Despite the early departure time [6am] my son and I were really looking forward to our planned day spent at the RAF Waddington International Airshow. Even the light rain that started just after we left Nottingham seemed unlikely to dampen our spirits, but as we moved east across Nottinghamshire towards Lincolnshire the rain became progressively heavier.

Even then we were undeterred because the forecast was for brighter weather to follow and everything looked set for a better day than the Saturday, which had been dull and overcast. During our approach towards Waddington along the A607 the rain became torrential, with many of the side roads starting to look more like rivers.

I must confess that because of the monsoon like conditions I approached the base with a degree of trepidation. However we were admitted at about 7.15am with a bedraggled member of the RAF taking our admission fee and directing us to a prime position right on the grass by the flight-line close to the old control tower.

F-16 689

Falcon G-FRAT

Fokker 50 U-05

By the time we reached Alpha Dispersal the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out from behind the occasional cloud. However en-route we were aware of the problems that were starting to arise around the display site. Many of the stalls were inaccessible due to flooding, the base fire brigade were pumping out water in front of hangars 2 and 3 and countless bales of straw were being deployed to try and help the grass areas from cutting up.

Fokker S-11174

Griffin ZJ708

Griffin ZJ708

We continued our journey back to the car, hurriedly capturing what we could of the static display and carefully negotiating the now rapidly degenerating mud bath that had only recently been grass car parking areas. On arriving back at the car I carefully selected a ‘relatively green’ escape route back onto the concrete taxiway, which was only some 50 metres away but represented an icy skid pan that the cars in front had to negotiate.

We left the base by 9.15am and set off back towards Nottingham, but en-route we decided to call in at the Newark Air Museum to take a couple of pictures. Whilst disappointed at the Airshow being cancelled I do not hesitate in agreeing that the organisers made the correct decision to cancel the display in some very difficult circumstances. This view was firmly emphasised when I arrived at the museum only to find hundreds of people trying to get access. The situation that the museum faced is covered in part 2 of this article.

I would also like to thank the Airshow Organisers for their prompt response in refunding the fee from my son’s admission ticket. He was really looking forward to the flying display but at least we got the opportunity to photograph the aircraft on static display, unlike many thousands of disappointed visitors who did not even gain access to the base.

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All photograph copyright / credits: Howard Heeley – Down To Earth Promotions