It had been a hectic few around England:  Somerset for the Yeovilton Air Day, Cambridgeshire for the Duxford Flying Legends show and in Suffolk for Eagles at Mildenhall.  So it was time to draw the annual trip down south to a close, which was with almost a week long of aviation at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

The event is separated into three sections - arrivals, showdays and departures.  The arrivals section is three days long and consists of a usually slow Wednesday that has some of the rarer arrivals.  The Thursday which brings the main bunch of arrivals and a few rehearsals.  Then the Friday which is usually RAF arrivals and a lot of rehearsals..

 

 

Wednesday

The Wednesday began with what seemed promising weather, but that soon disappeared and a grey sky filled the sky for the start of the day.  But with a program that looked busy for a Wednesday I was prepared for a good day!

I'm only going to post a few shots from each day as I don't want this to turn into something so long that you don't get past Wednesday!

Some of the nicest arrivals on Wednesday were the Omani C-130H, a pair of Turkish F-16Cs, a pair of A-10s, a pair of German Tornados (ECR & IDS) both in tiger schemes, a French Mirage 2000C in a tiger scheme and the Saudi Hawks display team.

We were also treated to rehearsals from the Saudi Hawks and the A-10, the A-10 was absolutely amazing and it was the most impressive of the 3 demos I saw by it over the six days!  I think it might have been told to tone it down a little as he was properly throwing it around.  I ended up over by the pan for it's recovery from the demo so able to see the ground display.

 

 

Thursday

Thursday possibly had the best weather of the whole week.  We were treated to some nice arrivals; the Ukranian Su-27 and IL-76, French Rafales, Austrian SAAB 105s, Belgian tiger F-16AM, French Mirage 2000N and B-52H.

We also got numerous rehearsals, the Turkish F-16C (both the grey spare and special jet), the BAe Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 and Austrian SAAB 105.

Also, on this day, FRIAT members were given an evening static walk which was blessed by some fantastic light and dramatic skies when the sun had gone and Patruilla Aguilla rehearsed.

 

Friday

For me, this was a good day.

Highlights were the Tornado IDS rehearsal, Vulcan arrival, A-10 rehearsal, Danish F-16s, C-295 AEW arrival and getting to sit in one of the Norwegian Vampires.

I'll let the pictures continue to do the talking!

 

 

For those wondering what I look like..

 

 

Next up will be the RIAT show days, I'll put more words about the displays.  So you can get more of an idea what it was like!

 

 

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