I was up on South Cliff, hoping to get some views across the bay with the castle in the background, similar to some the other year of XH558. Unfortunately, with the display line barely inside UK territorial waters that was a non starter.
My reaction afterwards was that it was probably the worst RAFAT display I'd seen in 47 years. Admittedly the display line issue is foisted on them but it really does distract. I gather there was similar views expressed following Cosford.
The arrival arrowhead from the back of the crowd now seems to be a 'very' loose formation, possibly as further 'risk' mitigation against allowing the crowd overflight for the display start to continue ? Ironically, from our position, following the crossovers, the singleton aircraft were closer to us, from behind, than during their display passes, another result of the display line being so far away.
There was a significant break towards the end, possibly due to the significant bird activity (?) but not withstanding that, in staying clear and maintaining distances, there seemed to be large gaps in the display which never used to happen before.
The generator issue referred to reduced the team to eight, as sometimes happens. Unfortunate, as they'd flown 10 jets over Doncaster earlier in the sortie.
I don't question the guys skills in any way, but for me, the display is nowhere near as tight, timely and impressive as it used to be. Continuing restrictions and a seemingly risk averse culture has totally ruined a great British team.
Oh, and if you had donated to get your "name on a plane" if it were flying, (which it isn't at the moment), you'd need the Hubble telescope now to actually see it.....