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The full scale airshow wasn't what I remembered, (I went yearly during the 70s and 80s), but not as bad as I had feared from some of the comments I've heard. On the Saturday the only WWI planes flying were the Spad 7 and N24/27 (both modern replicas with modern engines), the Albatros DVa and the Jenny, (original I think). The pre-war Bleriot, the Caudron GIII, the Hanriot, and the Avro 504 did hops. I was impressed that they continued right through the rain.
I missed it this year. The weather sounds like a semi repeat of last year, except it was worse (that was the year of the hurrcane) and Sunday was actually rather nice. I can recall some years going wayyy back with temps in the upper 40's and winds to almost gale force.
I'm pleased to see a return of the models to be more WW1 like since the format change. I still have lots of fond memories of the old format with the bomb drop, balloon bust and spot landing, as well as the infamous combat event. All those mid airs! :-) AN lets not forget the guys who who work on some massive Handley Paige bomber for years only to not know how to fly it well, or have it untested and crash or wander off into the trees somewhere each year. Then there waw the Large Junkers J-1 on an early AM test flight taking off into the fog and disappearing! We tacked it for a long time by listening for the sound. As I recall it fiially popped out of the clouds and landed safely.
Sometimes the state of the Aerdrome and the show make me a bit sad to see how far down the show has come. Cole it seems, would always make a special effort to make the Jamboree shows the most spectacular of the season. 6 or 7 WW1 types in the air all at the same time, flak, bombs, smoking wounded planes.. Ahhh memories.
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