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FRIAT
Dave Eade pays his money and makes his choice...departure day it is! All pictures by Gary Parsons unless stated otherwise.
For a second time your scribe invested in the FRIAT package for 2002 and, he has to say, it is still exceptionally good value for money. No doubt tomes will be written elsewhere as to the quality of the 2002 extravaganza but there was still a lot that was very good about this year's show. RIAT still maintains that air of friendly fun and enthusiasm for fellow spotters that I have never seen elsewhere - the quality of the campsites, the excellence of the FRIAT enclosure and the professional way that the display is executed all deserve a salute.
I commend the organisers for the way they handled the flying display after the G222 incident - it would have been so easy to just get the red pen out and start deleting. The crowd was constantly updated as soon as Sean Maffett and his team knew anything and very little from the day was lost.
I also take my cap off to the poor RAF teams on the gates who, faced with an intransigent USAF, had to deal with irate punters all day. As a sergeant said to us on Sunday, he is trained to deal with the public but a lot of the youngsters - the AC2s etc., are not and they had a hard time with no chance to retaliate. Whatever was wrong was not their fault.
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Monday
blues
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So, what if you can only make one day? RIAT being the size that it is now it would be a true dilemma for the enthusiast and one that I would hate to be faced with. There is absolutely no way that a static display of some 200-ish examples can be given due credit and be in a position to do likewise for a flying display starting at 10:30! So what can you do to see it all in a day? My answer? Departure day!
Admittedly I've seen it from the RIAT enclosure for the last two years, but this day is the one chance the number-cruncher/photographer has to complete his RIAT-task.
For
the uninitiated, departure day is the Monday after the show and, starting
at around 09:00 is a never-ending series of slots allocated to all participants
- fliers and static - to get the hell out of there. Unlike the great shows
of the 70s, no fly-bys are allowed, so no 'Tom Cruise' beat-ups are seen,
but there are more ways of skinning a cat…..Two-seaters give the low-flying
WSO the chance to wave to the enclosure before the pilot pulls up into
the climb and wing-waggling is totally the par for the day (okay in a
Tornado, but a Herk?!). The difficulty can be, as in this year's three-ship
Sea Harriers, F-15s and Mirage F1s get-aways, knowing which one of the
three is going to be the performer - it can be a guaranteed way of getting
through a lot of film, although the weather could have been better this
year.
The large
jets parked to the zero-nine end of the runway are forced to backtrack
which gives those unable to photograph the Canadian CC-150 in the sun
a final opportunity and to get a slow look at B-52s, C-5s and C-17s on
the move. Disappointing for 2002 was the non-
appearance
(or departure) of the F-117s but after the total farce of their arrival
on Wednesday, when at least fifty security people stood between the Park-and-View
crowd and the runway, we (and they) were saved that fiasco. Why do they
do it? If you don't want us to see it - don't bring it!
By 15:00 the base is beginning to look a mere ghost of itself six hours previous, the RIAT enclosure also begins to reflect the departure of the faithful and it's time to start saving again….just fifty-two weeks to go!