Grump Grump GRUMPY!

 

Red 8 & Circus 8 2014 - "Stop!"

So - right now we should be sitting on an RAF Base in Gloucestershire baking our backsides off and wielding our cameras at lots of fantastic aircraft at the Royal International Air Tattoo - lovely vintage ones, big commercial ones, heavy military ones and whizzy fast pointy ones -  and why are we not, you may well ask? Well, events in Iran have meant the cancellation of the event for this year - as soon as the USA started their little party, and rather a lot of B-52 & B-1 airframes started arriving at Fairford, we had our suspicions that the writing might be on the wall, and sure enough, late May saw the expected email land from RIAT telling us the news. It has to be said at the time it was just a case of shrug, think "not unexpected" and make some decisions around tickets, accommodation etc - but now the dates of the show have come and we're not there it is hitting harder!

2016 - Red 1 & Prince George

I first went to RIAT in 2014, and have been back every year that the show has run since, with the last few years being in the FRIAT (Friends of RIAT) enclosure with its grandstand seating, marquee and (the best bit) posh toilets!  we pay a premium for this of course with tickets pitched at the £300+ level, but also get the benefit of attending right from the first day of arrivals through to departures day which makes for 6 days of immense fun. We've seen ludicrously cold-for-July shows, lovely sunny shows, shows where there has been SO much rain that we've barely seen anything fly some days, shows where the relentless grey wall of cloud has been ever-present and shows when it's been so hot we honestly felt like we were frying. This year it must be said would probably have been one of the latter! Regardless though, it is always one of the highlights of the airshow season, and it does really feel very strange indeed to not be there!

2017 - Italian Tornado creating some heat...

It made me think back to some favourite moments from the years I've attended - with the first shot above being my absolute favourite RAF Red Arrows groundshot from my very first Circus at Work project in 2014. Then Circus 8 Ross was one of the original reasons for these projects starting, and has featured here on the blog a fair few times I think. the second photo I've chosen is also featuring the reds - this time then Red 1 David Montenegro with a rather little Prince George, along with the now Princess of Wales of course. I got a tip off a very short while before this visit happened and was lucky to be able to get myself in position to get some nice shots of their time with the team. 

2019 - Not all grey skies are bad...

Next up the Italian Tornado display aircraft from 2017 - this was an absolute highlight of the show that year and never more than when it took off on day 2 in nasty persistent drizzly rain and produced a sensational display that was worth getting the camera wet for!  Also memorable thanks to weather conditions was the now rather evocative shot of Battle of Britain Memorial flight Spitfire MK356 against heavy grey skies in 2019. I love the way the colour of that cloud brings out the colours of the aircraft, and also that it is being flown by my pal Andy. Sadly this is the aircraft that was lost in the crash at Coningsby in 2024, which also lead to the death of the then pilot, Squadron Leader Mark Long, I still love the photograph but seeing it now certainly makes me think. 

2022 - The Korean Black Eagles

A two year break over Covid in common with most other big events was certainly a blow, but because of the bigger picture was somehow slightly easier to swallow, and of course when we all got back there in 2022 it just felt like the biggest treat!  That year probably the biggest buzz surrounded the Korean Black Eagles who put on some absolutely sensational displays - they are probably the closest display team to the UK's Red Arrows in terms of precision and the dynamic nature of the display and I think pretty much the entire crowd was totally wowed by them. 

2024 - Turkish F-4 Phantom arriving

The 2024 show definitely saw a person highlight for me in the shape of my first sight of flying F-4 Phantoms - the one pictured above being from Turkey but there were also Greek ones attending too. There is just something special about these aircraft - it's far from just me who was excited to see them! The tail art on this one was spectacular too - the Greek aircraft also had tail art but sadly applied by transfers and those didn't survive the stresses of the transit and landing so well!

2025 - Apache pyros

I confess I struggled to choose a favourite shot or moment from the 2025 show - it could easily have been the Spitfire pair from the Aircraft Restoration Company and Rolls Royce, the stunning Danish F-16 solo display in its final ever UK displays, the Reds flypast with the RAF's newest aircraft the Wedgetail or indeed the incredible amount of "Spluff" - the aviation geek's nickname for vapour clouds - produced by several of the fast jet displays. In the end though I settled on the shot above of the Army Air Corps Apache display finale - that year's "Friday special" as it was the only day over the weekend it was performed! That was probably the shot that anyone who was there on the Friday wanted more than any other - and there was a LOT of politics and complaints afterwards about where on the display line it was performed! No complaints from those of us in the FRIAT grandstand though as you can probably tell! 

2023 - sneaky extra F-35 & Harrier shot!

I'm not sure whether that little look back over the years has made me feel better or worse about being stuck at home this year, but at least I know that Alysha, Byron, Marc & Tim are all feeling much the same levels of grumpiness. We're already planning for next year though and looking forward to it - and confirmation from the Air Tattoo team yesterday with the 2027 tickets helped a little perhaps - only a year to wait!

Robyn