"We're just off to bait the dogs..."

The Waddington Airshow is, by any measurement, Big. A lot of aircraft, a lot of people and a lot of noise... and that's just the inside of Rex's radio display. Outside his tented empire and emporium there's even more people and noise - but fewer clogs. The organisers had, after a couple of years of not seeming to be sure what do do with us, finally got things together and located us as a single group just off the Compass Pan facing west, so our entire line was immediately next to the main public route and hidden from the still-circling Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; things were looking up! But that was in the future - our arrival on the Friday night was greeted by a shocking quantity of rain. So much so, puddles began to form on the flat expanse of grass, starting right next to Chris and Barbara's tent...

As evening drew in and the skies cleared, an Organisational Anomaly appeared. The nearest toilets out on the flight line were locked for the night, making the next nearest over by Hanger 2. Not a too-terrible distance, but we were out in the middle of the airfield and between us and the hangers was the taxiway filled with static aircraft that were under armed, dog-assisted guard at night, who made it quite clear that they didn't want anyone anywhere near the aircraft overnight. So we had to resort to guerrilla tactics; safety in numbers, pass through the flight line as quickly as you can, then loose yourself amongst the stalls to the hangers. And so the phrase at the top of this page was born.

...and not a bouncy castle in sight

Fortunately the weather settled for the two show days, so we were able to benefit from a full programme of flying from close-quarters and a good response from the public. At least this year I wasn't asked were the toilets were while I was wandering about, although like last year I suddenly had to field questions about the Rapier system on display. The same thing happened at RIAT a few weeks later as we were next to an unmanned Rapier installation. I really must found out more about these things if people are going to keep asking questions...

Dave Simpkins demonstrates the best way to get a view without having to go anywhere.	Once the public had been thrown out it all became very sociable at Chez Rex.

Report and pictures: Mike Allmey