Originally Posted by pasta (Post 11431321)

As others have said, the cockpit footage shows just how good a job they did.

If conditions were only suitable for a single formation of fast jets, RAFAT was the right choice. More familiar to the public, more closely associated with pageantry, and (most crucially) a lot easier to see against a murky grey background.

Originally Posted by Mogwi (Post 11431379)

The weather shown in the cockpit video was not, in itself, a problem. 10k+ visibility and a well-defined cloudbase meant that it was probably a pretty routine run-in. What had to be considered was the possibility of a screw-up with a lot of mis-matched formations and little chance of a vertical-plane abort. I am glad that the Arrows got through and I think the decision was correct, albeit disappointing. Better to have a reduced fly-past than to generate noise complaints caused by falling metal.

And no, I have never been an Arrow (of any colour) or even flown the Hawk but I have displayed most things from helicopters to fast-jet, pistons and vintage for nigh on 50 years.

Vivat Rex!

Mog

Originally Posted by Easy Street (Post 11431078)

Multi-element flypasts have the successive formations stacked up and down by a couple of hundred feet to minimise wake turbulence issues and to provide a margin of safety in case of timing errors or loss of visual contact. When the cloud is as low as it was today, the number of available flypast levels between the minimum safe (dictated by the City skyscrapers, which are close to the flypast line) and the maximum legal (dictated by whatever margin from the cloudbase has been agreed between the various authorities) is reduced to the extent that aircraft have to be removed from the flypast in order to avoid stretching it out into an over-long snoozefest with IFR separation between elements sharing a single level. It's nothing to do with the all-weather capability of the individual aircraft involved; any of them could have flown through at the level used by RAFAT.

Originally Posted by Video Mixdown (Post 11431182)

I think that video says it all about the conditions - essentially flying through a slot only a few hundred feet high. They did well to pull that off.

Originally Posted by Barksdale Boy (Post 11431387)

Mogwi - good to see that you still call them the Arrows. Can anyone give a year (roughly) when this nickname gave way to the Reds?

Originally Posted by Wycombe (Post 11431432)

Great job RAFAT, was the drop into Brize after the flypast planned, or a wx diversion?

Originally Posted by aw ditor (Post 11431466)

ISTR the Flypast in 1953 (all 600!) was across The Mall rather than down/up it'. Good positive clearance' of weather too, post Cold Front? Suspect it was a coldish Warm Sector 'for most of the morning and early afternoon but, perhaps our resident Met Man could do an aftercast' please? All recalled distantly from the memory of a 16 year old Programme Seller' at the time.

AD.

Originally Posted by Barksdale Boy (Post 11431387)

Mogwi - good to see that you still call them the Arrows. Can anyone give a year (roughly) when this nickname gave way to the Reds?

Originally Posted by NutLoose (Post 11431249)

Surprised to see the Reds all appear to have a back seater in them on that film, I do hope it was the Blues.

Originally Posted by Mogwi (Post 11431379)

The weather shown in the cockpit video was not, in itself, a problem. 10k+ visibility and a well-defined cloudbase meant that it was probably a pretty routine run-in. What had to be considered was the possibility of a screw-up with a lot of mis-matched formations and little chance of a vertical-plane abort. I am glad that the Arrows got through and I think the decision was correct, albeit disappointing. Better to have a reduced fly-past than to generate noise complaints caused by falling metal.
And no, I have never been an Arrow (of any colour) or even flown the Hawk but I have displayed most things from helicopters to fast-jet, pistons and vintage for nigh on 50 years.
Vivat Rex!
Mog