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Royal International Air Tattoo 2004: |
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RIAT2004 “Going Dutch”
We both checked in 2 hours prior departure at Eindhoven and after a quick hello to our colleagues at OPS we joined the loadmaster and went to the aircraft. Our PR stuff was already in the aircraft, a Fokker 60, the U-03 and after the checks were complete we departed a little bit early, but we didn’t mind. As we approached Fairford we started to get a little bit worried about the weather, a thick cloud layer was blocking our view to the ground almost the entire final approach. During the roll out we got a little excited, there was nothing to see!!!, except that the complete Grandstand was waiving to us (Thanks Gill, Berry and Roy). The complete airfield was empty, there were no other aircraft on the ground. This means that lots of aircraft had to come in after us. When we reached our parking spot we saw that in fact 2 other aircraft arrived before us, an ANG C-38 and an E-8 J-STARS. No a bad result, if we finished like that in a Formula 1 grand prix we would have had a podium place! Our crew had to return to Eindhoven, so after a quick lesson Fokker 60 for dummies” how to release the parking brake and get it on again” (if it was necessary to tow the aircraft), they went to there air taxi (a Fokker 50) and we went to OPS to check in. The check in lasted for 45 minutes and after getting a hotel, rental car, filling a flight plan back we were free to go. Our friends from Squadron Prints were still waiting for us at the grandstand and after a warm welcome from them we shot our first, of many, photos. From the top of the still empty Grandstand it was a very nice day with lots of nice aircraft, with as absolute RIAT arrival highlight the roll and low pass of the Italian P-166. The Thursday arrival day wasn’t so nice as the day before, lower clouds, lack of sun most of the time and the fact that the Grandstand was now occupied with FRIAT members. We send the day on the grass in front of the Grandstand and in the end we managed to take some nice photos. On Friday we were happy with the photos we made and we decided to put up our stand and try to sell something during the Youth day. The fact that most of the people of the organization didn’t know were to go, we parked our self on a piece of grass in the vicinity of the U-2 and F-117. The choice to start selling instead of taking photos was a good one, what a bad weather that day, if we asked everybody a pound who took shelter from the rain in our tent we earned lots of money already. The next day we had to put our stand on a different spot, together with the boys and girls of 322/323 Sqn and 313 Sqn we created a Dutch zone. Sometimes during the display one of us took some pictures of the display in front of our stand but mostly the display aircraft were to far away to get some decent shots. The ride to and from the hotel was a time consuming travel, the RIAT gave us a hotel in Cheltenham, so we decided to go up early every day, 05.30h, to be on time at Fairford and ahead of the traffic jam. The crew pass was very handy indeed, parking your car almost aside the aircraft and a special entrance made it easy for us. In our hotel were also crews from Belgium as well Jordan, Italy and America. On Saturday evening while sitting in the garden of the hotel we discovered that the AFRC crew of the B-52 also were there, we decided to ask them why they only did one high-speed pass from right to left. They told us that the RIAT organization didn’t gave them more time. He said when possible he would try to a left bank on Sunday so we could make some photos, but unfortunately ATC gave him vector towards the field which made it impossible to do a slight left bank. Later that night he apologized for that. Like all good things, this comes to an end as well. Monday morning departure day, got up early again, brought the car back and then to the Grandstand. The expectations for departure day were high, thinking about departing aircraft staying low level, but in the end it was a little bit a disappointment. Most of the aircraft climb up to fast with a few exceptions. We had time till 1 o’ clock, but when we saw that the same Fokker 50 coming in, that ferried the new crew in it was time to go. We had the keys of the aircraft and without us it was nowhere to go for that aircraft. We met the crew at the aircraft and they gave us 45 minutes extra playing time, but after that it really was time to go.
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Home © Fred & Maurice 2001-2008 |
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