In jest - “Steve?!!” (As one news source is quoting The OC of the reds said “David Montenegro, Officer Commanding the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team said: “Steve (Ogston) the pilot of Red 6 is a bit shaken but well.” - source: deeside.com)….

I thought Red 6 - was Sqn Ldr Gregor Ogston.

in any case Steve/Gregor certainly demonstrated what a properly destroyed bird in the back seat of a BAe Hawk ACTUALLY looks like.

I expect the feathery protestor had a bit of timber on it to do that? Seagulls full to the brim with stolen McDonalds cheeseburgers do get rather plump mind you.

Assuming the reds ride this media “circus” out next year and go back to Rhyl it maybe worth while Red 10 spaffing off some loud bird scaring shots across the display line next year….

As I understand Flt Lt James Turner (Red 7) helped guide the stricken Jet in to a safe and professional landing at Hawarden Airport (EGNR) from the wing tip whilst the ambient noise and chatter with the inability to make effective comms was all going on.

Great team work and an outstanding result from the Syncro pair I would say.

Well done the Red Arrows! The Red Arrows may only be cancelled after Nig’elle Far-out-arge gets the shove in my opinion.

In a time where British media and public opinion is seemingly all about “who is more patriotic?” with even the Monarchy up for a public tribunal it was only a matter of time before the journalists went for another national icon. The lads are as red white blue as they come, they went off to Europe - found a nice little taverna, got on the sauce and dipped their wicks - albeit inappropriately and had a fight - I mean aren’t most of this forum not involved in the multi billion pound industry of true patriots doing exactly the same thing every summer? It’s what we do! (Sadly).

Like the rest of us the Reds were locked up
and shut down for an agonising period, brains get stale, souls get grumpy, hopes and aspirations feel dashed, tigers come out of cages, frustrations bubble to the surface. Knobs, figuratively, metaphorically and physically will come out.

Give the lads a break! They’ve still got the “stuff”!

Wow. That was a rant…..

Matt

And clearly a fine demonstration as to why having a back seater on display is a bad, bad idea.

Out of interest in normal trainer ops who would of been sat on the back seat? The instructor or the instructee?

With a compromised canopy like was would the ability to eject should a secondary event occur while returning be scuppered also? - should
even the canopy of blown through like it did? I expect the pop your safety hat on before you get on the job are going to be all over this event….

I rather recollect that AFCs have been awarded for similar? A Gutersloh Lightning brought home by a squadron leader? Memory a bit vague.
Anyway, bloody well done sir!

In English please?

Oh one of those bird scaring guns that makes loud pops and disperses them prior to the display!

as I understand Rhyl is a new display area.

Sir Jock Stirrup for a start- citation here (LG 11/7/83)

Sky news reporting that the bird "flew through the jet's window".

I assume this incident certainly ‘woke’ up the Reds’ pilot. Well done!

Clearly a well handled recovery, one photo I have seen shows broken bits of canopy near the engine intake which can go onto the engine which can lead to even bigger issues.

Yes, having an extra occupant can expose them to unnecessary risk, although there is a pretty thick blast screen between the cockpits so birds strikes like this rarely go through to the rear cockpit - although as can be seen in the picture above, there can be quite a lot of bird remains covering the screen and obscuring the back seater’s view forward.

In normal (pilot) training ops the instructor would sit in the back. The broken canopy would have damaged a lot of the miniature detonating cord in the front canopy - what was left ‘might’ detonate or not depending on where the breaks occur but the seat will push through any remaining bits of perspex if necessary - it shouldn’t affect an ejection by the back seater.

Brill

My previous comment of Brilll reffered to this post

I'm not aware of a bird ever penetrating the blast screen between front and back seats in the Hawk. Had this bird disabled the pilot a back seater might have been handy.....

I noticed a bit of footage in this news item: https://www.deeside.com/canopy-of-re...rshow-display/ showing the pilot exiting through the shattered canopy. Just my curiousity, but is that to avoid issues with the det cord?

Broken canopy
 

I had a bird break my canopy once (the first time I called Mayday for real and it was on 1 May - Mayday!) and I had a wingman lose his canopy once as well. Both times in a Hawk T1.

The first incident was on a low level target run near Lampeter. A bird of prey hit the canopy directly above the students head in the front seat and left a roughly circular hole about 18” in diameter. It got very loud and very cold (May in Wales even at low level was not exactly tropical) but once we slowed down and were on our way to Cardiff it was much quieter. Still very hard to hear the radios though. In the back seat I was unaffected by wind blast but was glad I had a flying jacket on! We were able to open the canopy and exit normally.

The second incident was at low level near Aberystwyth and I saw my wingman inexplicably climb out of low level which usually means only one thing. I closed in and saw a very similar picture to Red 6’s jet. The front seater was hunched over and MDC was flapping about everywhere. He managed to cut some of it away I believe with his knife. I did all the comm for them and led them back to Valley. I’m glad I wasn’t in that one since I’ve seen what MDC can do to brick walls and doors. I wouldn’t want to wear it like a scarf.

Anyway, in this recent instance the Reds guys did exactly what they would have briefed and practiced multiple times. I would expect no less.

BV

Interesting stories, thanks for sharing Bob. 👍

As the damaged aircraft flew away from the Rhyl seafront and its mate was accompanying him back to Hawarden, it appeared that smoke was trailing from the engine. Does anyone know if this was simply the display smoke that wasn't yet/couldn't be turned off or if it was the engine running rough as a result of the impact?

Er, that is literally what happened!

I think what he is inferring is that the jet flew into the bird but, depending on which way the bird was flying, they could have flown into each other. Probably doesn't really matter.......

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5f5111347.jpeg
Photo copyright Mach Design Speed Photography (copied from F@cebook)

Meanwhile…On the positive side
 

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c5a3d0804.jpeg
Great stuff Red 6! Saving lives, it’s what squippers do.