RAF Rivet joint and the SU-27s

[k3k3]

Originally Posted by golfbananajam

For my education, is there any reason that Rivet Joint flies a stretched figure 8 pattern rather than an oval (https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae01d0)?

In the olden days before avionics got clever aircraft nav systems were based on gyros, systems like MRG and AHRS, and if you always turned the same way for hours on end errors would mount up, the gyros would get the leans, flying figures of eight evened out the errors.

With modern avionics it doesn't matter but old habits die hard.