The Americans, IWM Duxford Flying Day
Date: July 26th, 2024.
During the year IWM Duxford put on a number of flying days. These differ from a full air show. Firstly, the flying is limited to around two hours rather than 4 to 5 hours for a show. And Sly, the number of attendees ia much smaller. Typically five 6000 rather than 25,000 for a full airshow. The theme for today was called the Americans. Primarily aircraft from the US in World War II and surprisingly a couple of modern jets.
The Weather was typical Duxford flying weather. It was bright and partly cloudy. However, as the runway is almost north to south, the crowd line is to the west of the airstrip and for all of today the Sun was above and in front of us, making the aircraft predominantly backlit.
When I attend the flying day, my expectations are not that high. Usually all of the aircraft we will have seen many times during the year and due to the lighting it’s always hard to get good shots however as these flying days are free members Bates a nice afternoon out, so I went to enjoy the flying, expectations of good photographs.
I had considered arriving really early, however as the flying usually starts around 1:30 pm I timed my arrival for just before midday. Arriving relatively late, it was easy to get a good position within a few feet of the fence line. I was setting my chair up and getting my camera out of the bag there was an announcement at noon, which was in three minutes time for me, four aircraft from RAF Lakenheath, from the United States Air Force, would be doing a flyby over the airfield. This was not publicised on the website or on the flying program and if they can arrange such a flyby it’s considered a bonus.
The visiting aircraft consisted of 2 F35a and 2 F15’s. They arrived together line of breast and made a fly past down the runway. They split and each individual air aircraft made three fly passes before the four of them returns ro RAF Lakenheath.The rest of the flying did not start until 1:30 pm, so there was a love and a chance to grab some lunch.Flying program was typical Duxford flying day aircraft. The B-17 opened the show with the P47 thunderbolt. This was followed by a mix of training aircraft, observation aircraft, the Catalina, and the finale was a couple of spitfires.
As the spitfires rolled down the runway to takeoff for their display, I packed up and left 30 minutes early to get ahead of the crowds and to get out of the carpark. I’ve seen the spitfires before, and I will see the spitfires again, so I didn’t feel I was missing very much.
