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Delta's D-Day?

Damien Burke reflects on last year's Delta Jets Open Day at Kemble and argues against those that watch but don't pay

Over the last few years the team at Kemble have been busily putting together bigger and better aviation events, starting from small open days and progressing on to full-blown airshows such as the hugely successful Hunter 50th Anniversary airshow and the Classic Jet Airshow of 2002. But they haven't forgotten their roots in the smaller open day style events and have continued to put these on.

28 September 2003 saw one such event, billed as the Delta Jets Open Day consisting of a fly-in morning and classic jet displays in the afternoon. Well, there's only one way to turn up at a fly-in, so having blackmailed a friendly pilot (thanks Carol!) I was lucky enough to fly from Duxford to Kemble - the longest part of the trip being the drive to Duxford, particularly when my windscreen wipers snuffed it during a violent rainstorm en-route, requiring a pit stop to wrestle with the mounting bolts! (Shouldn't have bought a Volvo - Ed). The weather between Duxford and Kemble was not great but we picked our way through the worst of it and were finally on finals to Kemble's nice big runway in blazing sunshine.

Delta delights

Unstrapping just in time to catch the one and only Sea Vixen make a couple of fast low passes (detouring over Kemble on her way back to her home base at Hurn), the next jet to make a move was the UK's only civilian-operated Canberra, arriving from Coventry. Unfortunately many other aircraft that had been invited didn't manage to get through the poor weather elsewhere in the country, so the line-up was a little thinner than expected. However we still had a decent turn-out with a Strikemaster (Tom Moloney on one of his last appearances before retiring from display flying), Jet Provost (the beautifully painted 'Poachers' one from Gower Jets), three Hunters (all based examples - WV318, WV372 and the crowd-pleasing 'Miss Demeanour') and a Vampire (from the Vampire Preservation Society - another beautifully presented aircraft).

On static display were Delta's Gnats and the Hunters currently in storage or under restoration but it was really the flying we'd all come to see and that was certainly worth the trip. Firm favourite for me was that howling little silver Vampire, a type we just do not see enough of in UK skies these days. Rare enough at the best of times, ones presented in authentic RAF colours are rarer still. Coming close second was an excellent display from the Canberra, with the orientation of the sun producing some impressive silhouettes as it roared through the sky.

The remaining displays from Hunters, JP and Strikemaster were all up to their usual standards and judging by the crush at the fence whenever anything was taking off or taxiing, the opportunities to take shots of these aircraft at close quarters were being well taken advantage of. One annoyance expressed by some visitors was that many of the fly-in visitors had been parked along the crowdline, making a clear view of the runway difficult in places - this hopefully won't be the case next time.

Various factors including stricter safety regulations have meant that these small events have become progressively more expensive to organise, and have moved from their initial location by the Delta Jets hangars to being centered around the control tower and restaurant. Unfortunately a worryingly large number of people came to Kemble but stayed outside by the roadside to watch the flying for free. In an area of the country that was for so long limited to only one big airshow (at nearby Fairford of course), it is saddening to see so many refuse to support the events at Kemble particularly as the costs of booking classic jets are so high - averaging at £1,500 per act with fuel, meals and accommodation on top of that.

A few of the freeloaders may have chosen to stay outside because photography was trickier from the North side of the airfield, but there will be no excuse from now on as all events with flying displays will have the crowd positioned on the South side, with no access to the North side. The next such open day/jet fly-in event at Kemble will be on 12 September 2004 (with, of course, the larger airshow before on 20 June) so we'll leave the last word to Glen Moreman, events organiser at Kemble: "...if no-one supports this year's September event then we will not be holding another. I think I echo the thoughts of other event organisers, either support the event and come through the paygates or sit outside in a layby for free and watch the event's demise because of lack of funds... Support these classic jet days or lose them."

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