Red Arrows

[tony draper]

Pretty good documentry about the Red Arrows going on, on channel five at the mo,although being channel five,
its possible I am the only person in the UK watching it.
Well, I think its pretty good.
:cool:

[BEagle]

I happened to catch it as well whilst channel-hopping after Gandhi. Some very interesting insights - and some very natural comment from the Team.

Fascinating description of the first part of the Gippo sequence and the clever use of smoke colour and positioning to baffle the spectators - a most enjoyable documentary!

[Noah Zark.]

Hope that nut under the wing never falls off. What would the lads look at then?
Good prog, excellent subject. :ok:

[newswatcher]

From Red Arrows site:

The Red Arrows were forced to abort their scheduled display at the Yorkshire Air Show earlier today for safety reasons, after four separate unknown aircraft flew into the exclusion zone activated to avoid external collision risks during the Team's display. The 6-nautical mile Temporary Restricted Airspace is activated around every Red Arrows' display, in order to protect the safety of both the Team and the public. The proximity of one of the aircraft, a microlight, caused the Team to take emergency avoidance action, and Red 1, Sqn Ldr Spike Jepson led the formation back to their home base at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

A CAA spokesman present on the ground at the air show praised the actions of Sqn Ldr Jepson; "The Temporary Restricted Area is there for the safety of the Red Arrows and the safety of the public on the ground. There is no doubt that the Team took exactly the right course of action in aborting the display and returning to RAF Scampton."

The Red Arrows' Team Leader, Sqn Ldr Spike Jepson said "It is the duty of every pilot to check all airspace restrictions in the areas they intend to fly in. In my opinion there is absolutely no excuse for anyone potentially endangering the safety of either my Team or the general public. Furthermore, the forced cancellation of today’s display was clearly also a great disappointment for the many thousands of people who had attended the airshow hoping to watch the Red Arrows' display."

Following today's disappointment, the Team still hope to perform tomorrow's display at Elvington Air Show at 1200 hrs as planned.

24 August 2003
:mad: :mad:

[Letsby Avenue]

Well done Sqn Ldr. That certainly showed em!.......:hmm:

[ShyTorque]

I take it you were never a member of the team then, Letsby?

What would you do if an errant aircraft puts you off a job?
Surely you aren't suggesting he should have continued with the display? ;)

[Runaway Gun]

Perhaps these 'aircrew' should read their NOTAMS.
I sure hope that these dangerous characters go punished.

[BEagle]

South Africa?
Sturm Abteilung?
South Atlantic?
Safety Altitude?
Silly Ar$e?

[moggie]

BEagle - if you mention the South Atlantic again, Massingbird will go for the kill!

[tony draper]

Item just been on the local news here,
The pilots of four aircraft, two Microlites, 1 Helicopter, and 1 Light aircraft who caused the abandonment of the Red Arrows display at Elvington may be prosecuted.

[witchdoctor]

Well, if they fitted the Hawks with something more useful than smoke generators (I'm thinking centreline 30mm cannon), I'm sure the problem could be resolved rapidly and give the punters something a little out of the ordinary to watch.:}

[Flatus Veteranus]

I hate to be an old misery-guts and drag you all back to the thread, but I thought it was an excellent documentary, even discounting all the "bull". It even made my wife all starry-eyed and sent her rummaging among the archives for pictures of me on 208! I fear our flying suits and aircraft were a lot scruffier than the Reds'!

One point that did make me sit up was (if I heard the commentrary aright) that the inside man in a barrel-roll (ie, No 5 in a roll to the left, and No 4 in one to the right) was having to push negative 'g'. To reduce the vertical space used in the manoevre, the rolling axis was presumably somewhere near No 2 or 3. I used to fly No 5 in the 208 "diamond 9" in Meatboxes, and I never got anywhere near negative 'g', thank God!. If the Reds are really doing that, I takes my hat off in spades!. :ok:

[The Swinging Monkey]

Nice One Spike!

The Swinging Monkey
'Caruthers, send Spike and the boys a bottle of Grouse'