Bentwaters Open Day, Sunday 14th June 2009.

Location : Ipswich Spotter Watch Member : no

Hello,

Just to remind you all on this coming,Sunday, 14th June, there is a special Open day at the old RAF Bentwaters site from 1000-1600.

Attractions include a number of static aircraft including Sea Harrier F/A.2 ZH809, Harrier T.8N ZD991 & Jaguar GR.3A XZ367 as well as a number of other old military aircraft on display, both on the ground & then displaying.

A limited number of coach tours to the other side of the airfield (past the stored Jaguar`s !! - a full checklist will be available on the day) will also being taking place as well as the Bentwaters Cold War Museum being open along for business with outside displays of WWII & Cold War Military vehicles.

Other attractions include birds of prey, Model Jet aircraft displaying as well as BBQ`s & a Bar :-)

See our web site at www.bcwm.org.uk for full details.

See you all hopefully there.

Kind Regards,

Allan Dewhurst.

Admin Location : East Midlands Spotter Watch Member : Yes

Allan.

I understand that my dad will be attending again this year and will be bringing me mum as sadly I will not be able to attend.

Everyone else.

Last years event was really good, and for those located in East Anglia and Essex who cannot attend Cosford, organise a car share to attend this open day and show some support make a day of it.

It is really worth attending just for the tour.

Location : Ipswich Spotter Watch Member : no

My thanks to "Street Hawk" for your kind comments, sorry to hear can`t make over to see us this year but glad you have enjoyed the 1st Special open day we held last year.Hope to see you next year ?

Understand the model jets we have flying at a number of times during the day should be a F-100, Cuban MiG-21 & an F-104 + a number of other model types out on display.Nice to see a Zipper flying over the base again !

Kind Regards,

Allan.

Location : essex Spotter Watch Member : No

Can anyone tell me more about timings for the flying, is it spread throught the day or all around an hour-two hours, will hopefully arrive around the 10am mark, but dont know if it's best to get on the base-tour bus first, or wait, watch the flying then go on the bus later on.
Dave

Location : Ipswich Spotter Watch Member : no

Hi Dave / all

Firstly, a quick typo to correct on my first posting about our opening times for our Special day this coming Sunday 14th June.The gates will open to the public at 1000 & we close at 1800.

The first bus tour starts at 1150 and the last tour is booked to leave at 1700.Each tour should take @ 45 minutes to complete.

The "manned" flying is due to take place during the afternoon so personally, I would do the bus tour first as we only are running a certain number and these proved VERY popular last year & sold out very fast.Would suggest you get your ticket for the bus tour ASAP on arrival at the airfield.

I`m one of the guys working inside the Cold War Museum Sunday so come in & say hi.

Hope you enjoy your day, weather forecast looks to be very good (fingers crossed).

Regards,

Allan.

Location : essex Spotter Watch Member : No

Thanks for that, will be on one of the first buses, and will certainly say hello to everyone with a yellow jacket Big Grin

Dave

Subject: Re: Bentwaters Open Day, Sunday 14th June 2009. 2009-06-13, 07:02

Does anyone know what radio comms will be in operation during flying (guessing there will be some!!)

Location : Norfolk Spotter Watch Member : No

Was a very good day last year and I will be there tomorrow great museum and bus tour round is worth it Smile

Location : East Suffolk Spotter Watch Member : yes

Sorry I couldnt be there today helping you today guys, make sure im not in Thailand next year!

Subject: Re: Bentwaters Open Day, Sunday 14th June 2009. 2009-06-14, 12:19

Wow... what a day!! Well done to everyone involved in organising the event, Both my friend and me had a fantastic day. Great to be able to see some lovely aircraft up close! Just got to sort all the pictures now (all 1223 of them)!!
Clap

Admin Location : East Midlands Spotter Watch Member : Yes

A bit trigger happy on the tour bus

Location : Colchester Spotter Watch Member : No

Congratulations & thanks to all you BCWM guys & girls. What a day to be proud of!
My family had an excellent day out & cant say enough about how impressed we were with the open day. You gave us a great day out.
The event had a really relaxing atmosphere & brought back all of those Air Friendship memories from the USAF shows....Ahhh.
We just couldnt believe how many people were there compared to last year's event. The people just kept on coming & you guys & girls handled it with no fuss at all.
At a guess I would say there must have been several thousand people through the gates.

Even the burgers sold out Sad

.

Our favourite part of the day was our bus tour around the base, which was very interesting. It would have been nice to hear much more about the USAF occupation of Bentwaters rather than what the buildings are currently used for. It seemed wrong looking at aircraft hangers and being told that they are being used for storing onions & producing seed potatoes Unsure/Confused

.

Perhaps an information booklet could be produced for next years bus tour which illustrates how the various parts of the base used to look when the aircraft were in residence, so that during the bust tour the illustrations & details can be compared to how the base looks now out of the bus window... Just a thought.

I cant wait until next years show.

TankBuster

Subject: Re: Bentwaters Open Day, Sunday 14th June 2009. 2009-06-15, 02:58

Thanks Tankbuster.
We had no idea how many people would attend and as such we were overwelmed. The attendance was around the 6000 mark although it did seem there were even more people than that!
Thanks for the idea about the bus tour info guide. I will bring it up at our meeting on Thursday.
Thanks to everyone for your support and a very big thanks to all the staff that gave up their time yesterday. Without them, there wouldn't have been an Open Day.
Kind regards.

Graham

TankBuster wrote:: Congratulations & thanks to all you BCWM guys & girls. What a day to be proud of!
My family had an excellent day out & cant say enough about how impressed we were with the open day. You gave us a great day out.
The event had a really relaxing atmosphere & brought back all of those Air Friendship memories from the USAF shows....Ahhh.
We just couldnt believe how many people were there compared to last year's event. The people just kept on coming & you guys & girls handled it with no fuss at all.
At a guess I would say there must have been several thousand people through the gates.

Even the burgers sold out .

Our favourite part of the day was our bus tour around the base, which was very interesting. It would have been nice to hear much more about the USAF occupation of Bentwaters rather than what the buildings are currently used for. It seemed wrong looking at aircraft hangers and being told that they are being used for storing onions & producing seed potatoes .

Perhaps an information booklet could be produced for next years bus tour which illustrates how the various parts of the base used to look when the aircraft were in residence, so that during the bust tour the illustrations & details can be compared to how the base looks now out of the bus window... Just a thought.

I cant wait until next years show.

TankBuster