On Sunday 18^th July Staff and Cadets from 1181 (Syston) Squadron made their way to RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire for the Royal International Air Tattoo, RIAT.

Despite the early start (0700 hours!), drizzly overcast weather and queuing for over 90 minutes just to get onto the airfield, everyone was overly excited and raring to be entertained.

No-one was disappointed! The cloud base lifted and a truly fabulous time was had by all. We were entertained by Hawk aircraft, Swiss, French and Jordanian national display teams, F16s, F18, F22 Raptor(making its European debut!), A400 M (making its National debut!), We Fly Team (Flown by 2 Disabled Pilots (1 paraplegic, 1 quadriplegic) to name but a few. Some of the real highlights were The Battle of Britain Tribute, which included Hurricanes, Spitfires, ME-109s, Me-108 and Texan Harvard, a special flight by the Avro Vulcan and of course the brilliant Red Arrows.

To close the show a very special heritage flight by a Spitfire and Eurofighter Typhoon. A very tired and hungry group of cadets landed on the unsuspecting staff of Pizza Hut in Stratford upon Avon before returning home just after 2200 hours. A brilliant day was had by everyone. Next year the cadets have asked if they can help out at RIAT for the week! Anyone else??