In 2016 4Aviation travelled to the Flying Legends air show at RAF Duxford again, for the seventh consecutive year by now. Contrary to other years we visited the show on Sunday (10 July) and not on the Saturday. This was due to the fact that the show was scheduled in the same weekend as the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford again this year. The 4Aviation group that visited Duxford on the Sunday had enjoyed the show at Fairford the day before.
The 74 participants to the trip enjoyed a well-deserved night’s rest and a decent breakfast in the hotel near Stevenage and all were ready to board the bus in time on Sunday 10 July. It did not take long to get to RAF Duxford and we parked our bus in time at the parking lot destined for buses.
It was pretty cloudy when all entered the terrain in the morning, still well before the official opening time. Luckily it was dry and not cold. While waiting for the air show itself to start, this is only in the afternoon, there was plenty of time to see everything and enjoy the atmosphere. The museum was open to the public, like some of the hangars with airworthy aircraft. If you add a large number of sales booths and the option to visit the flightline (for an additional charge) to this you end up with a very nice morning.
This year the number of visiting aircraft was a bit limited but still there was plenty to be seen and photographed during the air show. The number of options to see many flying Spitfires and Hurricanes is very limited and the Flying Legends show is probably the nicest option for that. There are interesting displays and you are positioned close to the taxi track when the aircraft taxi back after their display. A very nice addition this year was the Heritage Formation of a P-51 and an F-22A of the USAF. Luckily the weather improved a lot in the afternoon, which made the Balbo formation at the end of the show (19 aircraft this year) a beautiful sight to see.
After the event everybody was back at the bus in time (as we are fully used to) and the return journey went according to plan again. No cues, no waiting time for the ferry and no unexpected things. By the time the bus driver was able to drop off the last passengers in Nijmegen it was early in the morning on Monday 11 July already.
