Mentions of " You were supposed to be here before us " revive the memories of a Red Arrows trip back when the Gnat was the frame of choice for the Arrows. The trip involved a Night stop at Blackpool staying in the Norland Hotel on the prom followed by a flight to the East of England the following day. It appeared the Captain had been getting some stick on how long Albert took to get anywhere and had vowed that we were going to do our best to prove otherwise.
The following morning the info came round that the Arrows were going to do a little sightseeing in the Lake District on their way from Blackpool to I think it was Waddo and this played into the captain's hands. After the Gnats had fired up and were taxying, the Palouste starters were very rapidly rolled onto the ramp and were tied down as the ramp was coming up and Albert was taxying for the runway. The brief was flaps up, gear up direct heading to Waddo and don't bother with this climb to altitude bit, it only wasted time! So, after what was possibly the lowest level transit the Arrow's ground crew had ever experienced a straight in approach was requested, granted and taken with some heavy braking and reverse pitch on landing followed by the shortest taxi routing ever to end with the Captain vacating the aircraft with the props winding down to recline on the grass as the Gnats landed and taxied by enabling the Captain to ask the Arrows " What took you so long".
Albert 1 Arrows 0.