RIAT 2000, July 22 &23, RAF Cottesmore (Events in general)

Member Name: Smurf

Product:	Events in general
Date:	06/07/00 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many aeroplanes, both static and flying

Disadvantages: Tickets very expensive. Weather too cloudy and cold

After 5 lovely sunny days we arrived at RAF Cottesmore on Saturday at 7.45am well prepared with sunhats, sun cream, frozen drinks and frozen blocks with our picnic lunches! Unfortunately the cloud cover was 100% and very low. In fact too low for any of the planes to do more than what they call their Flat displays and too low for the parachute team to jump. Really disappointing after looking forward to it all week.

What was promising to be a fantastic day for air show enthusiasts and their families was spoiled by the cold, unseasonal weather. My son ended up buying a pair of trousers after getting colder and colder all morning in his shorts, and his friend bought a fleece to put over his tee-shirt after less than an hour, it was that cold! The clothes stalls must have made a bomb, but the ice-cream vans never saw a queue all day!

Anyway, what we did see was enjoyable, even though one of the Red Arrows had a bird strike on the way to the show and had to return to base, so we had an 8 plane display instead of the usual 9. The Patrouille Suisse team (from Switzerland) gave a good low-level display, the manoeuverability of the Harrier Juet was just amazing and the displays by the tiger moths, Spitfires, the last remaining Blemheim etc showing how they flew and fought in the war were very good. I've never seen so many veteran aeroplanes flying together. A pair of hares lurking on the edge of the runway were not impressed though when some mock bombs were "dropped" near their hiding places!

One of the more amazing stunts of the day was by a pair of gliders who were able to do several loops despite being at such a low level and, of course, having no engine power and very little wind to help them.

We stayed for the RAF concert at the end and Tom O'Connor was his usual amusing self, but by then we were all beginning to suffer from the cold and as there were no hot air balloons flying into the sunset we left slightly
earlier than expected.

The day seemed well organised and there was very little queuing when we arrived, but it was much busier later in the day. If only someone could have organised better weather! At least it didn't rain - well, no more than just a hint of drizzle in the morning which fortunately soon passed over. That really would have been the last straw!

Summary: