Without wishing to belittle the manoeuvre in any way, looking at their site it is not TOO difficult, as one pair would cross above with the next stepped up on that, each of the two pairs 'missing' each other in 'normal' fashion. Height separation can be sorted with just 3 effective 'units', while the remaining L to R 'main' 5 fly laterally separated. Timing is another problem altogether! It does look, however, to be pretty complex and if it worked at RIAT, hat off to them!
We tried a 7 ship crossover from a diverging formation half-loop on the Reds (in the late Frank Hoare's time) using a complex 'calculator' (two bits of graduated card held together with a staple
) basing individual 'pull-through' timing on forecast wind, but it proved too difficult to guarantee a reasonable close cross time-wise and with 7 stacked fairly tightly vertically crowd front it was decided it was too risky. Theirs also appears to have an on-crowd 'risk' element? I vividly remember one of ours that went
amazingly well and the effect in the cockpit (never mind the crowd
) was stunning
- made me eyes water, it did
- next best thing to..........................