The 1969 Wildenrath flypast fiasco was not quite as Binbrook described in #280.
The practice on the day before was cancelled as the formation was due to descend to the holding point, due to thunderstorms.
On the Sunday all was going well until about 10 mins to the hold when we were diverted some 40 miles south to avoid the Falcons drop. This meant that we arrived at the start of the run in still in a descending turn with two Lightnings plugged in. As we turned into sun the vis was pretty much zero. At this point one of the Lightnings had managed to stay plugged in, but get to about 10 feet from THE POD before he made an emergency break ( it wasn't you was it Binbrook?). The rules at the time were to have both receivers plugged in or both in the refuelling position astern the hoses. Stupidly we tried for the two in contact option. This meant that we were rapidly approaching the airfield as the hose retrailed on the brake, and the receiver then tried to remake contact in the turbulent air. By the time he made contact we were 2-300 yards south of the required track. I called for a 10 degree turn but the captain decided to turn onto the ILS. By the time we had got the bank on and off again we were behind the crowd, not a success but definitely not at Bruggen. I do not remember any conversation about radar.
The 1968 BoB flypast was also a failure as both Lightnings had spoked the baskets, and had to RTB, so we continued the route and flypasts as a singleton.
It was only after we had lost a Buccaneer at the Paris Airshow in 1971 that common sense kicked in and we no longer did flypasts with the receivers in contact.