This year I teamed up with my mate who owns the cockpit of F Mk. 6 Lightning XR757 to do a Lightning themed display.
I live demonstrated my PTR-175 VHF/UHF comms radio setup, the same radio used in the later Lightning aircraft. Public were invited to don headsets to hear the sounds, and operate the radio (modes and tuning) using the cockpit control unit. Re-tuning the radio results in the "watchmakers" gear train underneath the modules whirring and clunking into place, re-tuning variable capacitors etc.. which provided something fun for people to see. I had a couple of spare modules on the bench that people could handle and see inside. Also connected and working was the ground crew test box.
My thoughts on it were; that when looking at an aircraft you only see the paint, in a rather nice shape, but sill, there is a whole world of engineering and technology unseen buried within the airframe... I wanted to bring this out, and bring it to life for people to see and understand. It was nice that so many people shared the experience and went away having enjoyed it.
The icing on the cake was winning the cockpiteers prize with this display!
Photos around the event, very Lightning and Buccaneer heavy this year, but a couple of very tall cockpits arrived too:
Saturday evening hog roast!
Lots of aeroboot too over the weekend: