These guys, remember, have all served on the front line and most of them go back to it afterwards. They are your next door neighbours and mates. What does it matter if they do stay in hotels in Oman? They are supposed to be ambassadors for the country. Their cost is minimal compared with, for example, the Army's tv advertising budget.

This is what makes this country rubbish - guys do well for themselves and all that happens is that people take ill-informed and cheap shots at them.

Do you have the exact figures of there running costs !!!!

Im not crying them down but is it really something we need. Everyone is ohhhh im proud to be English when i see the Red Arrows and all that , yes it restores English pride maybe but in this current climate when the UK forces are at there knees with cash , i think this is a necessity that we dont need !!! Sure mothball till things get better or for the 100 year anniversary !!

an arguable point im sure I will be told otherwise, but in reality there has been talk of them getting binned.

thoughts !!

No thanks, mileandahalf, I'll pass on your kind offer to you and your friends' pink marigolds, surgical masks and wrestle naked in the mud party....

If what I heard was correct, namely that someone high up in the muddy world decided to fill the BFIs with concrete (and do whatever else he could to ensure that the cost of restoring RAF Chivenor to its proper role as that of a RAF fighter training base would be prohibitive), then my comments stand.

If not, then sorry.

Please Make This A Sticky
 

Dear Mods

Please could you make this Thread a sticky? It could be called:

'The Six-weekly Ill-informed Reds Bashing Thread'

It would save the same group of narrow-minded trolls that infest these forums having to spout the same tripe everytime there is the merest mention of the Reds.

For what it's worth, I think most of the tour costs are picked-up by the sponsors - so what does it matter where they stay?

As for the overall cost of the RAFAT, does anyone actually believe that the annual budget line would be re-assigned to the good of the Service(s)? Thought not.

ISTR that the RAFAT costs every man, woman and child in the UK about 9 pence per annum. Compare this with the Northern Rock farce that has, according some chap on Radio 4 yesterday, so far cost everyone in this country £900 each! It was pretty clear from the ongoing discussions on the subject that we are extremely unlikely to ever see that money again (I wonder if I can get a loan like that?). At least I get something for my 9 pence!

STH

SirTH
 

Frankly sirTH if every other member of the RAF who has served in Oman in the last 7 years has had to stay in the craphole that is the DOB, why shouldn't the reds also?:cool:

Because they may have had the chance not to? And if you think the DOB at Seeb is bad, then count yourself lucky that you've not had to go anywhere nasty.

How much do the Reds cost?
 

lets compare the cost of the Reds to the shower of s**t we call the English football team and see which of the two organizations makes the general public feel more patriotic. I would rather watch 9 men in red suits doing aerobatics than 11 men with 3 lions on their chest prancing about on a football pitch anyday.

Prancing? More like poncing! And all this, X earns £100,000 a week at Ch*lsea - he jolly doesn't - he is just paid it, nowhere near earning it!

Excellent word Magners - outroar!

Unfortunately Shaw, me 'n you and most on this forum are in a heeeuge minority. AND, footie costs the public purse nowt (indirectly swells it, most likely) whereas the reds do.

But for me, they easily earn their corn: that's the message to get across, I suppose.

CG

LateArmLive I agree totally!

LateArmLive
 

I agree the DOB in Seeb is a holiday camp compared with most places I have been to in the Middle East. However, if you put the reds in the Shangri-La resort or similar, what message does that send to those doing four months in the DOB?

I was at Seeb earlier this year and all the accommodation was being used, so hotels had to be used, and at the end of my stay, moved to a hotel so the oncoming det could settle into their accommodation.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/teamnews/...C00BC0CBAC4104

I love it! Can anyone spot the Red Arrows pilots in this photo?

I see four red flying suits...:E

These are great fun threads, maybe we should make 'red bashing' a currency requirement?

Luckily, we're not fighting two wars, so we can easily afford the luxury of the Red Arrows...

Surely nobody, but nobody counts the F3 as a frontline tour these days?:E

In a similar vein to those who are morally offended by pilots in general, if you really think the Reds have a cushy life just put your application forms in and join them - if you're that good surely it's that easy?

Those who can do, those who can't whinge about it on Pprune.

MagnersDrinker,

British pride, puhlease. Or Commonwealth, given the current line up!

I'm a blunty and I think they're great. Sorry.

They work very hard, as do the F3 guys.

Magners, post#22

There/their - go and look them up, there's a good chap.

Wow some folk are very very touchy LOL

Still we all entitled to our views. My point is a valid one which im sure has been raised before if so I apoligise.
Still would never want to work on the Reds personally , I enjoy going to the Gulf too much and doing stuff that military people are supposed to do, If I wanted to visit hotels throughout the world Id have joined the Hilton group ;)

It does surprise me just how often the subject of binning the Reds comes up here. Is it jealousy? Them and Us?
seems a bit pointless really.

Talking of tried and tested threads, isn't it about time that a member of the RAF police posted a question here and the entire PPRUNE population replied with posts brimming with bile and hatred for the poor ickle modplod?

By the way, Beagle, I think what got up the nose of Mileandahalf was being referred to as a Grunt.

Bootneck, or Bootie please, not Grunt, Pongo, Perce or Cabbage Head, and definately not Navy. :)

Apols for dragging up an old Reds thread when there's another one running (with some amazing pix from flickr), but I did say on 31 Oct
.
At the Dubai show (all five days of it) the Reds, along with the Patrouille de France and Spain's Patrulla Aguila, were flying from a military base nearby. So we didn't see them on the ground - and the offending (to some) lettering is definitely not visible to a normal spectator of the flying display. Incidentally, the Patrouille de France have the whole of the undersides of their wings covered in big letters, visible in flight, saying 'Armée de l'Air' (Air Force).

However, if I can make it work, the pic below shows how the new Reds' lettering can be very useful. This is the masthead (front page) of a significant paper in the Gulf region. It was advertising a very well written, and thoroughly positive, article within the paper by a woman reporter who had flown with Wg Cdr RAFAT.


http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...lfNewsReds.jpg


airsound

Roland, you didn't ask the right question. How much did the FONT cost? It was specially commissioned for the new RAF Branding last year.

Better:

Defence Brand Streamlining and Moratorium

A branding project has been initiated by DGMC to clarify the MOD brand and introduce a clear brand architecture across Defence. The aim is to revitalise and embed a stronger corporate culture across MOD in line with the Head

OK - will edit!



.

A lot of wankword bingo points in that little piece of utter tripe from the mad MoD box!

That was just para 1. It runs to 2 pages and had a covering one page letter in case we didn't understand.

"8. A system of brand guardians and advocates will be in place from early 2008. Anyone interested in becoming a guardian or advocate should forward their details to xxxx-xxx xx Strategic Marketing 1."

Just give it a little time and they will take the ROYAL AIR FORCE off and change it to ARMY.
Just think folks the Royal Flying Corps display team the BROWN PONGO's

. Slang An infantryman in the U.S. military, especially in the Vietnam War: "They were called grunts....They were the infantrymen, the foot soldiers of the war" Bernard Edelman

I understood it was a US acronym like GI - Government Issue or
Government Reject Unfit Normal Training.

Definitely not one of HM's Jollies.

Let's just wait for the Comprehensive Strategic Revised Branding Strategy Twelve Month Public and Peers Perception Qualitative Feedback Response Review, before well all criticise the new font too much.

WTF is a 'Brand Guardian or Advocate'?

It sounds like something from one of those sci-fi games little boys play on an xbox, whatever that is.....

"I am the Brand Guardian"

"Well eat my laser-sabre bolt, you dork! FZZZT"

Seriously, who are these lunatics farting about with 'Defence Brand Streamlining'? Pony-tailed latte macchiato-sipping Untermensch of the civil serpentry, presumably - surely they cannot be real Service personnel?

Aye, they are Royal Navy, says so on their ID cards.:}

Although somewhat bemused at seeing a thread on the Red Arrows ascending/descending:) into whether the Royal Marines are part of the Royal Navy or not, I am at least prompted to say that unexpectedly seeing the Reds, usually in transit past my remote corner of the country, evokes the same thrill that seeing HM Yacht BRITANNIA under way used to do.

Just let's hope the Reds never go the same way as the Yacht..... Are you listening, Mr Brown-Trousers?

Jack

PS The Royal Navy website leads directly to www.royalmarines.mod.uk where the opening words are "The Royal Marines are the Royal Navy's amphibious infantry..."!

THS

Many thanks indeed - you have certainly lived up to (half:)) your monniker!

Jack

mileandahalf

What was the answer to the query then? Were the BFIs at Chivenor filled with concrete???

Very well put! (Yesterday 12:25).
"My Red Leaders". "Royal Air Force". "Tabloid".
You win. "Nerds" lose!
Best regards
Palle J. C.
Following the Red Arrows since 1967/8 - in a school break!

Apart from the growth of aviation stuff on the Emmerdale set, Tucano, Nimrod, The Blades and others I noticed the appearance of a yellow S&R model heleo perched on the bar. I wonder why? ;) Then again why not?

Err, wouldn't that make them frogs?

How appropriate!

Good to see the spirit of quick fire humour isn't dead. :D

Navy Ad,

Only 1 person I know of went to Groby Community College and also flew in the reds. He left the team about 3 years ago. I myself went to said, crap, school but, alas, never applied.......got 6 back to back FJ tours instead though....!!!

PP
a possible reason is that the guy that runs the estate on which the Emmerdale set is located is a pilot (albeit former craphat).

So it seems that Emmerdale's 'aviation corner' has been sprinkled with local manure.

I had a craphat once. It was only thing handy - the larch poles were far too far away! :E

I think that the Emmerdale bar also has an Air Cadet crest on the wall, which the HQ will like.

Less pleasing was its placing in an episode of Shameless, where it appeared on the wall of the local knocking shop that was doing special offers for schoolboys.