DM: RAF probe drunken Red Arrow airman
 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...behaviour.html

Seafuryman,

I can't believe this is from the Daily Mail, not with the lines like death defying stunts and zooming over crowds etc.

FB

Henceforth to be known as Retsina 11

Hang on

RAF pilot = officer = 'high jinks', surely?

"March the guilty b***ard in" is only reserved for those who avoided Cranwell Polytechnic isn't it?

Not entirely. I had the unpleasant task of formally [and very carefully] charging one of my JOs before remanding him to the CO and subsequent CM.

Of course in this instance it may have been a 'bottle to throttle' offence without 'high jinks and jolly japes' being involved.

The RAF website says today that they are flying a seven-ship formation this year - any connection ?

Would be more likely I suspect and no idea if the Greeks are also involved in the opening of the issue. Droping the formation to 7 for display is the easy get out.

Well I’d heard several weeks ago a rumour that they’d dropped to 8! 🤔

Still 9 pilots listed on their website. Shame about the 7 ship this year.

What are they probing him with?

Only approved instruments I dare say.

Do you mean Sleaford Tech?

You're losing me?...!:ooh:

FB

This headline really winds me up, when are people going to realise its Aviator not Airman 🤣

Is the decision to go to seven related to this 'probe'? If yes, what happened to innocent til proven guilty? Or, is it, "He/she will of course be reinstated if no guilt is established, but the team has to use the time available in order to get a DA."?

CG

According to Flightline UK the team are down to seen because two pilots have been posed away on other duties. It goes onto to explain things in general a bit, about how there might not be enough aircraft or if the pilot/crew are sick etc.

FB

I asked what they were probing him with and that was the reply to it,
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b587a71f42.jpg

How apposite

Must be for the `Top Gun 2` premiere....

Pilot might have done.

To be fair, that site is just quoting the RAF statement: https://www.raf.mod.uk/news/articles...-rafat-in-2022

FIND OUT WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE PERFORM HERE

Does nobody proof-read anything?

Of course they do, It's done by a civvy clerk in MoD PR who can't spell aeroplane so just puts 'jet' instead. Or has 'airman' on a function key, instead of 'pilot'.

More or less, no.

So long as a quick spool chick gives a tick in the box, it seems not to matter if a load of old cobblers is published.

We also have that nasty competition for writing the longest sentence. The D Tel often approaches 60 words.

Some time ago I had the privilege of reading a Robert Graves mss. It was fascinating to see his scribbled corrections corrected and corrected again. Good English [I make no personal claim] requires old-fashioned effort.

A six ship would be at least symmetrical.

Is this really news? I suppose it remains to be seen what the 'inappropriate behaviour' was. I was based at Akrotiri in the early noughties and the Reds were regular visitors for their winter training. They were notable for getting absolutely trollied in the bar, and then taxxing as a 9 ship the following morning and doing some frankly rather impressive flying. They were notorious for trying to pull other guys wives and it was always clear that they had forgotten to pack their morals on the way out of their homes as they headed for Akrotiri. In fact they actually had bets on which team member could 'plough the most wives' in Cyprus.

As human beings they were members of a depraved and obscenely arrogant club and they were widely regarded as complete and utter onanists - real scumbags whose wives undoubtedly had no idea what they got up to on tour.. As pilots however, they were certainly better than me and I really enjoyed watching them, I must be honest. And yes, one of them once spent the best part of 7 weeks trying to bed my wife when I was flying. He got nowhere.

...at least I don't think he did...

...come to think of it, my son has grown up to be a real a$shole...

At the risk of being called an ignorant civilian [I am, I am], I diffidently wonder out loud if the Reds are past their sell-by date.

Is there really any demonstrable recruiting value? If not, what else do they achieve, at great cost.

Standing by for incoming.

THAT, for me at least, has got to be one of the funniest punch line submissions for a long time !

Going to look weird for the Jubilee fly past then.......

Concur. And with the rest of Baldeep’s post. I don’t like ‘Elites’ … the RAF is/was a Team effort, with a sharp end that pricks .., oh, what did I mean to say there?

The Fail will love that. Then again a squadron detachment anywhere had its first night madness.

Well that might have been inadvertently appropriate! :D

It seems unusual for pilots on an RAFAT tour to be posted to other duties - has that happened before?

Which has now been updated to read "moved on"...

I was lucky enough to meet them at an event in Hong Kong in October/November 2016. They could not have been better ambassadors for both their service and their country.

Over the years I have met them many times and always found them to be arrogant a..holes. No denying their flying ability though.

Spent a day with them at Scampton earlier that year, total gents (but every RAF pilot is well-behaved on his home patch!)

Met them at the roof top bar of our hotel in Nice, we drinking beer after a day of tourist stuff, they drinking non alcoholic prior to heading off to some commitment in red flying suits, absolute gentlemen with whom we chatted, not long after the tragic ejection seat episode. Agree fully with Barksdale Boy.