View Full Version : Red Arrows - Suffolk
Smashy
31st Aug 2009, 21:08
Spent 15 mins or so watching the Red Arrows doing their stuff over Suffolk today but couldn't help wondering whether or not 4 of them "lost" each other. It looked a bit of a mess in the middle of the display. The main 5 were excellent, always tightly in formation but the sync pairs conducted a good show of "same way, same day" and were all over the place when "off display".
I suppose I could be criticised for wanting perfection for my hard earned tax payers cash but there again I always preferred a "Shark" to a "Dead Sparrow"
Tandemrotor
31st Aug 2009, 21:32
Ah, the 'Sharks'!
Now there was a boring display, and I was a helicopter pilot! :}
Having seen their display 3 times at Eastbourne, I agree. The formation changes are poor and the display very disjointed. Bring back the tight diamond nine and opposition pair. Thats the Reds signature. Not american style displays with great gaps in the action.
Runaway Gun
31st Aug 2009, 23:07
I must have seen a different display. Looked 10 times better than I could fly - and I'm pretty good !!
Pure Pursuit
1st Sep 2009, 08:08
I would not call it disjointed...
Better than last year & the Gypo side of things are very impressive this season.
Didn't see any major gaps in the displays I've seen & as for synchro passes... There were plenty.
Slightly off topic but I wanted to say thanks to the team for trying to go ahead with the show at the Hoylake Lifeboat day yesterday.
The weather deteriorated just as the display time arrived and the reds were forced to abandon the show half way through due to lowering cloudbase and driving rain in a 20+ kt wind off crowdline.
If the weather was half as bad in suffolk then I think it is highly likely that this would have impacted on the display.
EGGP
lurkio
1st Sep 2009, 19:14
Agreed, given the awful weather at Hoylake they did a magnificent job. Well done for even trying in the rapidly worsening weather.
whowhenwhy
1st Sep 2009, 19:30
Smashy, where were you watching the display from? Bear in mind that the display is designed to be watched from crowd centre and if you're watching from the airfield boundary (so to speak) it won't look nearly as good! Always thought they were a bit boring myself. Brilliant, but boring. Could watch the Blades or the Frecci Tricolori (poorly spelt due to incompetence) till the bovines returned to the stead though!
BEagle
1st Sep 2009, 19:35
Always thought they were a bit boring myself. Brilliant, but boring.
You've obviously never seen the farce of a Thunderturkeys or Bl-oorah Angels display....:hmm:
Agree with www, boring but probably technically excellent, it just lasts too long.
Tandemrotor
1st Sep 2009, 22:28
Ah, the Frecce Tricolori. Saw them quite a few years ago at Luxembourg (Wiltz?) Thought it was the most exciting display I had ever witnessed. I think that was a month or two before they crashed!:=
The Reds have always been the very best at what they do. They have an individual style, as do all the other teams around the World. If you don't like it, then don't watch! Simple.:rolleyes:
I saw them on Sunday. The weather was far from great. Didn't think it was faultless (which is unusual!), but the crowd thought they were fantastic!
BTW, PB and SJ were superb, as the Matadors!:D
"If you don't like it, then don't watch"
What!!!!!!
So don't go to airshows and if you do then don't comment on the performers!!
Garbage!!
From the comments on this thread it is clear that The Reds display format has changed and maybe not for the best.
Some of us prefer the old format Tandemrotor but that does not mean we will stop watching.
teeteringhead
2nd Sep 2009, 10:05
Perhaps some of us "old and bold" on these fora know too much to appreciate the spectacle?
The Teeters son and heir, a non-aviator (a coupla trips in a 172 doesn't count), was having a "Boys' Weekend" in Suffolk and saw the Reds ..... and has raved about them ever since! A normally cool person (of some 30 summers), it's a long time since I've seen him so enthusiastic about something that wasn't blonde and/or kicked a football!
Surely it's the likes of him that RAFAT are trying to impress - and he was amazed when I told him how old (young?) they were - and how little they were paid!
thunderbird7
2nd Sep 2009, 11:45
..and a big thanks for coming back after the main flat display at Fowey was over a couple of weeks ago. After an afternoon of sunshine, the only cloud in Cornwall landed on top at 1829 until 1851 and it friggin rained! The '5' returned after the cloud went and used up their gas with some extra, gratefully received passes!
Great pics with the rainbow in the national press.
ps; how did they organise the formation of geese to fly up the river in vic in the middle of the display? Very impressive as I've never seen geese down here!!
Familiarity breeds contempt. I hadn't seen them for about 10 years, and all they did was fly over my house and I nearly shot my wad!:D
Romeo Oscar Golf
2nd Sep 2009, 15:10
Change....Isn't that the nature of the beast? I liked them when they flew little yellow gnats and were called the yellow jacks(or sim), but the present display is different, not better or worse, and the fact that they are appreciated by todays kids is what it's all about. What knackered old farts like me and, dare I say it, Newt think, is irrelevent but we are still entitled to comment. :ok:
Tandemrotor
2nd Sep 2009, 17:32
Newt
Bring back the tight diamond nine and opposition pair. Thats the Reds signature.
Have you actually seen the Reds this season?:rolleyes:
Perhaps I saw a different team on Sunday!