UNDER CONSTRUCTION

My one and only gripe, KEEP THE FOODDRINK STANDS OPEN AND STOCKED UNTIL 2000HRS PLEASE.

I attended on Sunday with my wife and son, encountered no traffic problems, roads and car parks were flowing well. Entry queues well organised, a martial blocked some queue jumpers..well done!!. Searching was thorough, and polite, programmes too expensive, but they are at most places. Good static displays, good air display, although limited by the weather. Shocked to pay £2 for two tepid coffees, this needs looking at. A really enjoyable day out, maybe move it forward a little for better weather...my thanks to the organisers, volunteers and participants for all their efforts, and the local police and community for putting up with it all

Firstly, another great RIAT - well done to all involved. My previous post about that seems to have vanished.... Anyway, as a constant visitor to the Sunday show, the weather - whilst fine for the most part - did cause some concern at times. It amazes me, after looking at photos from the last 8 years, how we've gone from lovely blue sky to the weather at RIAT of the last three years. We can't control the weather, yet, but have the organisers thought about trying to improve the odds a bit? I purpose that RIAT moves forward one month to the middle of June, which has (at least in Grimsby) been reasonably better weather. Any takers?

Hi, I live in Grimsby ad my children gave the idea to come down to RIAT. I loved it, especially the F-22, earlier in the week, I decided to write in your blog, and my children wanted to suggest some aircraft fr your 40th anniversary year. But, I just want to point out about that Khalem Chapman, as I was reading his blog my children said that they would like to see that aircraft, (After we looked at them on wikipedia). As we saw them we wanted to see them especially the F-117 and Pave Low. They look so cool. But then again, my eldest has Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 so he loves the Pave Low, and the Lockheed AC-130. But as I checked them out, they were retired. Anyway I was wondering, as it is your 40th anniversary, RIAT. If you could try and get them to fly. I mean my children of 7 and 13 both would love to see them. Anyway there not my suggestions they are just what I want to agree with Khalem Chapman. And to that Niel Martin you don't know he sounds like a child, and your just letting him down by saying that they are Retired in such a bad manner. He may not have known that. Anyway my suggestions are P-51B-1BBlack Hawk B2 Spirit F35 JSF AC130 B17 Su-25 A-10A and the CH-46 Sea Knight. Thanks RIAT for another marvellous day out. P.S. My brother, Jim Woodham, he is an air show fanatic. He said that he would love to see the MH-53 and the F-117 Nighthawk.Thanks.

Despite normal arrival time access to the show worst ever. Main problem was very poor management once in the Car Park by 'marshalls taking far too long to park cars this rapidly backs up along the access roads. It was even worse leaving with the 'marshals' just not in control. Jubilee Garden deteriorating standards Show excellent: thanks

A fantastic day out, got in the car park at about 7.15, only had to queue for a couple of miles and was in position for the show by 9.00. Security took a bit of time but its a military air base so this is to be expected. The display was brilliant and the sooner people realise that its not RIAT's fault that aircraft like the B-1, the MiG 21 and other unusual aircraft can't turn up the better. All in all, a great day out.

It was a good show with some unusual items - though the lack of former USSR aircraft and the need for operational commitments brought the 'interesting' factor down somewhat. Sadly, this must have been about my 20th consecutive IAT but it may have to be my last. Trouble is I have developed an intermittent walking disorder and the mile walk from the red car park to the Waitrose enclosure, queing to be searched, plus walking around the static parks caused it to flare up. I was almost in tears as I dragged myself, with my wife's help, back at the end of the day. I'm unlikely to get a 'blue badge' because other times my feet are OK - what other options are there?

Great show as allways. But am I the only one who had no trouble with traffic? Arived green park 3:00 am ish. One and ahlf hours stood waiting for the gate to open march to the security checks who at that time havent quite got thier act together so forgiven. Great day at the show left around 1900 free flowing trafic. Keep up the good work -)).

Impressive show especially the Raptor. Arrived early left late, so no problems with traffic, but spoke to many who did have. Continue to be disappointed with the deterioration of the Jubilee Garden over the last few years. Chairs breaking all over the place, moving further away from the flight line, catering poor (run out of eggs by 09.15!) and the same number of toilets as when it was 25% of curent size. Bring back Waitrose and back to 2002 size!

"An Excellent Air Show". We arrived as usual about 0800 on the Sunday morning. We experienced minimal traffic problems and went straight into the car park area adjacent to the main entrance, "Blue" Car Park I believe?. The queue heading in on foot from the car park and camping area was very long and we went to the end and joined the traditional procession. We found the queue moved very quickly but you still get the odd individual who thinks he can just barge in and save himherself some time. Once through security you are greeted by the program sellers and I believe most people objected to the £9.00 price tag. Many people refused to pay this amount. The show was very well organised and the displays brilliant. Our group did enjoy the Battle of Britain tribute at the far end of the display area. I cant say that all the stalls this year were very popular. What on earth were they selling perfume for at an airshow?. I suppose it must be extra revenue to RIAT. Anyway it is easy to ignor them and move on, but still bermusing to airshow fans. Why do people feel they can still put up windbreakers?? They spoil the view for enthusiasts who want to see the displays. No one appeared to police this and it was left to the general public to speak up to these individuals. We had a group next to us who put up a small tent with a windbreaker and spent most of the afternoon asleep within the tent. If the RIAT foot patrols have a word with these minority individuals the vast majority would benefit more from the show. This year we made a strategic retreat at 1630 and found our exit very easy via the bottom end of the car park. We had a great day and enjoyed the experience. We will be back again next year booking our early bird tickets as usual.

I very much enjoyed the displays and showground events. I did however feel that the overall event was slightly spoiled by a few things. I think that at the least, the programme timetable should have been included in the ticket price - unless you were prepared to stump up £9 (not cheap!) for the programmemagazine, you wouldn't have had a clue what was happening and where. No way near enough toilets - a fair walk from each block to the next - particularly when you have elderly people with you and the same goes for seating areas, simply not enough places to just stop and have a sit downrest for 5 mins. I felt there should have been more of a variety of food choices rather than the countless number of burger vans all selling the same thing. On the upside, guess I was one of the lucky ones with parking - didn't really take very long at all to get out of the car park

I missed the deadline for the real survey so here are my comments: Attended 4 times in the past so no stranger to the RIAT and it's usually very good. On paper this was a good one but the weather resulted in a mediocre day: Negatives suggestions: 1. Why can the old warbirds fly yet the F-15 et al (All weather fighter aircraft) could not? 2. Too many of the same aircraft (static and programmed to fly). How many F-16s do we need ont eh ground and dont need to see the Typhoon twice. 3. More tannoys required. 4. RIAT in June when there has been better weather in most of the previous years! 5. Not enough announcements on changes to flying programmes. Positives: 1. No real parking issues but arrived early and left durign the final display flight. 2. Vulcan, F-22 3. Role demos by the Torrnado and Chonook was FANTASTIC! More please. 4. Red Arrows and Jordanian team 5. BF109 Would ALSO love to see the following : F-117 Nighthawk, F-14 Tomcat, B-17 Flying Fortress, B1B Lancer, SR-71 Blackbird, AC-130 Hercules, Pave Low, Black Hawk, B-2, Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Douglas Dakota, P-51 Mustang, Mil Mi 24 Hind, A-10A Thunderbolt II, AAC Historic Flight, A 129 Mangusta, MV-22B Osprey, Chengdu FC-1 Xiaolong. I know some are 'retired' but surely there are flying examples of some?

Overall a pleasant and thrillng day, except for disabled car parking which seems nothing like the past years, when parking was available in Blue car park on the hard standing. Although there at 6.45 had a long walk and very long queues.Is this car park the same size as previous as regards parking for disabled? Thanks sincerely, great day otherwise.

Overall I quite enjoyed the show on Saturday... Visitor Survey - RIAT has sent me two e-mails - neither of which contains a link that works - poor show! I have tried posting this once over the weekend - but now I have seen posts from today (and no e-mail to my home address ) - I can only think that someone doesn't want you to see this. Security Checks - Arriving from Green on Saturday the queue proceeded as normal - and shortly before reaching the 'Baggage Check Area' I was 'body scanned' using a wand. At this point all my other belongings were in my rucksack. Once complete I rejoined the queue for the baggage checks - at this point I could easily have put ANY contraband items about my body whilst my bag was searched... As an ex-RIAT Volunteer of 19 Shows (and serviving member of HM Forces) - I can only describe these actions as a complete farce. If you are going to check somebody out - do the body search AND the baggage search at the same time. As it was your organisation was made to look very amateur. Oh - and by the way the F-22 was awesome!!!

The flying displays were well up to the usual very high standard but getting in to the parking area was a nightmare. We decided to travel a little later than we normally do with the idea of missing the early surge of people. It took over 2 hours to cover the short distance from the Cirencester road in to the airfield, not helped much by the inadequate radio traffic announcements. There seemed to be only a single access point to the parking area, why not open up several with temporary gates etc.?

Great Airshow but terrible access and traffic management I took me an hour to drive from Bristol but another three more hours to get in and parked Until this aspect improves I will not be coming back You should take a look at Goodwood festival of Speed - they don't keep you waiting 3 hours Great show but poor traffic management ruined it for us

My husband and I had a wonderful day. We arrived very early and encountered no problems. The air display was yet again brilliant including the F22, Typhoon and Red Arrows and other arial displays. There was plenty to see. It was good to see that the step ladders and wind breakers were far less evident, however, there were a few breaking the rules. However, just one complaint, the toilets, along with the disabled toilets were a total disgrace. The first steps from the ground were far too high especially if someone is disabled.

We visited Riat on the Sunday, via the Brown route, and found only a minimum amount of time was lost in queuing traffic people must learn to accept that shows of this size will cause queues - I say to them, grow up and get on with it - we're all part of the cause of the queues! The show itself was brilliant, although the static diplays could do with information boards. The highlights of the show for me were the Vulcan and the Raptor both giving different but equally exciting displays. I thought the official brochure was a bit expensive at £9.00 surely it could be sold for a more resonable figure. Other than that, my only gripe was that the noisy music from the funfair sometimes drowned out the commentary, but I suppose you have to cater for everybody! All in all a great day out, and we shall visit again. Incidentally, we waited until 8 pm before leaving the show, and drove straight out! No problem!

There were 2 main problems this year. Firstly the lack of aircraft, perhaps not suprising consideering the current climat. Secondly was the 90 minutes it took to exit the green car park. This is very easy to remedy. Simply put the Red Arrowas on at 4 pm (like last year) and loads of people will leave when they have finished. This year as they were last half of the 80-100K people left at the same time. Very bad planning, so please learn from you mistake.

As a regular attendee at the air show at Fairford, once again for me it was fantastic.....I always arrive at 6am, so no traffic problems, and although I leave around 4pm so miss some of the displays again it's traffic free going home. I missed the Italian air display team this year.... but I love the show, I think it's fantastic, and very well organised. I'm not keen on alot of the stalls there, especially things that have nothing to do with aircraft, e.g perfume stalls, but I can ignore them. Other than that, I have no complaints. I went on the Sunday this year, and the cloud level was a little disappointing but at least it didn't pour with rain. Congratulations once again to all of the organisers of RIAT and roll on 2011's show.

Having said for many years that we wanted to go to an airshow, we finally made it to RIAT this year. The first thing that I was impressed with was the condition of the car parks, then the security and finally the show itself. Having the Vulcan right by the entrance we used was fantastic. I had longed to see this beauty since she re took to the skies. As others have stated, the weather was far from great, but nothing was going to spoil the displays you guys put on. Spitfires everywhere, Vulcan and Raptor doing their stuff, and of course the now legendary Harrier bow to the crowd.....priceless. Well done to everyone who helped put this show together. We are so looking forward to 2011 where we hope to attend for the whole weekend :)

Excellent show pity about the non flying aircraft on sunday but entertained myself looking at the static displays and watching the stunt shows. Even though I am relativly young compared to some of the commentators it is quite a walk from the car parks to the site. The queing to get to the site and also leave was frustrating but i have gotten used to it at big events. Hats off to the naffi in the wartime village what a welcoming rest stop. Looking forward to next year.

I bought tickets for Park and View for the Friday, had a Fantastic time even if it did rain heavily around 1600 hrs. The show on Sunday did seem too have some problems, mainly due to cloud base, but the display pilots seemed to overcome this well, It is my first time to RIAT since the Greenham Common events, (a long time ago) I would come back too RIAT and hope for its continuation in the future.

Once again a well organised show !! I have no complaint about the traffic - we arrived around 08:00 hours and were very lucky to be one of the first to be directed to parking on the base itself and not the field across the main road. This was a big bonus for two 'aged' spotters. Didn't find a problem with security - it takes time and it has to be done - no moaning from me. ! As for the aircraft perhaps not as many as I had hoped but we and other Air Forces are engaged in PROBLEMS in other parts of the world - so we must accept that they have other commitments. All in all and excellent day and looking forward to 2011.

I used the baggage drop zone this year, and this small but effective service topped off an excellent day. A big thankyou to the ATC team for their politeness and efficiency. For those of you who have missed this spot, you can leave your bags and particularly any folding chairs etc inside the showground until required for use. In return for a receipt, the cost is absolutely nothing. Clever RIAT.

great show getting in to car parks was no problem as i arrived from kent at 7am BUT GETTINGOUT of blue car park was a pain with so many cars decending on one exit, took over 2hrs to get out of field then to be directed by police out in to the countryside after sign directing me to M4 told me to turn right again a great show but u must try to sort out the tte trafic problem

Having attended every IAT at Fairford (& Greenham before that) I felt 2010 was a good show considering the restraints under which you are obviously operating. The Ground Controller who authorisedorganised the F-22 to roll out to the end of 09-27 on the Monday after it's display at Farnborough should be congratulated (as in 2008) for his vision - it is moments such as this that makehave made IATs down the years so very special and was very much appreciated by all those who had paid their money to be in the western end Park & View area. The departure day on Monday is very much a part of the show for many and although I'm sure this point has been made many times before it would be greatly appreciated if aircrew could keep their aircraft on the deck until over the threshold, a wing waggle would be a bonus and is always appreciated by those (99%) of us with cameras! The backdrop for the photograper here is one of the best to found in the world of aviation photography & it is very frustrating when it cannot be taken advantage of. No doubt operating procedures have to be observed but as some aircrews adopt the "how low can you go departure" I assume that this must be down to the individual pilots discretion. My request is simply that those in control of such matters could remember the spirit in which the IAT was originally formed (North Weald) and remind the aircrew that those at the Western end always appreciate recognition that they are there. Keep up the good work & thanks for listening.

Very good show, but a little short this year. Would like to have seen the MIG21 but the F22 was a real thrill. May I suggest that some classic post war military jets are included in the future - UK, French, Russian, USA? I would like to join in the moans about traffic. I arrived at 9am on Blundsdon hill and it took me two hours of queueing to get in. The organisers have had years to get it right and they certainly failed again this time. There was massive queue jumping and on the approach roads we had to stop several times to let buses through from the opposite direction - once at traffic lights it was 5 minutes just for 3 buses and that was with 5 miles of traffic behind us. The show radio was hopeless and rather naff - 'stick with it', 'everything is moving', 'a bit slow but everyone will get in'. Dreadful music and not a lot of aviation knowledge other than what was being read from crib sheets. Getting into the car parks was just snails pace. One roundabout had about 10 police officers on - they had nothing to do, so just stood around talking while we barely moved. Traffic organisation was awful and very frustrating indeed and once again could and should have been much better handled. One last suggestion - turn the volume up on the PA. I visited the Cotswold Air Show at Kemble, so I know that airshow PA systems can be done very well. Apart from that it was fine.

It was the first time for me and my family to join the RIAT 2010 on sunday. For my point of view it was a fantastic show, with good organisation like parking and catering. We have been a little bit disappointed that all the merchandise stands and the catering were closed after the flying display. During flying display there was no option to have a look at the merchandise, we didn`t want to miss any part of the show. All in all a superb day for me and my family, please go on.

This year I made the effort to get into the show long before 10.00am so I could see ALL the flying displays. Sadly I was thwarted by the inability of the organisers to get the cars into the car parks regardless what route you took (as indicated by the Tattoo Radio broadcasts). I arrived via the Green Route from Cirencester and almost immmediately hit a long que to get into the car parks, in consequence it took over 2 hours to get into the car park and then another 45 minutes to finally get into the show itself! In that time I had missed three displays I really wanted to see! The excuse that was given was the sheer volume of traffic that caused the problems. Mmmm, sorry I just dont buy this excuse especially as you been organising this event for well over 35+ years - by now surely you got this problem sorted? To make matters worst, you are attempting to get at least two (may be 3) lines of traffic into one lane! Have you not learnt this does not go! Please, please have a thorough review on this matter and find ways to improve accessing the car parks! As for remainder of the flying displays I did see, certainly the highlights being the 13 WW2 aircraft celebrating the BoB anniversary, the display of the F22 Raptor (awesome) and the sight of the B52 flying over the Vulcan as she was waiting to take off! Sadly with the latter, an opportunity missed to have the two flying together - mmm that would be some sight to say the least. As for the future, if there is any flying, any chance of seeing a flying display of a F14 Tomcat - oh to see one of them along with some vintage MIG's? Dont get me wrong, I DO appreciate the time, efforts and problems encounted to get this show off the ground but please, please sort out the access to the airshow car parks better. It does put a damper on the day's proceedings regardless of what goes on for the rest of the day! Finally getting out of show was easy, I always leave it to the last moment, that way you get an almost clear route back to the B&B.

The only problem I had on the Park and View day, Friday, was getting lost and needing to be escorted to the right compound. Indeed a few of the young security people didn't seem to know what I was talking about when I said I was looking for the Park and View area. Otherwise the day was great and I was surrounded by people who had some enthusiasm for aircraft. The F-22 was the best thing there. Saturday was different. In fact I left five hours early. The position of the public grandstand was awful and at an angle which meant that another grandstand obstructed the view of aircraft taking off and landing. So I paid a fair bit extra to be further from the crowdline and with a worse view. The use of allocated seating was upestting to because it meant I had no choice where I sat or indeed which ignorant person with bored talkative teenagers sat near me. Encouraging the crowd to "wave to the pilots" (as if they could see us from that distance) meant that as aircraft moved down the runway I kept getting some idiot's arm waving infront of my camera's field of view. The US special forces parachute drop was a shoddy joke and the DZ on the far end of the crowd line. I suppose it demonstrated how much better the RAF Falcons are at falling with style. Much of the display that I stayed for was too much of a "Farnborough B". Instead of airforces we had Airbus (with their pointless plane built for political purposes), Pilatus and one of the Grippen was the SAAB example. Anyway I was prevented from enjoying myself for many reasons and I had enough and left at about 13:30. Getting in was ok for me because I got there early but could have done without the walk to the nearest village to find the end of the pedestrian queue. Wings Radio was joke as usual with wannabe DJs spouting ill informed or out of date information about the participating aircraft. Getting out was even easier at 13:30. RIAT should be about air forces getting together not aircraft sales. It should be about celebrating DIFFERENT sorts of aircraft belonging to a variety of airforces. You hooked me with promises of a MiG-21 and gave me an Airbus A400. RIAT has become like a classic car show where everyone shows up with their new Ford Mondeo. RIAT should not be a place for Air Forces to brag that they too have a GrippenF-16F-18Typhoon (delete as appropriate). RIAT is also too big to display WWII aircraft, especially when those who pay extra are further from the action. I doubt if I shall come again, which is a shame.

What another fantastic show, the highlight for me was the F22, I will be back next year for sure if the F22 shows again. The weather was better than last year when I came down on the Sunday and it was wet, hopefully next year we will have full on sunshine all day long. The Typhoon was awesome too, especially at the end of the show when it flew with the spitfire. Red arrows, well what can I say they never let us down a true cut above the rest of the display teams. Thank you Fairford. Colin.

Although the weather on Sunday was not conducive to a great display. The F22 was almost as memorable as the commentary - typically American, way over the top but great fun! The Battle of Britain tribute was very disappointing - I would have liked to have seen one type formations rather than the mixed presented and perhaps a tail chase as well as the close formation. By the way congratulations to the 109 pilot he kept it so low, almost on the deck, for his take off. One thing I would like to see would be more loose formations lets remember its and Airshow not a photographers show! I am showing my age now - but remember at one Farnborough in the 70's when 12 or so tornadoes in very loose formation flew over and it was very spectacular. So tattoo organisers mix it up a bit - if you can! I personally had no problems following the blue route in or out I was parked up by about 8.30 - although I did leave before the Reds display so there was no queue to get out!

We attend RIAT every year, camping nearby. We had no problem with long queues or getting parked on the Saturday (we followed the Green route) However we got back to our car at around 6pm to find long queues of cars waiting to leave the car park, they had obviously already been waiting for sometime as all had switched their engines off. We could see other adjoining car parks being emptied but ours stayed static for well over an hour and a half. Eventually some Marshalls and Police arrived to oversee the emptying of the car park via the now closed runway, but all hell broke loose with cars trying to leave through the one exit from all directions! Very poorly organised.

Impressive display of the free world's military air power, which also demonstrates most importantly the much wider extent of that free world these days!

Hi I have another suggestion for RIAT '11, the Ka - 50. It would be cool to see. I would also love to see the f-22 and typhoon again. Thanks RIAT for a smashing day

A bit late in posting this blog. Saturday show very good. Air and static display well worth the money. Tent and Gazebo ban from the crowd line seemed to work well this year. Security checks to get in a bit of a mare, but hey thats modern life. Just to enforce what was mentioned before about queue jumping. My son and myself dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn to get to the show early and avoid the traffic jams etc. Got to the show and parked up and joined the queue with plenty of time before the gates opened. So far so good. The field next to the Green gate entrance was then opened up for parking. Many (and i mean not just one or two) then decided that they would just hang about instead of joining the queue. The gates opened and these (Ignorant plebes) persons then decided they would just mussel in and queue jump. A few raised tempers amongst the patient people who had queued for a long time but thankfully no incidents. I do think signs need to be erected and stewards placed to stop this happening next year. The whole situation could have ended in "fisty cuffs" and a grand day out ruined. Please RIAT try to sort this one out before a police involvement is needed. But again let me say in this finantial climate an excellent show. Well done RIAT.

ah the past shows i,ve gone to the last 16 shows this years was a long way from the best but it was not the worst one either.my point is how are the planes picked for riat we all know moneys tight and alot of hard ware is at the front line at the moment , from the outside it looks like riat has jets on the whole with duxford taking the propeller ones,should riat move towards the propeller in flypast magazine and others there seems to be a lot of planes about which could be used eg sally b, tigercat, b20 invader,b25,why where the hunters not flying,sea vixen,faa histrioc fight,f47 thunderbolt, mustang,if you read the airplane press theres alot about.but on the other side of coin cost and availability but my thought are the planes are out there and with riat being the biggest show in europe it must have some value in saying iam flying at fairford this year in front of 10s of thounsands ,

when i booked my tickets i was told that i would be parked at the front of area that i parked ini parked in the green area but it was a good from there to the entrance and i get out of breath when i have towalk to far but you could have had some golf buges there to tget disabled people to the entrance

Attended the show on saturday loved the flying luckily not caught up in the traffic gridlock into the red car park because we got to the carparks early but having waited for 7:30 to gain access to the showground we had then to pass through security,i fully understand the need for security checks but i witnessed children as young as 6 having a wand passed over them and a guy in a motorcycle suit being asked to strip because his zip was setting off the wand now either the people carrying out the checks were not trained correctly or they were just plain stupid but the bottleneck that they created meant that i didn't get into the showground until 8:45 .I attended farnborough as well and security was thorough and proffessional with none of the delays at fairford,so please for 2011 security yes stupidity no.

I would like to start by saying we had avery enjoyable day on the Saturday, but.... most of the comments below have covered what I wanted to say, but just to reiterate that for £35 per ticket, I would have expected much better traffic management. We seem to have done better than some people here, but we still hit the queue for the Red car park at 08:30 and didn't get parked until after 10:30 (but we made it in time for the first Typhoon). What seemed to be the problem here was that two lanes were merged into one why couldn't the two lanes continue all the way into the car park? Also, does anyone else think £9 is extortionate for a programme? This seemed to be the only way to see a flying timetable. I think for the already high ticket price (£10 higher than Farnborough), surely a leaflet could have been printed showing the timetable. Other than that, fine! (but if there's a next time it will be Farnborough I think, at least you can 'hedge your bets' with the weather there, as a ticket will cover either day).

I thought the display was not as good as previous years. I know that there are various committments around the world with armed forces but where were the number of aerobatic displays teams that have participated in the past and dedicated display jets? The Vulcan, Reds, Raptor and French team were all excellent but I felt the continous gaps between flying on the Sunday was a bit of a let down. Maybe we have been spoilt in the past by a full slick flying programme and now budget cuts for the display are happening due to the cancelled display a couple of years ago. The Battle of Britain tribute was ok but nothing special as in the past. We went on the Sunday so apparently it was curtailed by the weather. Mystified by this one as 12 warbirds could fly but not some of the jets! Security and waiting to get in were not really a problem as we would much prefer to be safe than have no security at the airshow. The static planes were really good but most did not have any info in front of them. Excellent and about time about stopping the ladders and wind breaks being at the front of the audience. We went away perhaps medium happy but thought it was also a bit of a disappointment in some aspects.

First off anybody that says this year was a step backwards from last year is deluded. My Dad, brother and I have been regular attendees of the Air Tattoo over the past 15-20yrs and everything about this years show was better than last year. The aircraft participation was greater, the flying display was better and the timetable of the show was laid out better. Last year suffered from too much of the same thing (3 F-18's, 2 Gripens and more Hawks than an Aviary) and it was way too front heavy with jets. It was a shame that there was no B1-B and that the Romanian Mig's got cancelled but well done RIAT for a very enjoyable day. Securing the F-22, Vulcan, Super Hornet and the 2 Tornado's was greatly appreciated....please keep this up for next year as we'd love to see the F-22 again as it gave an immense flying display. Overal RIAT 2010 gets 810 (a 910 would have been awarded if a B1-B flew and the Mig's had attended). PS Well done for keeping those annoying people with ladders and windbreakers away from the crowd line, it makes such a difference.

I would like to congratulate you all on a brilliant show this year, every year is good but this year there was something special about the whole show, It was lovely to see so many Spitfires still flying as well as the other WW11 aircraft there, the flying display was the best I've seen since I've been coming to RIAT and that's quite a few years, the Red Arrows and the other displays from other countries where excellent, the static display was great and well balanced, I know we took a time to get out of the car park but after a show like that I'm not complaining at all, I just looking forward to next year's show and hope it's as good as this year, there's one word to say STUNNING.

First up, F-117 Nighthawk, F-14 Tomcat, SR-71 Blackbird, Pave Low (I take it he means MH53J) cannot attend next year as they are all retired!!!!! I had a excellent nose around a SF Black Hawk on Saturday courtesy of the guys from RAF Mildenhall..Thanks!! Time to get in? less than an hour, great for any event!! Pre booking tickets, not a problem. F1 or concerts etc. use this all the time. Step backwards from last year, I think not! Apart from no B1 (I hear its a little busy in a war) and in the current climate what a fantastic line up!! We arrived early, got in early. We left late & arrived home surprisingly early. Great job RIAT, see you next year.

This year's Air Tattoo was fantastic, with a great flying display. Having attended last year, we knew to set off early because of the queues, but we didn't expect to leave Birmingham at 7.20am on the Saturday and not get into the showground until 12.20pm, by which time we had missed the Typhoon display amongst others. The traffic was absolutely terrible - totally gridlocked, and considerably worse than previous years. You do get a lot for your money at RIAT, but £35 is still a lot to pay to find that you have missed the first two hours of the show despite setting off early in the morning from a city that is only 90 minutes away. I appreciate there will inevitably be traffic jams on the way in, but maybe it is time to rethink the traffic management again. As some suggestions, how about starting the display 30-60 mins later to give people a greater chance of getting in for the start. Better public transport options would also help - for example park and ride from nearby towns for routes coming down the M5, particularly if you knew the bus had its own lane and so would be quicker than driving all the way. (I know there is a bus from Swindon station, but this is not the most convenient to get to). It would also be good to get some of the planes to displayflypast the queues, so there is some entertainment for people waiting in cars. Although a very frustrating start to the day, the display was still excellent, and more than made up for the time we had spent queuing, so thank you for the all the work you have put in again this year.

The Park and View days are so popular now that is quite hard to get a decent view of the planes. How about opening up a longer strip of land please? Really enjoyed the show day on Saturday.

I don't know if it's possible, but isn't it possible to carry out the security-checks at Swindon Bus Station for the people that use the shuttle busses, and drop them off behind the security checks at Fairford? I think it will speeden up the checks, as less are to be carried out at the showground.

Very good but spoiled for me in several ways..From the car park G9 I had to walk nealy a mile to the gates, I was told I coulod not get nearer ( I'm 72 now ). Dirty toilets and not enough. No identification of the static displays which was in place when I came for the Hercules anniversary. Why isn't the booklet part of the purchase process ?? There is little time to assimilate it on the day. Excellent display and friendly folks worth the trip but won't be able to come again unless I can park nearer !! Regards Anthony

Apart from the aircraft I suggested before, I have some more great suggestions. F-117 Nighthawk, F-14 Tomcat, B-17 Flying Fortress, B1B Lancer, SR-71 Blackbird, AC-130 Hercules, Pave Low, Black Hawk, B-2, Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Douglas Dakota, P-51 Mustang, Mil Mi 24 Hind, A-10A Thunderbolt II, AAC Historic Flight, A 129 Mangusta, MV-22B Osprey, Chengdu FC-1 Xiaolong, and thats pretty much it.

Thanks RIAT had a great day on the Saturday.........But..............I arrived at the Show Ground (via shuttle bus Swindon) around 8.30am and got to the red entrance only to be greeted with long queues and it took me around 40 minutes plus to get in.......which was a bit of a pain! Generally i found the static well laid out and was able to photograph most of the aircraft.......the aircrew's and air cadets were very good in moving out of the way of the photograph when asked. I did enjoy the flying displays and was able to get some nice shot's. As for all the other items such as Tri@RIAT, Motormania, Concert Stage, Fun Fairs and non aviation related items i have no such interest in them at all (i know i'm being grumpy) and do realise it is a show for all the family...........so i give all that a wide berth. Roll on next year........

I attended on the Sunday. I left home at 3.30am and arrived at the showground just after 6.30am and parked on early bird car park. A suuggestion for next year, whilst I and a few dozen others queued at the gate from about 6.45am, I and a few others were a bit annoyed that when the people who were coming across the bottom of the airfield in to the green car park, they were just hanging around their cars and instead of joining the queue, which was vitrually to the early bird car park entrance roadside, these people jumped the queue when the gates opened. There were hundred, if not thousands of people in that queue, I would like to know what these people felt gave them the right to just queue jump those who had waited patiently in line since 6.45am. Could I please suggest that a marshall is present to prevent this from occuring in the future, or alternatively, there are signs stategically placed to discourage such behaviour. Nobody likes to queue, but the chore is made worse with the ignorance of jumpers. In response to the published posts so far, I must disagree with the comments about the show poster ... Every one I have seen quite clearly states that tickets must be purchased in advance. In this day and age of the internet, I am amazed that anyone would journey to RIAT and be ignorant of that fact. Are you seriously suggesting that at no stage, in the years that this ticketing policy has been in force, have you ever visited this website??? I suspect RIAT is one of this country's biggest public events and as such, whilst I initially did not like the idea of pre booking, I think the system does work well. If you book to go to a concert, you go on the day you booked for, you don't have a choice. There is no reason RIAT should be any different. I think you'll find that a speedier entry to the event is facilitated by pre booking too. I have always arrived early on the day and can therefore only imagine what it would be like if you had to queue behind thousands of other people to first buy a ticket and then get on to the base itself ... bearing in mind that all that process would only start after 7.30am. I would like to thank RIAT for enforcing the no gazebo tent windbreak rules this year. I thought it worked brilliantly and perhaps will serve to discourage people from bringing unnecessary additional baggage with them in future years. There was an unattended baggage incident on Sunday morning. Maybe after the offending article was inspected it, along with the chairs, should have been removed to an area where the owners had to make the effort to go and collect them and be lectured about the unnecessary use of police and steward time that was taken up by them doing the equivalent of the towel on a sun lounger trick. My thanks to all involved with RIAT, If possible, can you please arrange for the Sunday show next year to be on a day that has some sun :) Thanks

As usual we had no isues parking as we planned our day although the signs on the red car park were sparse and myself amd many others missed th entrance to the field. The flying was excellent . shame the B52 did not fly in formation with the vulcan 2 cold war bombers would have been cool, Highlights for me was Not the raptor but the A400m and the spit and typhoon. The patrouille de france were also great but the reds were better . Jordanians were also very good so on the whole great show. BUT ... please sort out the entrance to the site it took nearly an hour queing to go through security and give tickets over . It was so so slow improve that and wow what a show . i realise checks have to be made but walking all that way then standing for an hour was a dampener. Also how about more fixed wing displays at the red end. One othe risue to mention was the loos you really need steel long ones not individual ceramic which when people had back packs on were nigh on unuseable. It sounds like a big moan but its not meant to be coz i had a great day

Well done to the organisers of this years RIAT. Apart from a security breach on the bus travelling from Swindon to the show, the whole day (Saturday) was absolutely fantastic. Since hearing about the "Battle of Britain" flypast a few months ago, it was well worth the wait to see such an awe inspiring site of friend and foe aircraft sharing the skies above our heads but in a friendly fashion. The village was fantastic. I have heard rumours that this years event is to be the last!! is this true?. Well done to everyone who took part in the flying displays, ground displays, activities and all other shows at RIAT 2010. Excellent.

There were a few things better than last year. firstly the parking and traffic management (Sunday). Also the inclusion of the F-22 Raptor, Le Patrouille de France and the We Fly! Team. I was also very impressed with the Role Demos by the Chinook and Tornados, which was better than simply seeing them flying around like previous years. I was however disappointed at the lack of international display teams Freece Tricolori, French Breitling display team, Blue Eagles, Black Cats, Red Devils, Thunderbirds and others. It is displays like those that make the day much more memorable, and I feel this year was a step backwards from last year. One final point, I was disappointed and couldnt understand why the cloud on Sunday meant the jets couldn't take off and join the Spitfires etc for the BoB flypast, I found myself extremely underwhelmed at what was meant to be one of the highlights of the day.

This is the fourth RIAT that I have attended and I have come to expect that traffic congestion for entry & exit is unavoidable but having left home at 0550 to join the brownblue route I was amazed to find, for the first time, that I had to make my way to the end of a long line of people queuing for entry. The delay seemed to stem from insufficient staff carrying out the security checks. I returned to my car in the blue park at 1900 but nothing, absolutely nothing, was moving. I sat in the car listening to the RIAT radio and the young lady who informed me that all traffic was moving without problems! She was obviously on another planet. At 1920 I luckily followed some other cars that were leaving by an incorrect gate down a road that had a notice saying that access was for local residents only. Yes, frustration.

I think that your policy requiring pre-purchase of dated tickets should be re-visited. For example Farnborough allows pre-purchase of admission tickets valid for either Saturday or Sunday, Farnborough also allow purchase on the day at the entrance date. I was visiting the area got a bus to the venue and was turned away from the gate. I was lucky that my day was not ruined because I bumped into someone who had a "spare" ticket. There was no information at the bus station that tickets needed to be purchased in advance, nor did the large posters advertsing the event say that in Swindon town centre. It never occurred to me to ask, since I have never been to any show tatoo festival that did not have a ticket booth at the entrance.

The air display, static aircraft and showground events seemed well balanced and had something for everyone but ther will inevitably be gripes from other bloggers "You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people..." etc. In this time of global recession and military commitments I felt I got more than my money's worth BUT security checks on the way in caused nearly an hours delay before entering and the Red car park gridlock with 2 exits and cars leaving the base meant it took 80 minutes to get north of Lechlade. Where were the security screening "arches" and police on point duty in Lechlade instead of the lights, as in previous years? Budget cuts?