Reds down to 7-ship for 2012 season.
 

It must have been a difficult decision for the team and Kirsty, but the BBC has announced that she will not be flying with the team this year according to local BBC news in Lincolnshire.

It goes without saying that the team has been through an extremely difficult time which was only matched by the 4 team fatals in January 1971 and I wish all the team the best for the season.

Reds & Blues
 

My thoughts are with Flt Lt Kirsty & the Reds & blues, she's a top pilot up there with the best of the best & can fully sympathise with her position.
It must have been a very difficult time for them all.
Like you say BOAC, a very tough year with a very sad end.

Godspeed the Reds & Blues, the best of the best.

Perhaps the mods would be kind enough to explain why a previous thread on this subject has been closed.

Kirsty Stewart: First woman Red Arrows pilot quits suffering from stress after colleagues' deaths | Mail Online

I don't give this one much of a chance. PM me guys if you wish. There is censorship and there is censorship.

Probably because some of the comments by the asinine contributors ignored the first class front-line service record of the Flight Lieutenant and her absolute right to decide what she might and might not do in a non-conflict role.

It takes balls to say 'no'. Respect. :D

Then why not just delete the comments rather than the thread? Does that mean as soon as someone posts an inappropriate comment on PPRUNE the whole thread is subsequently closed??

My point exactly.

Perhaps if the MOD would make a clear statement it may help. For example; was this decision a mutual agreement? Anyway, whatever, Kirsty, all the best for the future and I hope you get your flying boots back on again in due course. Very few people go through a career without some sort of hiccup. It is just unfortunate that some are more high profile than others.

The mods are now under pressure and going to be working all night on shifts on this one :D

According to this BBC article from late last year the team had re-organised & were back to 9. Surely therefore with the departure of Flt Lt Stewart they are back to 8 not 7:confused:

The decision to reduce to seven is because the displays would look "odd" with eight - which I agree they do.

Obviously the Patrouille de France fly with eight planes as standard but their formations are designed with this in mind. Presumably too late to make this change now so seven is the easy answer.

A press statement has confirmed that from a visual perspective if nothing else, it is easier/better to fly a 7-ship rather than an 8-ship formation.

On another web site, someone commented that apart from the (I assume) obviously difficult decision taken by the Reds pilot to leave the team, there is another pilot who deserves some thought.

As the Reds will fly 7-aircraft displays this year, it appears that another pilot loses his place on the team, and may only join the Reds for the 9-ship flypasts. After all the application & selection process and the winter training, to lose your place in the full displays through no fault of your own must also be difficult.

I do like to see a degree of balance in quite sensitive issues such as this, but I've just looked at the Mail on Line comments on this subject and they are pretty damned ill-informed and horrendous. Whoever, thought the line wasn't being toed on the original pprune thread should have alook at what the Mail's Proletariat readership are saying.

FB

FB, you are right but remember this is a professional forum and not an open one like that populated by Mail readers.

Startrek, it may have been possible to pprune the original thread but is was perhaps easier to delete it rather than pprune it. The OP may also have deleted it.

I would guess that it may be Red 8 Dave Davies, which would leave Gypo just as a Synchro Pair and Enid with the full five. This would have been his fourth year with the team anyway so the disappointment might be slightly easier to take.

Again I'd take a reasonable guess that he and Red 10 Mike Ling would make up the numbers in a nine ship flypast.

I am certainly one who didn't think "the line was being toed" on the previous thread. A contributer, as I recall, said something along the lines of "this used to be called LMF", and was roundly condemned by myself and others for such a crass insulting remark. His use of the very silly :E emoticon (God I hate that thing) only served only to worsen the impact.

Whether this pilot has left the Reds at her own request, or has been removed as a result of a falling-off of her performance or for whatever reason is entirely irrelevant. To use such a term, which I thought had been discredited more than 60 years ago was grossly offensive, whatever the pilot's gender.

At the end of the day it's none of our business why she's decided not to fly with the Reds this year. It's between her and her bosses. Why should they announce a reason at all?:confused:

I'm not a Mail Online (or any other Mail product) reader and I have over 2000hrs on various FJs. Whilst it is the Flt Lt's right to ask to stop flying - in fact if she is so very shaken by it all then I believe she should stop. What I don't get is how have we let someone get into and remain in the FJ game without the required psychological make up?
Back in the 90s I was going to mate's funerals 2-3 times a year who had come a cropper in training. If 13% of us 'threw in the towel' then the Front Line would have decimated within years. I would hope that someone looks at the fortitude of FJ aircrew and looks at toughening it up again - it used to be a hard environment to work in for a reason; life expectancy is low on proper contested combat ops, and finding out during that op that those do not have the required fortitude is not the right time!
I only take solace that the Flt Lt had the fortitude to say 'no' right now - but perhaps they have been in 'denial' to the dangers of FJ flying for too long?

Waiting out for the inevitable 'incoming'...

Well there you get on to the whole concept of "celebrity" these days I'm afraid.

There is an argument (with which I have at least a little sympathy) that if you opt for a lifestyle that puts you very much in the public eye, reinforced by a publicity department that promotes your image, then you have to accept that there will also be interest in matters which you would prefer to keep private.

Incoming.. Agreed. War, I believe is also pretty stressful. Those involved should realise that they are not in a flying club.

What a backward step for women's lib!
 

What next?

Are we going to see female Typhoon pilots resigning because one or two of their mates gets killed?

The word 'reassigned' can originate from many different things.

Why can't folk just wait for the facts and respect whatever decisions have been made by those concerned (not necessarily Kirsty herself).

I, for one, wish her all the best for whatever the future holds.