Trevor Dailey's Weblog

The first annual Legends Over London Jet Festival, presented by the Jet Aircraft Museum, took place on July 19 and 20, 2014. The show was sponsored by local business, and the London Health Sciences Foundation was the charity benefiting from the proceeds of the event. It was a limited ticket sale of about 3500 tickets for each day.

Although this show was a much smaller show from the years gone by when the London International Air Show hosted tens of thousands of people over a weekend with aircraft counted in tens it was well received by the public. The last time London saw an air show was ten years ago in 2004. 

As a two day attendee of the show, and a member of the Jet Aircraft Museum, I will give my personal review of the 2014 Legends Over London. The following is the sole opinion of the author.

The Good

It was a fantastic turn out. A large number of people attended the show.

The volunteers who helped out with the show were absolutely professional and experienced. The Public Safety crew and the E.M.S. (Emergency Medical Services) crew all were outstanding in quality. Events like this do not happen without high quality and dedicated volunteers. The volunteers make the show happen, and these volunteers did the job they were asked to do.

Cost of the show was reasonable, I think, at $10 per ticket, plus $5 for on site parking.

On site parking was well organized, from what I could see, as I watched the vehicles flow in for the show. The parking was right outside of the fenced boundary of the show grounds, so walking a long distance, or boarding a shuttle bus to and from the show grounds, was not necessary.

The vendors and the small Midway for the children were all within easy walking distance on the show grounds. This made it a lot easier for families with kids, I think. There was no difficulty in finding a place to sit and watch the show, and every place on the shows grounds was close enough to the runway that it was impossible to miss anything flying if you were off buying some food, or you were with the kids at the midway. Every spot was a good seat.

Pilots in the flying display were skilled and professional, and it showed in the air. The pilots were of very high quality, and a couple of the air displays were very creative.

The show did not go ahead on Saturday because of the poor weather, but those who purchased tickets for Saturday were given the opportunity to return on Sunday when the weather allowed for the flying display.

The Bad

Saturday was a washout because of the low cloud cover and the rain. It was wet and cold. Something learned was in that kind of weather those who did come out would have appreciated hot coffee, or another hot beverage, but none of the vendors had any. I think it would be a good idea to always have a poor weather menu ready if you are a vendor so the day is not a total loss.

Although the Canadian Harvard Association aerobatic display team was outstanding, the commentary was an almost direct copy of the commentary script used by the famous Snowbirds team with even the same rhythm and tone as the Snowbirds' commentary. Some of the lines were directly lifted from the Snowbirds' show commentary. To me, it smacked of plagiarism. The Harvard aerial display had manoeuvres that the Snowbirds have used, but unless the Snowbird created those acrobatic manoeuvres, anyone can use them in their performance.

Scripted commentary from the announcer was annoying at times. She even used one old bad announcer air show joke I had heard before at other air shows regarding lost children.

And the Ugly

Rock concert or Air Show? From long before the gates opened to after the last act had concluded, the loud speakers blasted loud music from obnoxiously loud speakers directed at the spectators. Many people complained about the constant music that soon became unwanted noise to the people who were trying to have a conversation with someone, but the loudspeakers were making it difficult to hear people speak. It was not a large venue, and the sound system did not need to be at a stadium filling volume.

Air Show commentary is something I have long disliked. The stupid jokes, the constant bad morning radio show chatter, the person who has a microphone and thinks he or she needs to be talking into it all of the time, the missed cues, the wrong announcements during the flying display because the announcer wasn't paying attention to the show Air Boss on the radio, etc..

Music and commentary is fine during a display if that is what the performer wants, but nobody is going to leave the show because the music volume level is set at a background level, or someone is not talking over the loudspeakers before the show starts, or between acts.

Some photographers carry scanner receivers with them to hear the show Air Boss so they know what is going on because they find the air show announcer annoying or unhelpful.

Conclusion

Overall, I think it was a very good show, and I am looking forward to seeing next year.

© Trevor Dailey

Legends Over London

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly