Red Arrows? Beware imitations!

[Surly Bondslipper]

I see that a bunch of middle-aged business types, flying suits distended by many a good City luncheon, have bought some red Gnats for £200K apiece and plan to hit the display circuit 'in homage to the Red Arrows'.

Is this a good thing, or are these gents pushing their luck a touch?

[freddoir]

Surly,

Surely this is an arse idea - the world is a sad enough place with the red suited buffoons in it. Why would we want more arrogant tossers turning up at cocktail parties in bright flying overalls trying to impress the chicks with crap "I can fly in formation" dits? Let's face it the Reds do this task perfectly.

[saudipc-9]

How many gnats did they buy? I think that will be how many holes they will leave!

[Woff1965]

I bet the Socialist Workers Party would love to have a whip round to help them out.

LOL nine smoking holes! good one Saudi PC

[Jackonicko]

Whoever owns these jets, they will only be displayed by pilots given the requisite Display Authorisation. Moreover, I've heard that those pilots will be ex-RAF (or even serving RAF) chaps with massive FJ experience, who have remained current on types with similar performance, and who are highly experienced air display pilots.

Sorry if that's a bit dull, and sorry if it spoils a good story.

[Skitzoid]

Surely a dodgy move...they might find that Tony will need them in the Front line as very little else seems to be servicable!

[DamienB]

At least one of them is a member here on pprune. And with only 3 Gnats I think you'll find the news story is somewhat overblown. As a keen photog I welcome seeing a new Gnat team - always enjoyed watching the Reds when they had Gnats.

[solotk]

Be good to see then in Yellowjacks colours...

Then again, where did they get 3 Gnats from? Is one of them Dave Gilmours?

[DamienB]

Nope, that's at Kemble now. The ones in question are based at North Weald - Kennet having recently moved from Cranfield to NW. Just a guess but as Kennet had two of their own plus a non-flyer, and somebody else's flyer to look after, the third is probably the "somebody else's" one as I had heard it up was up for sale.

[Reichman]

I see it didn't take long for the jealous types (Surly, Fredd, Saudi, Woff) to jump on the slagging bandwagon.

I take it none of you lot are fortunate (good) enough to do what these guys are doing. Do you want to stamp out all enthusiasm for aviation? How nice that you all want to see them pile into the deck. You must be a real friendly bunch.

As Jacko rightly points out, they will be very strictly supervised by the CAA and ex mil pilots will be doing the flying or the conversions. I know, I do it.

I hope they succeed and really rub your noses in it.

Luv, Reichman.

[sprucemoose]

I enjoyed reading this in the Torygraph this morning (see link below) - it appeals to the boys & toys spirit! Best of luck to them: as Jacko says, this won't be seat of the pants flying; thankfully the UK show circuit doesn't have the same safety demands as our friends in Ukraine.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F01%2F21%2Fngnat21.xml

[roundel]

All very nice too, but why buy gnats when you could have a nice ex-RAF JP5A for £35k? Surely you cant do 600kts past a crowdline and most if not all of the Red Pelicans must still be around the circuit.

Just a thought.

[DamienB]

From all the accounts I've been reading recently (working on a Gnat website) a Gnat is much more fun than a JP.