A sensational looking Queens Birthday Flypast (Merged thread)

[Pete Truman]

Next Saturday, June 14th is the Queens usual Trooping the Colour and Birthday Flypast over Buckingham Palace.
As I suspected, with it being the 90th RAF anniversary, they are pulling out the stops for this one.
After a bit of research, and with thanks to information provided by the Lowestoft Aviation Society, you'll get the timings and groupings on www.mcquat.co.uk.
First formation over the Palace will be BBMF Lanc plus 2xSpit and 2xHurri, other sources quote the Dak as well, these will form up over DX, and probably as they did last year, try to remove the roof off my house, they don't form over Southwold and pass over East Anglia with the jet formations, they take a shorter route.
Jet formations.
1) C-130 + 2 Kingairs
2) 9xTyphoons
3) VC-10 + 2 Tornado F3 + E3 Sentry
4) 11 Tornado F-3
5) C-17 + 2 F-3
6) Nimrod + 2 F-3
7) Tristar + 2 HS125
8) 16 Tornado GR-4
Also you get the benefit of spares and 2 Hawk chase aircraft if you witness it prior to Chelmsford, sticking close to the Colchester/Liverpool St railway line is usually a good place to be, make sure you find an overbridge though, or if you're shopping at Morrisons in Witham, don't leave the car park before 12:55.

If that lot don't make your eyes water, nothing will.
If you watch it from the Tower of London, you'll get the bonus of a 62 gun salute as well.
I'm sure Moggy will enjoy watching it from his usual vantage point in Southwold with a pint of Adnams, though Tower Bridge sounds a good spot to me.

[low'n'slow]

Better still. Head for RAF Halton and the de Havilland Moth Club charity flying day. All activities are being suspended to allow entire flypast to pass overhead.

That plus an expected 50+ Moths, Tiger Moths, Dragons and other vintage types. AND admission is FREE! (Donation expected though please)

[XH668]

ooo im spolit for choice, im right in the middle of everything

30 mins from centeral london, 30 mins from DX, 30 mins from halton where do i go lol

[Moggy C]

Can't seem to open the McQuat

What are the Southwold timings?

Moggy

[Pete Truman]

Originally Posted by Moggy C

Can't seem to open the McQuat

What are the Southwold timings?

Moggy

Click on 'links', click on 'Lowestoft Aviation Society', click on 'News', third letter down, 'Airspace Co-Ordination Notice', click on 'here' and there you have it, timings, maps, formation plan, don't forget to add an hour on to the timings though.
If you are really keen you can go to the practice at Marham and Waddo as well.

[Firebird]

I'll be out to the west of London, on top of the 100ft high grass 'mountain' alongside the A40 near to RAF Northolt, as you can see them coming from over London right over the top of that position as they pass over RAF Northolt.

[Hornchurch]

Originally Posted by Pete Truman

Click on 'links', click on 'Lowestoft Aviation Society', click on 'News', third letter down, 'Airspace Co-Ordination Notice', click on 'here' and there you have it, timings, maps, formation plan, don't forget to add an hour on to the timings though.
If you are really keen you can go to the practice at Marham and Waddo as well.

Pete, I recall seeing a 'notam' or such on one site (stating 09.30 - 11.30) regarding Marham, BUT that was for Friday (just gone, 6th June).

As weather was crap, I didn't bother(plus too much Beer & lack of sleep, the night before !)

There were alternate dates stated - but (typical) can't remember what/when they were........(?)

Was anyone around Marham on Fri' 6th & did it take place ???????

If it hasn't yet (crossed-fingers); then has ANYONE on here got any idea what day to get down to Marham for aforesaid "practise" ????????

[Pete Truman]

Originally Posted by Hornchurch

Pete, I recall seeing a 'notam' or such on one site (stating 09.30 - 11.30) regarding Marham, BUT that was for Friday (just gone, 6th June).

As weather was crap, I didn't bother(plus too much Beer & lack of sleep, the night before !)

There were alternate dates stated - but (typical) can't remember what/when they were........(?)

Was anyone around Marham on Fri' 6th & did it take place ???????

If it hasn't yet (crossed-fingers); then has ANYONE on here got any idea what day to get down to Marham for aforesaid "practise" ????????

If you look on the news page of that Lowestoft site again, the details are given further down, it would appear to be this wednesday to friday, depending on the weather, which I gather is going to be ropey again after tomorrow.

[markstringer]

Any idea how close to romford the flypast will be? The map is a little ropey to say the least!!!

[CIRCUS 6]

The practise flew over "C6 Towers" today and was most impressive for a load of jets. Of course I stood in my acres and doffed my cap to the fine ladies and gentlemen who put on such a fine show for me, whilst I munched on my cucumber sandwiches. Spiffing.

C6

[Hornchurch]

Originally Posted by markstringer

Any idea how close to Romford the flypast will be?

The map is a little ropey to say the least!!!

Geezer !

As a Chadwell Heath chap, born & bred - can advise you on that !

Simply Haul-A$$ down to Hainault Forest, adjacent to the A.1112.......

(obviously !) at the 'Hog-Hill' end, that's ALL open view.

With the Lake to your lower-left, stand on the High-ground (other-side of service Rd) & scan the skyline in front (towards trees).

You'll get a 'Grandstand view, as they arrive overhead from the direction of Stapleford/Navestock, heading towards London.

I filmed the 1990 (mass) Flypast with (IIRC) 168 planes, using a Vid-cam & Tripod from there.......(on the tape, my bemused 'ex' Father in Law said.... "Blimey, we're about 50 yds out of line - you couldn't have planned it any better !".

Seen numerous Q.E.II 'flypasts' from same spot since then, before moving away (totally) from the area.

It's a well-known spot, but with plenty of safe parking; so you'll be with (at least) 350 (+) others

[J Boyle]

Hopefully we'll get to see a bit on BBC World News.

[Hatton]

The practise flypast flew over Lincoln yesterday. Quite an incredible sight.

[Lincoln]

The one day I was out and I missed it lol luckily a friend of mine filmed it, it looked amazing.

Mean while I saw the Typhoons come back to Coningsby, they looked really good too, if anyone's going to London on Saturday, you're in for a real treat.


Not a great photo I know, but you get the point.


edit: I forgot the photo lol

[Pete Truman]

The problem is, the weather isn't looking to bright, in which case the 2 Hawk escorts tend to move the formations around to dodge the low cloud. During the Jubilee flypast a patch of low cloud over the bridge we were on was investigated by one of the Hawks and the whole lot were moved about half a mile to the north unfortunately, whereas at other times they've come right overhead.
I went to Hainault Forest to watch the Falklands flypast and never saw a thing, they diverted it up the Thames to miss the bad weather.
Presumably Hainault is about where the BBMF and jets start to link up.
I watched the 1990 BoB flypast from in front of the Palace, the problem is that the trees on the Mall get in the way and it's not worth climbing over the gate to get on to that balcony, you'll get into trouble.

[TEEJ]

Some snaps from my backgarden in Ruskington yesterday. Amazing sight and the 16 ship GR.4s was something else!

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/cgi-bin...ST;f=9;t=49315

Cheers

TJ

[Wessex Fan]

Sadly with living in Northern Ireland we tend to miss out on these things, I was lucky enough to attend the BBMF Bash at Duxford last year, but as far as I am aware the Flight did not make one appearance in Northern Ireland during their 50th Anniversary year.

We have our share of those who served this side of the Irish sea, it would be nice to see them honoured in style before it is to late I was talking to a former Stirling pilot who attended the funeral of his last remaining crew member last week. Sadly we are rapidly losing a generation to whom we owe so much.

WF

[Phantom Phil]

What,.... No Vulcan???

[peppermint_jam]

Saw the practice fly over our office at Marham the other day, looked mighty impressive! I too had to do a double take at the 16 ship GR4 formation! Any ideas when (and if?) this was last done by GR's?

An an Engineer it always inpresses me the bigger the formation.
4 ship = not bad, quite a regular occurance though.
Diamond 9 = taking it to the next level, only for special occasions!
16 ship = Tools down and look up!

I'd have probably had a heart attack if i'd seen the tewnty-something hunter loop all those years ago!

Congrats to all involved on the ground and in the air! I look forward to seeing it for real over the weekend.

[Pete Truman]

For those of you thinking of going to see it, the weather down here this morning is fantastic and apparantly likely to be so until this afternoon.

I'm going over to the railway bridge at Hatfield Peverel Station, assuming I can get some petrol, you get a good view from there, unfortunately I won't see the BBMF formation at this point, but I'm taking father in law to see it and he's not in the best of health at the moment and doesn't want to travel far.

Incidentally live TV coverage of Trooping the Colour doesn't include the flypast, whether it's live on BBC News24 or Sky is a possibility, but otherwise you'll probably have to wait for the highlights on BBC2 at 19:30.

[steven_wh]

Here are some pictures of today's Queen's birthday flypast, enroute.

Taken near A12 Colchester, 12:50.

Enjoy.

Steven

[Pete Truman]

We went to the footbridge at Hatfield Peverel station, though, because Network Rail get funny about things these days, I checked it was OK with the station manager, he was so excited at the prospect that he left the ticket office and pretended to sweep the platform, I had to give him a running commentary, he'd never seen a Spitfire flying before and was beside himself!!!
!0 mins before things were due to happen, the Essex Police helicopter arrived and started hovering off the end of the platform, he must have had a good view.
The Lanc with the fighters in loose formation swung into view from the Braintree direction doing a 90 degree turn with the Herc and Kingairs following.
They passed about half a mile to the north of us forming up as we watched, heading for Chelmsford.
Then a Hawk appeared a few hundred yards to the south of us, very fast and very low.
The railway line is dead straight at this point and looking towards Witham we could see the lights of the formations heading directly towards us.
At this point a family arrived with their little boy to do a bit of train spotting, I told them what was about to happen and they couldn't believe their luck.
The Typhoons appeared from behind the station roof forming the Typhoon shape as they flew directly overhead, everything else flew just slightly north of the railway giving a much better view.
I have to say it was very impressive, one of the Tornados was so close to the C-17's port wing that the nav could have reached out and touched it, similarly the Diamond Nine F-3's were so tight, it must have given them a headache flying all that way in such a close formation.
The VC-10 hadn't yet reeled out his hoses, but the E-3 was so close behind him you had to worry about the jetwash.
The final 16 GR-4's were incredible.
That was that, being on a bridge we could watch them go on for miles, worth seeing and the weather was perfect too, blue sky and big fluffy clouds, sorry I can't find the lead to hook up the video, I recorded the BBC's version of events, it was terrible, constant talking, too many views of the Royal family, many of whom couldn't be bothered to watch, and no sound of the aircraft, plus the usual, 'The worlds only flying Lancaster'.
The BBC did a very good coverage of the dambusters anniversary last month, it's a pity they didn't make more of an effort to celebrate what was essentially the RAF's main 90th birthday flypast, I expected at least a view from one of the a/c taking part, perhaps they'll do a better editing job for tonights Trooping the Colour highlights.
Oh, and our Hungarian old boy was most impressed as well.

Mods, would it be an idea to combine the 'Flypast today' thread with this one so the pictures can appear on here.

[Peter]

Merged both threads.

[awesom_o]

Here's the highlights from the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7454737.stm

By the way, great pictures steven_wh.

[XH668]

At halton we had no BBMF or red arrows for the flypast but looking at the video a see the red arrows where there

Where were they?

668

[Ballykellybrat]

Well done Royal Air Force. Less impressive were the royals - not one in the uniform of the RAF.

[bravoalpha]

Originally Posted by Ballykellybrat

Well done Royal Air Force. Less impressive were the royals - not one in the uniform of the RAF.

Of course they weren't. Protocol of the day made it an army event. RAF uniform would not have been correct.

In my opinion, the Royals were impressive throughout, doing what they do best - being ambassadors promoting all that is good about our military

[Firebird]

Originally Posted by XH668

At halton we had no BBMF or red arrows for the flypast but looking at the video a see the red arrows where there

Where were they?

Don't know what video you were looking at......the Red Arrows are currently on a tour of North America and were displaying at the Quebec Int Airshow this weekend.

The BBMF and the Herc/King-Air formations peel off and head out over North London straight after flying over the Palace, that's why you didn't see them at Halton.

[John Cooper]

Over Ipswich today they were a little further South than in previous years so my vantage point wasn't that good plus I was facing South and into the sun. The Typhoons were still forming up, somehow I missed the Herc and the two Kingairs

[T-21]

Busy with my village fete today but nice to see the Eurofighter formation pass to the east over Thurleigh heading north. A few minutes later saw the Tornado formation heading back to Leuchars, well done RAF,just wish the BBC would give more coverage to this ,i.e a behind scenes look at all the hard work build up .