Rougham Air Show 2004

Rougham Airfield

Air Show 2004 - Sunday 22nd August

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A selection of Stearmans

Warbirds aplenty

More Yaks than you can shake a stick at.....

.....and other distinguished guests

The Rougham Control Towe

Rougham's magnificently restored Control Tower

The Rougham Air Show is a two-day event (with the display on the Sunday only - you have been warned) and with plenty of stalls selling everything from garden gnomes to aviation memorabilia, pleasure flights, events and children's activities there is something for everyone to see and do. Of special mention is the large collection of military vehicles (aptly predominantly American), and of course the magnificent Rougham Tower, restored and maintained by the Rougham Tower Association in honour of the pilots and crew of the USAF who flew from this aerodrome from 1943. The Tower contains a small museum covering this period and is well worth a visit. If all this wasn't enough, you could just sit back and observe the arrival of the display aircraft and others flying in. By mid-morning the flight line was looking very interesting indeed.

The display itself is a three-hour affair, but usually goes on for a bit longer! This year's event started with the RAF Falcons Parachute display team, and with the weather beautifully clear the audience was able to track the team's descent from quite a height. The whole display was enhanced by the commentary from the team's civilian commentator Graham Liggins, who gave an informed commentary on the every aspect of the display as well as a great deal of detail of the team's activities throughout the year. As is usual for the Falcons, the display proper ended with a flypast from the team's Hercules C.3.

From one display team we moved to another - smaller but no less active on the display circuit - Will Curtis flying the Honda Dream Team's Sukhoi Su26. Will's display was an extended version of the one performed less than 24 hours earlier at Shuttleworth, and the combination of outrageous puns - from both Will himself and his commentator - and acrobatics kept the crowd enthralled. Product placement was a big part of the display with many of Will's acrobatic manoeuvres being named after Honda products. There is absolutely no doubt that Will more than earns every penny of whatever they pay out in sponsorship.

The next display was one very close to the heart of Rougham - the Stearman Display Team. There is a strong Stearman presence in this area, mainly due to the presence of Black Barn Aviation in Norfolk, a company who specialise in the restoration of these aircraft and who do a magnificent job. Among people who have bought Stearmans from this company are the actor Martin Shaw, and it was his wife who commentated for this event. The three pilots - all RAF - gave a superb display of close formation flying, the three biplanes looking striking against the gathering clouds.

The historic theme was maintained with the arrival of Carolyn Grace and her two-seat Spitfire. The Grace Spitfire is probably the most well known example after its starring role in the programme "Spitfire Ace" and Carolyn was given a rousing reception. Her display did not disappoint - Carolyn is one of the best Spitfire display pilots on the circuit and she gave the photographers on the crowd line ample opportunity to get good profile shots.

Going back in time, the World War 1 team brought along a replica SE5a and Junkers CL1, both impressive aircraft. The Junkers, in particular, looked outstanding in the sunshine and is one of a few aircraft which have been modified to this configuration from the popular Bowers "Flybaby" type. The Junkers has a full size model sitting in the rear cockpit - this one was called Otto - and it is cleverly connected to the rudder pedals so that it - and the replica parabellum machine gun it is connected to - can be make to move from side to side and track an attacking aircraft.

The next aircraft to display - Alan House's magnificent Percival Provost T.1 - represented RAF training aircraft of the 1950's. This aircraft is a beautiful restoration on a par with the version owned by the Shuttleworth Collection. It was flown today by John Fairey, bearer of a name famous in aviation circles. He was followed by the aircraft which had been drawing most of the attention on the flightline during the morning, the P-51D Mustang "Big Beautiful Doll" owned and flown by Rob Davies. Rob gave an excellent display and is obviously very mush at home in this aircraft which he has owned since 1997.

There was only one rotary wing display today, but it was quite an outstanding one - Dennis Kenyon in a Schweizer 300. Dennis is a former RAF fixed wing pilot who switched to helicopters some 30 years ago. A former world freestyle aerobatic champion, he really put the Schweizer through its paces and the whole display suited the intimate nature of Rougham. Some of the antics that Denis got up to were quite incredible - if you get a chance any time, do see his display!

The Aerostars showed off their outstanding formation flying

Denis was followed by the Aerostars display team, five Yak 50s lead by a Yak 52. Having seen them at Rougham last year it was one display I was very much looking forward to. The team, most of whom work as airline pilots, are past masters of close formation aerobatics and their routine did not disappoint. Clouds had been building up throughout the afternoon and had got quite threatening at this point, but this seemed to add a little to the display - the smoke trails contrasting nicely with the grey background.

Three solo spots followed, all nice restorations. The first was a rather nice Yak 11 flown by Mark Jeffries, then Hurricane XIIa of the HAC, flown on this occasion by Rod Dean and finally the Nord N110 (Messerschmitt 108), which I had seen earlier this year at the Shuttleworth D-day display. This aircraft has a very distinct paint scheme based on a 108 that flew in Libya in World War 2 - Sonderkommando Blaich - a unit set up to counter the British Long Range Desert Group.

The Happy Arrest

The Storch and Piper Cub from the Historic Aircraft Collection joined up to depict "The last dogfight on the Western Front", based on a real event in 1945 when the pilot of a Piper Cub, armed only with a revolver, forced down a Fieseler Storch. This display had been a feature of many air shows this season but, typically, Rougham went one better with the Storch landing at the end of the display and the pilot (Clive Denney) being "arrested" by one of the volunteer staff dressed as an American MP. I don't think that too many captured pilots looked as happy as Clive did today though!

The Utterly Butterly team sent along two Stearmans today, and they put on a nicely polished display. It should be mentioned that one of the wingwalkers had been taken ill and her place taken at short notice by a local volunteer. She did an excellent job, with the display not being affected in any way by the late substitution.

The second Spitfire visit of the day was another T9 two-seat trainer, this time Maurice and Peter Bayliss' MJ627, based at East Kirkby. This was flown by Paul Day, who was until recently in charge of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. As might be expected, Paul gave an excellent routine, although it must be mentioned that he kept his aircraft much further away from the crowd line than did Carolyn Grace, which lessened the impact somewhat.

Any flying event takes a tremendous amount of organisation, and the Rougham committee deserve every plaudit for the way this event was put together. Special mention must be made for the commentator, Peter Eager, who managed to convey a great deal of knowledge in a friendly and immediate way. A great deal - not all of it complimentary - has been said in these pages about the role of commentators at air shows, and Peter's technique should be studied by all taking on this task.

On a final - and personal - note, a big thank you to Martin Hough who kindly allowed me to use a couple of his photographs which are included in the photographic sequence. I hereby acknowledge a debt I fully intend to repay when we next meet in some Suffolk pub :)

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