to get in! The hotel had bolted the door on the inside! We were locked out. ARGH! So plan 1) Ring the hotel – tried about 10 times and we could hear the phone ringing but nobody answered. Plan 2) Ring the hotel owner’s mobile phone – same result! Then I remembered that Robert had given me his mobile number and he was staying in the hotel so I rung him at about 02:00. He was very understanding and kindly let us in, otherwise we could have been destined for a night under the stars – thanks, Robert, and apologies again for waking you up.

Sunny Sunday
Sunday morning dawned and we all had our brown-sauce-less breakfast and then headed back home. I only live about a hour away from Fairford so was able to nicely surprise my family and we went out in the afternoon.

Sting in the tail
So RIAT 08 was all done, then? Well, not quite. Richard had driven the van back to the warehouse in Huntingdon and unloaded the van, and then planned to take the generator back to the hire company. but disaster! On the way, in his own car, the engine blew up - apparently beyond economic repair. We also got charged another day’s rent as we did not return the generator on time! So RIAT 08 was destined never to happen, but we went down fighting!

I am sure that looking back on the events of the weekend we will smile and chortle as it was a bit of a ‘boy’s own adventure’, but at the moment it’s reflected as a bit of a disaster!

The JF Crew at RIAT 08 - Scott, Alex (Scotty), Richard, Andy and David with Mark behind the camera lens.

Muddy hell!
I think the unfortunate decision to cancel the show was correct and was based on safety grounds. If there had been any incident or accident in any of the muddy waterlogged car parks the emergency services would not have been able to reach them, so fair enough really.

I would loved to have seen the F22 and Vulcan flying but it was destined not to be.

Check out the my video blog of RIAT 08 here.

RIAT 09? Who knows - stay tuned?

Thanks to Mark Embleton and David Coates for the pictures.

‘Till the next time

Keep safe.

Scotty.