Warbird Information Exchange

Flying Legends 2021 has been confirmed , it's new home is Sywell . I wish it every success in it's new home .
I'll be there to support it, and it has the added bonus of being about 60 miles closer to where I live !

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495th F.T.G your not forgotten

Thanks for the info and great news that Flying Legends has a new home! I've never been to Flying Legends and know nothing about Sywell, or most of the U.K. warbird scene, for that matter. Can you give a run-down on what this means? Is this a good move, bad move, and what are the positives and negatives of such a move? Who else is at Sywell and what aircraft are based there? Sorry, but I'm a Yank and don't have that much knowledge about U.K. warbird operations, other than what I read on this forum, which tends to be very U.S.-centric.

Okay, so I would say that aside from Old Warden, Sywell is the next best-fit for an event like Flying Legends. The airfield used to host one day airshows biannually but unfortunately ceased back in 2014, so the airfield has a rich airshow background. As well as this, Sywell also host the 'LAA Rally'- essentially a mecca of vintage, homebuilds, GA, small-medium civilian owned aeroplanes all converging on one airfield for a weekend. It's like a miniature Oshkosh really.

Richard Grace's company, Air Leasing Ltd, are also based here. Most famously, they operate Spitfire T.IX ML407 and have done for thirty years. Recently their operation has expanded (hence the move to Sywell from Bentwaters) and they operate several aircraft including a bunch of Hispano Buchons. They also look after Anglia Aircraft Restorations fleet of exciting warbirds including: Tempest II (soon to fly), Fury II, P-47, TF-51D, Hurricane, Spitfire V, Spitfire XIV, Buchon as well as two Me109F's and Me109G under restoration- the latter to fly!

Sywell itself is quite central in England. Not too far away from Duxford (about 50 minutes drive), obviously less time away by air. It's also relatively close to several cities and towns such as Northampton, Corby and Kettering. There's a fantastic hotel/bar&restaurant on site called 'The Aviator' and the layout is typically art-deco. It's stunning.

I'm just hoping COVID-19 will allow us to enjoy this show because I do think it has the makings to be fantastic.

Thanks for the info. One of these days, I will have to go to England to visit all of your wonderful aviation history!

And this is now going to be a huge problem for TFC with the date they have chosen, as Sywell's proximity to Northampton on this weekend will have ramifications for them in terms of traffic and other issues, as they've picked the same weekend as the British Grand prix down the road at Silverstone, and Northampton is a major Park n Ride location for accessing the Grand Prix (not to mention possible ATC issues with the huge amount of GA and helo traffic into and out of Silverstone, and the Reds display there)

It means I won't be attending Legends now, as my route to drive to Sywell from where I live would involve driving up the A43 right past Silverstone.

No wonder the hotels in Northampton already had inflated prices for that weekend...

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Don't complain until you've been bitten. The provisional 2021 F1 calendar's been issued and the British GP is the weekend after. Even if it wasn't, Legends is two days and the GP's Sunday only.

Not to nitpick, but a GP weekend consists of Friday (2 practice sessions), Saturday (practice and qualifiying) and Sunday (race), but that doesn't matter as they are on different weekends anyway.

I know the format of a GP weekend perfectly well, but the only day that will be absolutely heaving is the Sunday.
There may be a bit more traffic around than usual on the Saturday, but it's not likely to be gridlocked.
My way's down the M1 which is a pain in the backside any weekend.