Denise's day at Air Tattoo

It was a good start to the day when I convinced Harry that we did not really need to leave home at 6.30 for a 10.00 start when the airfield was only an hours drive away. He compromised by agreeing to 7.00 -admittedly knowing that there were likely to be over 70,000 people and that we were good at getting lost and he had had to wait an hour to get into Yeovil the previous week I decided that was reasonable.

There were lots of signposts as we got closer and lots of traffic so we just went with the flow - one 10 minute hold up when traffic needed to merge but that was all. They had converted some two laned roads to one way which was quite effective and we managed to get an early bird park about 5 minutes walk from the main gate. We wandered through the field converted to a car park for the weekend - lots of little red poppies trying to stay upright amidst the foot and car traffic. I must say it was a very well organised event - a show this size takes some organising and it was done very well. Families (many three generations) had plenty to do besides watching airplanes including fair ground rides, inflatable castles and climbing frames, looking at craft fairs and motor cars and non-flying airplanes. There was constant music (eg scottish pipes - which you sometimes couldn't hear for the noise of the planes!!). It was rare to see a child mumbling. Although we didn't need to buy food it looked a much higher quality than you get at similar events and home and heaps of variety. People relaxed and slept and ate. I was surprised that the place didn't seem that crowded but I think it was because it was over such a wide area. I wandered the concourse and enjoyed taking a few photos of people and things with the flying planes as a backdrop. Harry took 425 photos -this amounts to about one photo every 66 seconds that the show was on. There were many more avid photographers than him so you can imagine how many they would have to download and look at the next day. I was amused to see the number of people with very large cameras - it looked like a slow motion tennis match - with them looking at the flight through a camera lense - right to left and then left to right etc - I haven't quite caught the extent of it in a photo but you can imagine the rest. We had bought ear plugs - recommended by the organisers - which we dutifully wore at the first sound of a noise (by the way eating potato chippies with ear plugs on is probably noisier than any airplane!!). People came prepared, we had a blanket and umbrellas (for rain and sun), others bought wooden stools to stand or sit on depending on what was happening, some bought tents and wind breaks, some even little step ladders. I was fascinated at the novel lengths people went to to get a better view! Many took the fold up chair, while others paid up to £20 to sit on a deck chair (striped - why am I so fascinated with these) or on the grandstand, while a lucky few could stand on a stall roof or wing of an airplane. I won't often talk about the loos at places but these were impressive - clean (dark blue with antiseptic) - and Mr AndyLoo drove the truck around all day emptying them on a regular basis - and wait for it the best of all there were so many that us girls did not have to wait!!

I saw one long queue all day (bar the one to get in for those who had to purchase tickets) and that was at the stall that sold hot potato crisps. They showed the machines that cleaned, peeled and cut the crisps and cooked them while you waited. I was amused that the sacks of potatoes had the union jack on them. I decided not to wait to see what they were like. Harry pointed out later in the photo that there was a 'free today' sign at the top of the stall which probably shows why there was such a queue.

I saw lots of planes and Harry will no doubt describe those in his blog. He will talk about the helicopters, the aerobatics, thunderbirds and red arrows and the way they did barrel rolls, 360's, upside downs and straight up and then down. It was fascinating to watch the effect this had on the clouds which moved around all day and at one stage there was one that looked like a helicopter. It was a special day as they were also remembering the Falkland War 25 years earlier.

There were some lovely sights to see and the little boy sleeping in the trolley was one of them. The others included a young man, who when his girlfriend arrived at mid day put his £8 programme down on the ground and then folded his jersey for her to sit down (he was one of the enthusiastic photographers at the front of the crowd). Harry admitted I might have got his jersey but certainly would not be allowed to sit on the programme! Another was of another young man during the brass band concert at the end of the day, singing to his wife in a wheel chair (looked as though she was destined to stay in it which was sad) the Robbie Williams song 'Angel' as the band played it. Another was of an elderly gentleman waving the Italian flag as the Italian Air Force Aerobatic Team did some amazing aerobatics in the sky and made the clouds, green and red as well as white.

After the concert we turned towards the M4 and drove towards a spectacular English sunset and home to Bristol.