Some years ago I was on an Arrows support flight giving displays in France and Italy before arriving for the big one in Valletta harbour in Malta. En route there was a display at Roanne in the Loire. It was a small hilltop airfield which we could "get in" to but the Reds couldn't so we were based in St. Yan down the road. The open boot of Albert was left to the GE to supervise because he had some "things to see to" as the Reds groundcrew topped up the jets with coloured kerosene so the crew went by bus to the show. Sitting under the wing of a spitfire with a bottle of rouge I said how much it reminded me of the summer of 1940 when the Reds arrived from all points below the horizon for a vertical join up over the field. It was pandemonium. The frogs had never seen the like. One woman approached our skipper and spoke to him in French. "Here Doug," he said. What have you done to her. She says she's been ravished and does look as if it's true". I translated and said "Ravi" in French means delighted and she wet herself when the Reds arrived.
Our man in Paris, F****y Y****n arrived and said "You should put on the Herc Tac Demo" We kicked the wine bottles under the spit and said that the frame was a workshop full of spares and cans of fuel and not good for lots of G and unusual positions and we were half an hour away by bus. He reluctantly relented but we got a call from Group saying that we could perform if required. When we got back to Albert the GE told us that the Red groundies were grumbling about missing the show so we got him to ask them what they thought of the idea of having to get all their kit off the aircraft so that we could do a Tac Demo as Group authorised. He said that they were grateful we had refused the instruction. We had an accord.