Post by graham on Jul 19, 2019 16:51:07 GMT
Having set the alarm for the ungodly hour of 4.30am, I left home at 5.15am to rendezvous with Jeff, Bill and Frank at the Esso garage on the A419 at 6am. Having swapped greetings and the usual insults, we set off in tandem for the short drive to the Blue Car Park, a sound move as it is the only one that is actually on tarmac/concrete.
We sat in Bill's car for about an hour, watching with disbelief as people stood queueing in the pouring rain waiting for the gate to open at 7.30am. There was virtually no queue anyway, so when we made our move, we were through the ticket inspection and security within two minutes, and at this point, were still dry unlike the bozos who'd been queuing for an hour..
The weather, as per the forecast was gruesome, cool, wet and a gathering wind from the southwest. Cloudbase was a mere 500ft according to the announcer although it did lift a little during the morning. We made base camp on the crowd line as far west along the runway as we could. First real gripe was that all the heavies were parked along the "nomansland" between the Blue and Green areas meaning it was impossible to photograph any of them, other than a take-a-chance shot from the rather crowded bus.
Having made camp, and having had the pleasure of meeting Phil "rugbyref", Bill and I decided to take a stroll along the static areas, the rain had stopped so away we went. Having got about halfway along the static area, the rain started again with a vengeance, to the degree that Bill dashed into a model stall who just happened ( like every other stall..) to be selling umbrellas that had started the day at a fiver each, but now, due to supply and demand, were a tenner...;0)
Even with the umbrella and what "waterproof" kit we we wearing, it was impossible to stay dry, so on the basis of, "once you're soaked, you can't get any wetter", we gritted our teeth and continued our stroll along the static lines, taking what photos we could in the pissing rain.
By the time we rejoined the main gang, we were both dripping wet and just to compound matters, a stiff southwesterly blew up making it virtually impossible to use a long lens as A)the breeze made it impossible to keep the camera/lens steady and B)as soon as you pointed it at anything, it became covered in rain anyway.
By midday, I'd had enough, much of the flying display had either been cancelled, or was hanging by a thread so I made my excuses and returned to a very inviting car.
The two other gripes were that it was a huge walk from where we were to the closest toilets and that when leaving, the traffic marshalls didn't have a clue what they were doing, and sent me, and the two cars behind me along a dead end run of tarmac before we all realised we couldn't get out and had to do a u-ey. Even as we drove back towards the marshalls, they waved us back to where we had come from until a military chap, complete with gun, beret and menacing features told us where we actually needed to head for. Once out of the actual airfield, you then had to turn left to drive along a single track lane that was carrying incoming visitors to the car park I'd just left.
Bloody shambolic. I know no one can help the weather but the way things were laid out this year was awful, Apparently, the closed off area where all the heavies were parked will be open for the next two days so if any AFAS-ers go over the weeknd, some shots of those machines would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, I'm currently uploading everything to Flickr so will start to post some photos shortly.
We sat in Bill's car for about an hour, watching with disbelief as people stood queueing in the pouring rain waiting for the gate to open at 7.30am. There was virtually no queue anyway, so when we made our move, we were through the ticket inspection and security within two minutes, and at this point, were still dry unlike the bozos who'd been queuing for an hour..
The weather, as per the forecast was gruesome, cool, wet and a gathering wind from the southwest. Cloudbase was a mere 500ft according to the announcer although it did lift a little during the morning. We made base camp on the crowd line as far west along the runway as we could. First real gripe was that all the heavies were parked along the "nomansland" between the Blue and Green areas meaning it was impossible to photograph any of them, other than a take-a-chance shot from the rather crowded bus.
Having made camp, and having had the pleasure of meeting Phil "rugbyref", Bill and I decided to take a stroll along the static areas, the rain had stopped so away we went. Having got about halfway along the static area, the rain started again with a vengeance, to the degree that Bill dashed into a model stall who just happened ( like every other stall..) to be selling umbrellas that had started the day at a fiver each, but now, due to supply and demand, were a tenner...;0)
Even with the umbrella and what "waterproof" kit we we wearing, it was impossible to stay dry, so on the basis of, "once you're soaked, you can't get any wetter", we gritted our teeth and continued our stroll along the static lines, taking what photos we could in the pissing rain.
By the time we rejoined the main gang, we were both dripping wet and just to compound matters, a stiff southwesterly blew up making it virtually impossible to use a long lens as A)the breeze made it impossible to keep the camera/lens steady and B)as soon as you pointed it at anything, it became covered in rain anyway.
By midday, I'd had enough, much of the flying display had either been cancelled, or was hanging by a thread so I made my excuses and returned to a very inviting car.
The two other gripes were that it was a huge walk from where we were to the closest toilets and that when leaving, the traffic marshalls didn't have a clue what they were doing, and sent me, and the two cars behind me along a dead end run of tarmac before we all realised we couldn't get out and had to do a u-ey. Even as we drove back towards the marshalls, they waved us back to where we had come from until a military chap, complete with gun, beret and menacing features told us where we actually needed to head for. Once out of the actual airfield, you then had to turn left to drive along a single track lane that was carrying incoming visitors to the car park I'd just left.
Bloody shambolic. I know no one can help the weather but the way things were laid out this year was awful, Apparently, the closed off area where all the heavies were parked will be open for the next two days so if any AFAS-ers go over the weeknd, some shots of those machines would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, I'm currently uploading everything to Flickr so will start to post some photos shortly.