Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: A Day Alone At The Farnborough Air Show

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

A Day Alone At The Farnborough Air Show

Red Arrow Pilot - that will be 10 pounds!

Real hero of the show - American Miss Helen - P-51 Mustang - this singular airplane destroyed 519 Nazi planes. Look it up on wikipedia.

I spent some time in the Pimm's upper deck.

The second biggest air show in the world is held at Farnborough - a small town 40 miles southwest of London. It was 8 years ago that I went to see this air show with my son Keith - and could not pass up the chance of a repeat. Honestly - it was not as good for me this time. It is much better sharing an event like this with your son. But heck - I am here in England - I have the opportunity - the time - and the health - so I said here we go.

At first - Lulu said she would like to go with me. But after giving her a few chances to drop out - she took one. She was having a dinner party for her students and guests - and could really use the time to work out the logistics. I spent about 100 pounds on admission - train - and food - for the day. She said the extra time and money could really throw a nice gig - and she was right. We had a wonderful party Monday night - photos coming.

Sunday morning - I had a nice breakfast at the apartment - Lulu makes fantastic eggs - toast - and bacon. I felt like a kid going to school for the first time. I left at 9 AM. Lulu did not pin my money and directions on my shirt - but she did send directions on my email. I took bus 58 to Waterloo Station. There I bought a roundtrip train ticket - I had 2 minutes to get to the train. It pulled out just as I crossed the turnstile. I was bummed thinking I would have to wait an hour. The conductor looked at my ticket and said - track 12 - in 4 minutes - another train. It was a quiet train - it just made 3 stops. Farnborough came up quickly.

At the Farnborough Station - they were shepherding us onto free buses to the air show. It only took me about 90 minutes from my door to the air show. I was the only person in the cash line for a ticket - it was 45 pounds for seniors. Stupid me - if I bought online it was 37 pounds.

At 11 AM - it was already hot - but we had some cloud cover. There were hundreds of displays in the pavilions - companies selling planes - weapons - hardware - services - you name it. It was a real weapons festival. Outside there were hundreds of static displays - historic planes - modern planes - missiles - and drones.

There were a lot of great food trucks - drinks - souvenirs - clothing - typical festival stuff.

At noon - the aerial displays began. The 4 hottest items for me were the Airbus 350 - the Harrier Jumpjet - the F-15 Falcon - and the Autogyro. I include video.

Pimm's had a cool double decker bus with a bar in the bottom and a lounge in the top. That was a great relief about 3 PM - even the 6 pounds for an 8 ounce drink made sense to me. A couple ladies came up to the bus top lounge and sat at my table with a pitcher of Pimm's. They asked to sit with me - I was hoping they would share that pitcher. They didn't. If you do not know - Pimm's is a drink made something like an air tea cooler. Lots of fruit floating in it. Lulu loves them.

At about 5 PM - I walked a long way back to the gate. Planes were still flying. I caught the bus back to the train station. They were running extra trains back to London. Lots of people fell asleep on the ride back to Waterloo Station. It took no time at all to get back to the apartment.

As they say - the first time is the greatest. I saw a lot of great airplanes - lots of neat displays. The price seemed much higher this time. I did pace myself through the day - plenty to eat - drink - and rest in the shade. It is not as much fun with no one to talk to. I took a lot of pictures - but sometimes they blend together. I took way too much video.

The one irony I did not enjoy - was the Red Arrow Pilots. Britain has an acrobat flight crew like the Blue Angels called the Red Arrows. They have 9 planes they fly in a diamond. The pilots were walking around with a handful of pictures. They looked cool in their flight suits - writing personal messages on the pictures - all the way up until they said - that will be 10 pounds! I hope the Blue Angels do not do that.

I waited all day to see the Red Arrows fly. At 5 PM - they flew - for about 2 minutes. They did one flyby - turned on their colored smoke - and hightailed it to another place they were flying. Bub-bye.

The real star of the show was the USAF F-15. This guy performed twice at 1 PM and 4 PM. He flew a really hot plane - did some wonderful moves - and made a lot of noise. The Brits who seem to love everything American - except Trump - saved their best applause for the F-15. He delivered - and I did not see him selling autographs.