I’ve never been to one before, even though it is quite near to me. Thinking of correcting that this year. Anyone else thinking or planned on going?
I’m trying to work out what ticket gets you where at the moment… they’re not exactly cheap…
it’s well worth the trip, and the £37.50 ticket is all you’ll need to have a wonder round. Take a blanket or one of those collapsable chairs though, the runway is longer than it looks and hard on the show leather 
Was thinking about it, but struggling to find any clear weekends at the moment 
DT.
Seems simple enough… think I’ll get a ticket for Saturday.
Debating on how to get there now. How bad is it to drive as I note they have free parking?
I think we are also now looking at dropping all and going on the Saturday as well. Parking last time was fine, be prepared for one heck of a walk to the show from the car park though
I can imagine car parks could be rather large… not more than a mile I hope? Given the site itself is rather huge, I think I’ll only take my light camera kit (two bags worth :D).
Went to buy tickets online… £4 admin fee? Since it appears tickets are also sold in some Barclays branches I’ll try one tomorrow and then I also wont have to worry about lost post.
hmmm might be a tad too late unless one could pay on the day as me being in right place to pick up tickets may be issue.
quite fancy this as it would not be that much of a deal if I stay over an extra night here in Ledbury as i am already been asked to for another reason then cross country on the Sat.
Doesn’t look like they allow pay on the day I guess to prevent excess numbers needing to be turned away? I think the deadline to order online is Friday so you could still do it.
I got mine from Barclays in the end. They have a list of branches selling them linked here. Quite southern biased, but there’s some around the midlands too. Near Ledbury there’s Hereford, Tewkesbury and Worcester you can try in person.
my tickets are on the way, we’ve booked for Sunday kids wanted to see the dance troupe Flawless
DT.
Hopefully sorted for Saturday… Set tickets to come to my place of work.
:xfinger: they make it and don’t go awol.
Just got to make sure I have somewhere to sleep now Friday night -
Should make a nice start to my week off
I’ve been a few times, great day out. Having a miss on it this ear though saving money for holiday 
Only thing I say is make sure you take water with you and some food maybe. Long day and prices for sustenance on site can get pricey.
[QUOTE=PMM;454586]Hopefully sorted for Saturday… Set tickets to come to my place of work.
:xfinger: they make it and don’t go awol.
Just got to make sure I have somewhere to sleep now Friday night -
Should make a nice start to my week off :)[/QUOTE]
Would Reading be a reasonable half way? You’re welcome to pop round for dinner Can’t really manage to put you up though, unless you tent it in the back garden or can cope with the floor
DT.
Time is getting closer… debating on my plan for the day.
How beneficial is it to get there early? I get the random horror story of traffic etc. if you go later. As said before, I’m not a plane spotter so I don’t have any particular targets to see. Maybe the Vulcan and Red Arrows for flying. Any suggestions on splitting time between the static and flying displays? I’m not the type to camp on a single spot for hours, but don’t plan on endlessly walking either and will probably mix the two.
For the flying display, looking at some photos of previous years, the middle section seems to get very busy, so perhaps I’ll try for a spot further out. Is that a good plan?
Also saw on their website something about a photobus, anyone done that before? Severely lacking in detail other than it seems to take you to the north side of runway to see the flying aircraft when they’re not flying. I’ll assume there’s a hefty fee for this like everything else.
I can only go on my experience at farnborough and in that I was queued up hours and there was not enough hours see the exhibits so only really got to see the displays.
last visit, we turned up late, saw all the exhibits, watched most displays that were “display” like red arrows, italian teams and just let the other displays go over our heads.
Kids were a lot younger on last visit though
DT.
Fair enough. I think my biggest mental challenge is not to try and see everything. My legs will probably give up after a few miles anyway… think we’re looking at 4 miles to go up and down the whole length once? Might cut a mile off if I use the free bus that’s shown on the map.
Yippee ticket safely in my hands
snap, mine arrived this morning 
DT.
Not long now Weather report looks… let’s say we can be cautiously optimistic it’ll be dry at least.
Starting to get ready now…
Weather report for Saturday now showing a low chance of showers so debating if I should bring waterproofs or brolly. Will nip out for nibbles to take with me in the afternoon.
Got the camera batteries on charge and about to fish out all the memory cards. Sat nav about to be set, not that I really needed but if I don’t, guaranteed I’ll do something silly on the way and end up in Cirencester.
Anything else?
Long day is long. Was great while I was there. Met up with PMM. Saw lots of old and new assorted coloured planes. Many of which were somewhat noisy.
Dunno how many photos I took yet. I think I held back too much, didn’t fill up my cards and I even turned on raw to use up more space. Estimated total probably not even 2k shots, including many bracketed for possible HDR later. Not sure I’ll bother sorting them tonight…
Low point was getting there and out again, which was a complete farce. It should not take 1 hour to go 3 miles on the way in, and I was relatively early. I didn’t even go that fast getting out, as the car park I was in had a daffy steward who wouldn’t let anyone out even though the neighbouring ones were practically empty. Took 2 hours to get home, of which one hour was spent waiting in the car park. So I guess at least the driving part was technically shorter…
Tip for those going on Sunday: the wind today came from the west so they were taking off in that direction. It was also less crowded on that end than the east. Unless you want to try catching them on the runway as they take off, the west end would get my vote as the better spot.