Originally Posted by
Flatus Veteranus
I agree. The TBirds and the Angels fly fast and tight - but not very often. I have seen kids (self included) get bored waiting for their next appearance. The Reds and the Patrouille are rarely out of sight owing to their lower radius of turn, and are always doing something interesting. Higher performance and heavier aircraft would detract from the Reds' show, as well as being more expensive - in my (not very) humble view. Actually, setting aside patriotic fervour, as a former member of the cfs Sparrows team flying Piston Provosts, I get most kick out of the Jordanians in their light aircraft, doing something very close to a precision slow roll. The transfer from positive to negative g is seamless. Brilliant. Hats off!
I agree, though haven't seen either Reds or Patrouille for some time; and I enjoyed Frecce Tricolori in their Macchis as well. The thought of nine Typhoons sounds pretty alarming to me, though in the current climate where real fighters appear secondary to close support, helicopters and transport aircraft, they might as well be used for something! But I would love to see it. The Hawks must be getting rather long in the tooth, and I'm sure the team would enjoy the challenge.
Referring to the Jordanians, I think they flew Pitts, as we did in the Rothmans team, and being on the inside of a real formation slow roll, led by Manx Kelly, was a very interesting experience; a sort of very tight negative G barrel roll, couldn't possibly do it without someone to formate on!