Leuchars Air Show

[Deleted account 210516001]

If you like that sort of thing and don't want to travel to the other end of the country Leuchars Airshow this year could be the last ever.

http://www.airshow.co.uk/

The lineup can't rival the glory years when the RAF, Navy and Army had more than six aircraft between them but if it is the last show there will be a bit of nostalgia for those of us who first visited in the sixties and seventies.

As usual the bikers have been remembered by the organisers. Free on base parking for motorcycles again. If you can get one of the few car parking spaces on the base it will cost you £15. For everybody else it's park and ride from a muddy field.

 

[Deleted User O]

Use to go when I was an ATC boy

Loved it

 

[wully]

My uncle took me to the show when I was wee.

I remember being terrified and greetin when three Vulcans did a low flying pass over us..

 

[GlynnJ]

Bike parking

Can't see anything on the website about free bike parking on the base. Is it a secret? Wouldn't want to turn up and be forced to park elsewhere

EDIT: Whoops! Found it: https://www.airshow.co.uk/ticketinfo

 

[Deleted account 210516001]

My uncle took me to the show when I was wee.

I remember being terrified and greetin when three Vulcans did a low flying pass over us..

There should be a Vulcan there again this year. It is grounded with a fuel leak at the moment but should be OK for September.

 

[Bumble Bee]

There should be a Vulcan there again this year. It is grounded with a fuel leak at the moment but should be OK for September.

It aint landing this year. Just a flying visit for display then back to Robin Hood International (ex RAF Kemble).

Bike parking has always been free.

 

[Straypuss]

Leuchars was my first long distance trip on a bike. I had just left the ATC (396) and had to make my own way there.... seemed a long way from Paisley in '75 on a 1964 Honda 125 C92. Phantoms, Lightnings and Vulcans scudding across the sky glory days

 

[arcboutant]

quite a bit o' flying......

goin' on just recently.
Wonder if they are trying to use up all the stored fuel???

Thought I saw a VC10 in yesterday - but I was a good bit away. By the time I got there a couple of hours later - no sign. Must be that ghost paint they use,

 

[AberdeenAngus]

oooh the sound of a Vulcan at full grunt. You feels it in yer boots.

 

[arcboutant]

ach.............

you youngsters.......... ye canna' beat the sound o' the Merlin - hypnotic.

 

[geordie458]

you youngsters.......... ye canna' beat the sound o' the Merlin - hypnotic.

And the Griffon surely????

 

[Voyager]

you youngsters.......... ye canna' beat the sound o' the Merlin - hypnotic.

I'll agree there. Living next to Edinburgh Airport I get to hear (and hopefully see) anything unusual.

Merlins (and Griffons) always get me running outside, fantastic sound. The Battle of Britain Flight was here a couple of months back - Lanc & two Spits . . What happened to the Hurricane

Arc - there was a VC10 over here a few days ago, may have been the one you saw. Phenomenal noise compared to the modern turbofans.

When we had Concord here a good few years ago I thought the windows were going to fall out

Oh yes - A DH Chipmunk went over the house a week ago, seems years since they were last flying around here on a regular basis.

Nostalgia (it ain't what it used to be).

Bob.

 

[AndyT]

I can't make it as I'll be in Europe on my bike but can highly recomend it to everyone - its a fantastic day out and you are close to the action. I saw the Vulcan there a couple of years ago and it was awesome. They used to build them near where I was raised and saw loads when I was a nipper. I can't recomend the show enough.

AndyT

 

[arcboutant]

Hi Bob.

Aye ok ,the Griffon too.

I think it was last Sunday when putting the bike away in the garage a plane flew over on a course roughly Scone to the North Berwick coast.It had a fair turn of speed. I do know a Hurricane and Spitfire - it was neither of those BUT i'm positive it was a merlin engine.

 

[skinnersscotch]

There's been a Mustang flying out of Leuchars recently. I watched it from hills over looking the base and it seemed to be doing circuits and bumps for a while before slightly longer flights.

 

[skinnersscotch]

I did four years at Edinburgh Airport before I retired and it was always great to see different aircraft coming in.

Got the opportunity to clamber all over a B-17 when it came in for the east Fortune Open Day, and the best was being allowed to squeeze myself into a Spitfire cockpit when it was hidden away in a private hangar.

During G8 the US had a special place festooned with aerials parked at the Business Aviation hangar and it was connected with a very large cable to a Winnebago which was parked within the hangar.

They flew in a C-7 cargo plane to pick up the Winnebago and an GPU for it and my colleague and I were allowed onto the flight deck of the C-7. I mentioned that I was surprised and the crew said, "Just don't get caught trying to see into the Winnebago!". "Hank" and "Earl" types had been standing guard on it so you can imagine the sort of thing it was being used for. We suspected it was a Presidential communications backup.

 

[Voyager]

I've seen a very large military transport flying around here recently - High wing (drooping, i.e. with anhedral), four turbofans and the tailplane on top of the fin. . .

Any ideas, I'm letting my Aircraft Recognition slip I'm afraid ??

Its quite quiet - in a deep thunderous sort of way - I can feel it coming before it appears over the trees

Magnificent thing in flight

Bob.

 

[Ronno]

I used to go with a female from the air base. Not much of a personality but she was a bit of a leuchar

 

[skyenet]

They flew in a C-7 cargo plane to pick up the Winnebago and an GPU for it and my colleague and I were allowed onto the flight deck of the C-7. I mentioned that I was surprised and the crew said, "Just don't get caught trying to see into the Winnebago!". "Hank" and "Earl" types had been standing guard on it so you can imagine the sort of thing it was being used for. We suspected it was a Presidential communications backup.

Don't know the c-7 (C-17?) but do remember a c-5 flying into Edinburgh in the eighties/nineties as part of some Submarine rescue mission/exercise and it flew so low over Livingston that many folk rushed out of their houses and then watching it in slow motion and thinking it was going to crash into Pumpherston. It was an amazing sight and sound.

When I was in the ATC one of our summer camps was at RAF Scampton the home of the famous 617 Dambuster Squadron. They flew Vulcans at the time and a few of us actually got up for a flight in one. Absolutely amazing sight and sound. It was one of the best flights I ever experienced, the best being on a Phantom launching off HMS Ark Royal (though did have to resort to the sick bag before we landed again )

 

[arcboutant]

'Mustang flying out of Leuchars '

mmm, size and speed would be that of a mustang Skinnersscotch. Could well have been that. The P51D was built with Merlin engines too .